{"id":613,"date":"2017-11-28T04:08:44","date_gmt":"2017-11-28T04:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gcornish.digitalscholar.rochester.edu\/MHS123_Fall2017\/?p=613"},"modified":"2017-11-28T04:09:09","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T04:09:09","slug":"blue-mountains-sam-amidon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gcornish.digitalscholar.rochester.edu\/MHS123_Fall2017\/uncategorized\/blue-mountains-sam-amidon\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Mountains &#8211; Sam Amidon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sam Amidon - Blue Mountains (Official Video)\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/83pAsX4InsI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sam Amidon is an extremely creative American Folk singer, and is currently producing music. He is a beautiful storyteller through his words, melodies, and music videos. Let\u2019s look at the song \u201cBlue Mountain\u201d from his 2014 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> album entitled <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lily-O\">Lily-O<\/a>. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This album is a very beautiful work in its own and has top notch musicians on it consisting of Bill Frisell, a legendary jazz\/folk guitarist. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.pastemagazine.com\/www\/articles\/2014\/10\/17\/sam-amidon-lily-o.jpg\" width=\"513\" height=\"513\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.metrolyrics.com\/blue-mountains-lyrics-sam-amidon.html\">lyrics<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0to Amidon\u2019s Blue Mountains come from a traditional folk song called \u201cAcross the blue mountains,\u201d although he leaves out quite a bit of the middle part. The song tells the story of a married man who asks a younger girl, Katie, to run away with him and cross the blue mountains. I think the music video to this song is an excellent representation and addition to the feelings conveyed in the song. In the music video, there is an almost slow motion and nostalgic effect happening. The video mostly consists of a girl (Katie) lying on the ground and going through some sort of conflict. This conflict is in herself, as she has to choose between being safe at home or running away with the love of her life. Her expressions and motions broadcasts the innocence of being a younger woman running away with an older man. In the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.traditionalmusic.co.uk\/folk-song-lyrics\/Across_the_Blue_Mountain.htm\">original lyrics<\/a> of this folk song<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, there is a part that Amidon left out that shows how Katie\u2019s mother is desperately trying to talk her out of it. Although Katie&#8217;s mother is never mentioned in Amidon\u2019s version, I believe her mother can be seen in the video. At around 3:58 in the video, we can see Katie on the ground with two pairs of arms reaching out to her. She crawls into one pair of arms that belong to the man she is running away with. However, I believe that the other pair of arms is meant to be her Mother\u2019s, as she does not want Katie to go. This video beautifully illustrates the conflict that Katie must face between the love of her life and home. This video adds to the story of the song in a positive way. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIn spite of subject matter that\u2019s often dark, the music on <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lily-O <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">somehow feels deeply reassuring <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2014\/11\/03\/361184525\/re-compositions-not-covers-sam-amidons-personal-folk-collages\">(NPR).<\/a>\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0The music video to Blue Mountain also contains a sense of reassurance, especially with the focus on Katie and the objects around her. Specifically, hands bring by miniature horses and houses that go along with the story being told. The expression of Katie\u2019s face reflects wonder and reassurance that she\u2019s making the right decision by running away with him. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I believe the sign of good art (music or visual) is when it brings a feeling of nostalgia even when it\u2019s the first time you\u2019ve been exposed to it. In an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fUu1MvnAecc\">interview<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Joni Mitchell said something along the lines of \u201cIf you hear my music and you see me in it, you\u2019re missing the point. If you hear my music and see yourself, now you\u2019re getting something out of it.\u201d With Sam Amidon\u2019s Blue Mountain, I definitely see myself in it, and others do too. A YouTuber named Pikasde commented \u201cI don\u2019t know why but it reminds me of my first love. TY Sam for bringing back those emotions. Just thank you.\u201d I think it is beautiful that a piece of art and film can stir up such emotions. Others commented \u201cthank you sam, magic piece of film here (Brendan Timmons)\u201d and \u201cwat an amazing expression of feelings..man this video just rocks..(Vishal Nagabhushan)\u201d and more. It seems that the reception of this video has been generally positive and people describe it as magical. I would describe it as magical too. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/f4.bcbits.com\/img\/0008124508_10.jpg\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I believe this music video adds to Sam Amidon\u2019s musical experience in a positive way. The film plays an important role in the storytelling, as it goes beyond what the words say.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sam Amidon is an extremely creative American Folk singer, and is currently producing music. He is a beautiful storyteller through his words, melodies, and music videos. Let\u2019s look at the song \u201cBlue Mountain\u201d from his 2014 album entitled Lily-O. This album is a very beautiful work in its own and has top notch musicians on &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gcornish.digitalscholar.rochester.edu\/MHS123_Fall2017\/uncategorized\/blue-mountains-sam-amidon\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Blue Mountains &#8211; Sam Amidon&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-video-review","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gcornish.digitalscholar.rochester.edu\/MHS123_Fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gcornish.digitalscholar.rochester.edu\/MHS123_Fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gcornish.digitalscholar.rochester.edu\/MHS123_Fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gcornish.digitalscholar.rochester.edu\/MHS123_Fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gcornish.digitalscholar.rochester.edu\/MHS123_Fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gcornish.digitalscholar.rochester.edu\/MHS123_Fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":616,"href":"https:\/\/gcornish.digitalscholar.rochester.edu\/MHS123_Fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613\/revisions\/616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gcornish.digitalscholar.rochester.edu\/MHS123_Fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gcornish.digitalscholar.rochester.edu\/MHS123_Fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gcornish.digitalscholar.rochester.edu\/MHS123_Fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}