Amos Lee

For The Record...

Born 1977 in Philadelphia, PA; an only child. Education: University of South Carolina, earned degree in English. Worked as elementary school teacher, Philadelphia, PA; tended bar and wrote songs in Philadelphia, early 2000s; signed to Blue Note label; released Amos Lee, toured with Norah Jones, toured with Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard, 2005; released Supply and Demand, 2006; Last Days at the Lodge, 2008. Addresses: Record company—Blue Note Records, 150 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10011. Web site—http://amoslee.com.

Singer, songwriter

Singer and songwriter Amos Lee has combined several musical strong suits into a successful and growing career, appealing to a wide range of rock and pop concertgoers, folk music fans, and album buyers. His vocals evoke the classic rock and soul sounds of such artists as Neil Young and Bill Withers, but he does not rely on imitation of any model: his songs are originals, drawing on his own experiences and observations. Not easily classifiable as folk, soul, or rock, the music of Amos Lee has inventively connected the reservoir of American roots music to personal perspectives.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1977, Lee was an only child but had the company of a tightly-knit clan of cousins. He grew up in tough neighborhoods in the southern part of the city and in the near-northeastern Kensington area. When he was young he listened to hip-hop groups like A Tribe Called Quest but had no interest in performing himself. Most of Lee's energy was directed toward basketball, but he had to face the fact that he lacked the skills to pursue the game seriously. He enrolled at the University of South Carolina, finding a new direction when he made friends with a group of fellow students who enjoyed music.

Lee's stepfather gave him a guitar, and he took some lessons and began writing songs. His real musical education, however, began when he got a job as a clerk at Columbia, South Carolina's Papa Jazz used record store, whose staff was expert in many kinds of older American music. "They had all these vintage soul records," Lee told Larry Katz of the Boston Herald, "and I just soaked it up. I got this Otis Redding box and devoured it. Loved every second. Sam Cooke was one of my heroes. And Bobby Womack, Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers." A special and sometimes overlooked influence on his music was jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. "I would listen to eight hours of music every day," Lee told Keith Ryan Cartwright of the Charleston, South Carolina, Post and Courier. "That was sort of a crushing blow to my ego, but it was an amazing inspiration." Spending most of his time studying music, writing songs, and keeping up with classes for his English major, Lee mostly avoided the college party scene.

The budding songwriter's parents were shocked to learn that he was writing his own music, and it wasn't until his senior year that Lee made his public debut at a local open mic night. After graduating, he took a job as an elementary school teacher in Philadelphia's public schools. Two years later he yielded to the desire to try to make a living as a performer, but gigs were scarce at first. Lee took bartending jobs to make ends meet, trying to land them at places that featured live music. "As a bartender, I was definitely writing songs," Lee told Brad Wheeler of the Toronto Globe & Mail. "But I actually spent more time being a patron than a bartender."

After issuing a pair of homemade EPs in 2003 and 2004, Lee submitted a demo recording to the eclectic jazz-oriented label Blue Note. He hit paydirt when the recording caught the ear of Blue Note's major star of the moment, Norah Jones, whose folky jazz songs had some affinities with Lee's own. Jones suggested that Lee open for her on her tour scheduled for the following spring. Lee was quickly signed to Blue Note and recorded his debut album, Amos Lee. Jones sang backup on several tracks. The album appeared in March of 2005 to generally positive critical notices, and Matt Collar of the All Music Guide was one of a number of writers who dubbed Lee "the male Norah Jones." The album rose to the number two spot on Billboard magazine's emerging artists Heatseekers chart.

Lee himself disliked the Norah Jones comparison, and he quickly emerged from Jones's shadow, joining a tour with folk legend Bob Dylan and country icon Merle Haggard later in 2005. Both artists influenced Lee, who had something of Dylan's ability to draw on a wide range of traditional styles and create something lyrically original from the mix. Lee's second album, Supply and Demand, appeared in 2006 and spawned a tour headlined by Lee himself. He later opened for alternative rock songwriter Elvis Costello. Lee built his reputation partly through virtually nonstop touring, telling Martin Bandyke of the Detroit Free Press that "I haven't had a regular place to live since 2004. I've been traveling and recording and bumming around for the last couple of years." Lee, who remained single, returned to Philadelphia during his rare periods of down time.

Far from being a young songwriter who had exhausted his repertoire with his first album, Lee remained a critical favorite despite occasional complaints that his laid-back arrangements were tailored to coffeehouse sound-system playlists. Music writers raved about the Philadelphian's way of giving older musical patterns new life. Collar praised the ballad "Careless," from Supply and Demand, asserting that the song combined the "Band's ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’ and Crosby, Stills & Nash's ‘Helpless’ into a gut-wrenching and artful self-indictment of infidelity." Supply and Demand rose to number 73 on Billboard's general 200 sales chart, and Lee's next album, Last Days at the Lodge, cracked the top 30 of both the Billboard 200 and the magazine's Internet Albums sales chart after it appeared in 2008.

On Last Days at the Lodge, Lee continued in his synthesizing, genre-mixing ways, with the notable addition of several songs with social themes in a politically transformative election year. He attracted a major producer, rock and R&B veteran Don Was, who helped him combine what some considered the increasingly diverse classic-soul and folk-pop sides of his musical personality. By this time, Lee had become a mentor to younger artists himself. He used emerging Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Priscilla Ahn, whom he had known since his Philadelphia days, as a backup vocalist on Supply and Demand, and toured with her as an opener. Lee himself seemed to be in music for the long haul. "Sometimes, you're not sure if you're helping the world making music," he told Rashod D. Ollison of the Baltimore Sun. "But I really like my new job. I hope I'm reaching with it. The music is always honest."

Selected discography
Amos Lee, Blue Note, 2005.
Supply and Demand, Blue Note, 2006.
Last Days at the Lodge, Blue Note, 2008.

Sources
Periodicals
Baltimore Sun, July 10, 2008.
Boston Herald, April 15, 2005, p. E5.
Denver Post, August 11, 2005, p. F1.
Detroit Free Press, July 21, 2008.
Globe & Mail (Toronto, ON, Canada), February 12, 2005, p. R6; November 3, 2006, p. R25.
New York Post, April 25, 2005, p. 45.
New York Times, October 4, 2006, p. E6.
People, March 7, 2005, p. 43.
Post and Courier (Charleston, SC), July 31, 2008, p. F4.
Record (Bergen County, NJ), April 15, 2005, p. G13.
Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), November 11, 2005, p. E7.
Seattle Times, August 23, 2008, p. D11.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 7, 2008, p. 20.

Virginian Pilot (Norfolk, VA), October 16, 2006, p. E1.
Washington Times, June 24, 3008, p. B8.

Online
"Amos Lee," All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (November 28, 2008).