Sam Amidon + Liz Green + George Thomas @ Coventry Tin Angel

“I should play something more upbeat” says George Thomas, standing before a small yet intimate crowd at Coventry’s lovely little Tin Angel. “Even the upbeat ones are miserable though”, he continues.

Thomas’s gentle, almost ethereal songs have his audience quietly transfixed and a brilliantly chosen cover of the Pointer Sisters’ “I’m So Excited” manages to put a few smiles on faces.

“Liz and Sam are up next and they’ll be much better”, whispers Thomas as he finishes, but he’s getting no complaints from this crowd.

Liz Green’s quirky, toe-tapping and very British songs also go down a treat with tonight’s attendees. A unique voice, with echoes of Edith Piaf and Joanna Newsom, she sings stories of mixed-up love affairs and dreams of becoming an important French artist, all the while with her slightly shy manner and northern charm.

For 99.99% of the population, the name Sam Amidon means absolutely nothing. For some people sat in tonight’s audience, however, his “All Is Well” album is the best album of 2007. Filled with Amidon’s interpretations of old American folk songs, the album is a stunning collection filled with mood, atmosphere and his soulful, yet pleasingly untrained voice.

Whereas the album is rounded out with contributions from composer Nico Muhly, tonight’s gig is stripped down to just Sam, a guitar (or a banjo) and a microphone. On one song he even does away with the guitar and simply allows his voice to fill the room. The songs are tales of immigrant workers, prodigal sons and death – typically internal monologues with a first-person narrator. They may be in the public domain but Amidon has taken them and very much made them his own. “I came to this country, eighteen and forty-nine,” he sings, and it’s easy to believe him.

In front of around just 25 people he delivers an intimate and all-too-brief selection of tunes interjected with odd little performance pieces which seem to have his audience a tad bemused. When he sings however, he has the full attention of the room. Dressed in a simple white t-shirt and beany hat, Amidon lets the tunes do the work, at one point throwing in a German folk song where he only knows half the words. Often the music is so gentle that the singer’s toe tapping is the loudest sound in the room.

“We have CDs on sale tonight” Amidon says. “It’s great. You get to hear music and we get to eat”. And, as the mini-skirted Coventry nightlife stumbles past the windows outside, inside the bubble of the Tin Angel we get to witness a unique artist who certainly won’t be starving any time soon.

Words & Photos – Steve Gerrard

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