Folk music has had either about a hundred revivals since the one in the ‘60s or it has never gone away. I vote for the latter. Styles seem to flow seamlessly from one to the other and before you know it folk music has a new sound.
The flow has led to the American acts Bonny Light Horseman and Sam Amidon, who have been nurtured to some extent by Justin Vernon, who is essentially the indie band Bon Iver. They have shared a bill at Vernon and the Nationals’ Aaron Dressner’s Eaux Claires festival and are acquainted off stage. Both released new albums in 2020.
Like other new folk groups, they incorporate slight touches of edginess and the psychedelic that suggest a contemporary sensibility even as the old folk stories survive in their work. But it goes down smooth. And make no mistake, this is folk music, not the folk-flavored rock of a Mumford and Sons or a Lumineers.
This is the first album by Bonny Light Horseman, but this is essentially a supergroup of veterans. The guitar player is Josh Kaufman, who has worked closely with the Nationals. The Nationals have their fingerprints on a lot of new work. Dressner co-produced Taylor Swift’s two recent, critically acclaimed, folk-related albums. Bon Iver sang and played on both.
A second member, Anais Mitchell, wrote the folk opera “Hadestown,” which played on Broadway and won eight Tony Awards in 2019. She has released several albums under her own name.The third is Eric D. Johnson, who also leads indie band the Fruit Bats.
This is the ninth album for Amidon, who is 39. Some of his songs go far enough afield that they barely resemble folk, but “Sam Amidon” is all folk music, given, of course, a new twist.
