Sam Amidon celebrated the release of his new album, Bright Sunny South, released earlier this week on Nonesuch Records, with a stellar performance at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City last night. This morning, Amidon was featured on NPR's Morning Edition.

"What you're hearing here is a new spin on very traditional American folk music," says Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep in his introduction, while playing Amidon's take on the traditional shape-note hymn "Weeping Mary," from Bright Sunny South. It's a song that his parents, Peter and Mary Alice Amidon, recorded with the Vermont-based Word of Mouth Chorus for Nonesuch Records on the 1977 disc Rivers of Delight: American Folk Hymns from the Sacred Harp Tradition, which can also be heard on the Morning Edition piece.

Sam Amidon discusses his connection to that folk tradition, the roots of the album's title track, and more. Listen to the Morning Edition segment here:

While in New York City, Amidon visited Washington Square Park to talk with NBC 4 New York's Oresti Tsonopoulos about the two sides of folk music that can be heard in his music.

"It's folk music in the sense that it's any kind of community making music, any popular music is folk music according to that rule; it's just music of people," Amidon says. "But at the same time, with the older traditional music, there's this weird solitary quality to it, which is that it stopped being popular music in the '20s, but there's a few people that kept on doing it into the '50s and '60s ... I feel like my music, hopefully, captures both of those elements."

Hear more of what Amidon has to say as well as a bit of the tune "As I Roved Out" in the video below:

Sam Amidon heads back across the Atlantic to launch a European tour this weekend. For details and ticket links, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour. To pick up a copy of Bright Sunny South, head to the Nonesuch Store, where CD orders include a download of the complete album at checkout.