What is your relationship to New England?

I was born and raised in Brattleboro, Vermont. My mom and dad moved to Vermont in the late 1970s to join Bread and Puppet Theater, having met through the folk scene in Cambridge, MA, in the mid-’70s. My dad is from the Berkshires area in western Massachusetts; his dad, my grandfather, played harmonica and led the singing at local campfire gatherings there back in the day.

Tell us about your Field Guide to... New England. How would you describe New England folk music? What songs and artists did you choose to include, and why?

New England folk music, to me, doesn’t really mean one sound. It’s a mix of the different elements of life here over the years. The two most important styles of New England folk music for me personally are shape note singing and contradance music/New England fiddle music, both of which I grew up with. Shape note singing is a style of four-part choral music composed by musicians who were not trained in the European classical tradition, but instead drew on American folk melodies and styles. Contradancing is a social form of dance that’s similar to square dancing, which has always been popular in New England. It features a lot of really creative music linked to French Canadian, Irish, Scottish, and Appalachian styles of fiddle music. The New England fiddle style used for contradance music is what I grew up with—the repertoire is drawn from these various cultures, but it has a swingy, rhythmic style of its own.

In my playlist here I tried to include some classic examples of those styles which were so important to me, as well as work by other great New England musicians and song collectors, many of whom I had a personal connection to or who influenced me musically growing up. Margaret MacArthur was a legendary Vermont folksong collector and singer who lived in Marlboro, near me and my family. I included a song by Martha Pellerin in the collection—she was a wonderful musician and exponent of the Francophone tradition in Vermont. Her son Ian Drury is a childhood friend of mine who is now keeping the music alive as the director of Young Tradition Vermont. Taj Mahal, one of the great blues and folk musicians in American history, is from Springfield, Massachusetts. Tony Barrand and John Roberts were from England and moved as young adults to New England—Tony lived just up the hill from us in Brattleboro and was a huge presence in the folk scene, one of the greatest ballad singers ever. And of course my parents, Peter and Mary Alice Amidon, sing on the song “Time Has Made a Change in Me,” with Lucy Simpson leading, on Sharon Mountain Harmony; a wonderful album from which I have learned many songs.

I included the Malcolm Goldstein composition “Autumn” from his larger piece The Seasons: Vermont, because it’s a beautiful and exploratory piece, and it does seem to capture autumn in Vermont perfectly. I also included it because I think there is a tradition of experimentalism that is key to this area, whether manifested in the wild later writings of Herman Melville, or the compositions of Charles Ives, or the various wonderful experimental musicians, painters, and artists who were living in the mountains around Vermont when I was growing up.

You’ve curated a playlist for us before! Can you talk about your relationship to Smithsonian Folkways? Do you have a favorite album, or a favorite song?

The Folkways catalogue is so vast and deep. I am constantly discovering new albums. Just now I found the solo album of the street musician Bongo Joe, aka George Coleman (a different George Coleman from the great jazz saxophonist). This is now my favorite Smithsonian Folkways album and one of my favorite albums of all time. His rhythm is so deep and his humor is brilliant.

You recently worked as a music advisor, singing coach, and musician on the film The History of Sound, which takes place between Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Italy, and England. The film uses a few different traditional music forms (including ballads, sacred harp songs, drinking songs, dance reels, and hymns) to chronicle intimacy, heartbreak, and other human experiences. Can you tell us about the film’s music, and about your experience contributing to it? What do you find to be special about traditional music?

I had a fantastic experience working on The History of Sound. Ben Shattuck, who wrote the short stories on which it is based and adapted them himself for the screenplay, was coming from a place of deep love for this music in all its different forms. A lot of people think of folk music as one thing: somebody singing while strumming a guitar. But Ben really understands the multiplicity of the forms this music can take. His love for the music was infectious and shared by the rest of the people working on the film, including the director, Oliver Hermanus, and the composer of the film’s score, Oliver Coates.

I worked as a music advisor and I sing on the soundtrack, but my main job on the film was coaching the cast in singing, especially Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor. Each of the actors came to my house before filming, to work on the songs and singing style. They had an incredible focus, really attuned to the nuances of the style and wanting to really get inside the songs.

I feel that the film really shows the dual nature of traditional folk music, which is that, on the one hand, it is a social music, something you share with other people, such as a group of people singing together at a pub or in a church. But on the other hand, it is deeply internal—a way to express or inhabit your feelings while walking alone in a forest, singing a ballad quietly to yourself.