The New Amsterdams are Kansas City's best- and worst-kept secret. The band can play a benefit show in Lawrence for 25 friends and promptly high-tail it to the Coachella Festival to perform for thousands of true-blue fans. Perhaps it's that dichotomy that's kept the band sounding so humble and loose, like old friends jamming in the toolshed after a poker game. The New Ams' sixth album, At the Foot of My Rival, captures bandleader Matt Pryor's mellow muse as he moves further and further west of the spark-plug pop that characterized his old band, the Get Up Kids. On pensive ballads ornamented with acoustic guitars, strings and pedal steel, points of reference include the Band, Uncle Tupelo and Elliott Smith. Thanks to a shimmering band, featuring White Whale guitarist Dustin Kinsey and upright bassist Eric McCann, Pryor sounds perfectly at home in his new digs. It's no great evolution, but it's true life, one great song at a time.
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