On the flight to KC, WFUV DJ John Platt tipped me off to the Amigos, a young quintet which includes an accordion and a percussionist with a washboard. Turns out Platt is a good tipper. The Amigos’ performance belied their youth, even without the benefit of elder statesman David Amram, who has championed the group and contributed to their brand new album–and who’s probably four times the age of any one of the group’s members.

 

Crisp and confident, the group ran through numbers from Diner in the Sky, mostly self-penned numbers with a mix of traditional tunes that didn’t sound like rehashes of traditional tunes. As it turns out, accordionist Sam Rieder applied for a job at Elmore a few years ago.  Luckily for both Reider and music fans, it didn’t work out, or he might be here in Kansas City writing about somebody else’s band, and we’d all be the poorer. The guys take off on a State Department tour of Southeast Asia next week, so we’ll play the CD until they come back and start touring in support of the album. It’s worth the wait.