San Fermin and Sam Amidon Go For Adds with “Shiver”

“Shiver,” a collaboration between winter 2015 tourmates San Fermin and Sam Amidon, originated with Amidon’s son. “It started with an iPhone recording of Sam’s five-year-old son Arthur banging on some drums at the venue in Providence, which I turned into a beat,” says San Fermin’s Ellis Ludwig-Leone. “Sam wrote a banjo line and played a violin solo over that, which we recorded on stage in the minutes before doors opened at our show in Columbus.” The band completed the song after the tour, working with Amidon online and including lyrics based on “Against Winter” by the Pulitizer Prize-winning poet Charles Simic.

On the occasion of the song’s NPR premiere, Bob Boilen wrote, “At first, it’s an unlikely pairing. I think of Sam Amidon unadorned, his yearning voice perhaps paired with a guitar, banjo or fiddle. On the other hand, San Fermin… is about the mighty power of great arrangements and orchestration… The result [of their collaboration] is a powerful blend of banjo, fiddle, brass, a five-year-old’s banging, a potent singer, a great poet and I’m not really sure what else.”

Sam Amidon’s latest Nonesuch Records release, Lily-O, is out now, while San Fermin is currently on tour throughout the US.

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Label: Downtown / Nonesuch

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