Artist of the Month: Amos Lee

Let's see if my memory will allow me to continue with this on a monthly or semi-regular basis: I'd like to highlight various artists that I enjoy listening to, ones that fewer people have heard about, or know little about. So, this month, I'm going to recommend a new artist named Amos Lee. Lee has just released his first self titled Album, which has resulted in some good sucesses thus far.

He grew up in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and attended the University of South Carolina, where he became interested in music while he studied history. After he graduated, he returned to Philidelphia and taught elementary school. After a while, he left to pursue a career in music, releasing a self produced EP that did fairly well in the area. The real break came when grammy winner Norah Jones heard his music and asked him to open for her 2004 tour of America. Between 2004 and 2005, he recorded his debut album, which features Jones on two songs- Colors and Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight. Since that first tour, he has opened for two more musicians, Merle Haggard and Bob Dylan, which went over very well. One of his songs, Arms of A Woman, has been filmed as a music video, which can be seen on Yahoo's Launch. His official Website is http://www.amoslee.com , which has some information about his CD, song lyrics, band and tour details.

Discography:

Amos Lee

1- Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight
2- Seen It All Before
3- Arms of A Woman
4- Give It Up
5- Dreamin'
6- Soul Suckers
7- Colors
8- Bottom of the Barrel
9- Black River
10- Love In The Lies
11- All My Friends

Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight EP
1- Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight
2- Jails And Bombs
3- Speed of the Sound of Lonliness

My Thoughts:
I first heard Amos Lee's song, Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight, on 104.7, the Point, the only good radio station in the area, mainly because they play a lot of music like this: new and upcoming, good stuff. It's a very catchy song, with a laidback beat, good vocals and lyrics. I try to keep paper on my at most times, and for once, I remembered the name of the artist enough to look into him on the internet. Later that night, I bought the song on iTunes, and it's quickly shot up onto my top 50 most played list. Later, when I was in Best Buy last week, I found a copy of his debut album for around $10. It's since proved to be a great album, with a number of great songs on it. Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight, Love In The Lies, Black River, All My Friends and Give It Up are my personal favorites on the album, but the entire thing as a whole is extremely listenable. A number of people have compared him to the male Norah Jones, and there are some similarities, not just from her role producing and appearing on a couple songs. Lee's music is a wonderful fusion of Jazz, Folk and Blues, coupled with a great hand at writing and singing. The songs are both simple, but have some weight to them. He just played up here in Vermont, at the Higher Ground, something that I'm still kicking myself for missing. I'm really hoping that he's going to return here, with a new CD. He's got a very promising future, and hopefully his future stuff will be up to the same level that his first album is at.