MP3: Relief (R. Kelly Cover) by Sam Amidon

With a banjo, a warbly voice and some sparsely lush orchestration (courtesy of wunderkind Nico Muhly), itinerant folkie Sam Amidon turns R. Kelly’s relatively forgettable R&B tune “Relief” into something entirely different and all together moving. In his hands it feels less like a song and more like a gospel reading, meant to ease the minds of a confused and disillusioned congregation. Where the nightly news brings unrelenting word of rising death tolls, fresh and irreversible ecological disasters, new outbreaks of violence and disease, Amidon’s voice gently pushes through the coal-black smoke and for a second, just a single second, it feels like all that stuff, all that sad stuff that has somehow become an inseparable part of living in this world, was just a bad dream. What a relief that would be.

If you right click (or control click) on the link below, you can download the song for free.

Sam Amidon :: Relief ft. Beth Orton (R. Kelly Cover)

Chris aims to expose viewers to some of the most legit tunes of the times, peeling back the layers of what’s relevant in current music events, with up-to-date posts of new artists and releases. Living in Chicago, Chris manages his own blog dedicated to new music releases, clips of new musicians, and announcements of upcoming shows at cool venues.