Personnel: Sam Amidon (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, banjo, fiddle); Morse (vocals, glockenspiel); Una Sveinbjarnardottir (violin); Jonina Hilmarsdóttir, Eyvind Kang (viola); Hrafnkell Orri Egilsson (cello); Berglin María Tómasdóttir (flute, bass flute); Rúnar Oskarsson (clarinet); Snorri Heimisson (bassoon); Helgi Hrafn Jónsson (trombone); Stefdn Jón Bernhardsson (horns); Nico Muhly (piano); Valgeir Sigurdsson (harmonium, percussion, electronics); Aaron Siegel (glockenspiel); Stefan Amidon (drums); Ben Frost (programming).
Audio Mixer: Valgeir Sigurdsson.
Recording information: Greenhouse Studios, Reykjavik, Iceland; Harlem; Looking Glass Studios, New York, NY.
Photographer: Valgeir Sigurdsson.
Arrangers: Sam Amidon; Nico Muhly.
Like Red House Painters or Nick Drake, Samamidon (his alias is a mashing together of his birth name) languorously glides to his notes, in no hurry to make his point. His first full-length, 2008's ALL IS WELL, mixes together elements of static-y delta blues, lushly produced modern folk pop, and lo-fi indie rock for a lovely and surreal experience. The music can be vigorous, as on the pirouetting, tribal-infused "Little Johnny Brown," or elegiac, as on the sleepy "Prodigal Son." And Samamidon's lilting, almost slurred voice makes the whole affair all the more mesmerizing.
Samamidon's second album and first for Bedroom Community, All Is Well is, at its core, a very pleasant modern folk album filled with interpretations of older public domain standards, with Sam Amidon's ruminative voice and steady playing not in and of itself immediately unique. A song like "Saro," with its truly lovely arrangement and Amidon's stellar performance, however inevitably his vocal style suggests but does not replicate Nick Drake's, is justification for its release as it stands. However, there's a calm drive at the heart of many of his songs that shows why he's been affiliated with the world of low-key dance experiments as much as anything else, as songs like "Sugar Baby" show. "Little Johnny Brown" is one of the apotheoses of this album's approach, with a variety of sympathetic guests, including Ben Frost on programming and Eyvind Kang on murky viola shading, creating a counterbalance between folk roots and something starkly modern that resembles a slightly more smooth Long Fin Killie, tense and mysterious. Meanwhile, "Wedding Dress" is as sweet a straightforward amble as it could be, Amidon's banjo playing as notable as his guitar work, while "O Death," if even more straightforward in terms his singing, has its melody played like a minimal mantra, heavily echoed and moved forward in the mix, a contrast that makes Amidon sound like he's almost singing through the instruments. It's a small touch but an effective one. ~ Ned Raggett minimize