Amos Lee
“My favorite time in music is probably 1970-75,” says Amos Lee…”Still Bill by Bill Withers, Harvest by Neil Young, John Prine’s first album, James Taylor’s One Man Dog—I hope I can bring the same sort of spirit I hear on those records.” The spirit is promisingly delivered by the folk-soul performer’s eponymous debut released earlier this year.
The 27-year-old former schoolteacher grew up going between Philadelphia, PA, and a suburb, Cherry Hill, NJ. “I’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunity to see a few sides of life in this country.”Amos entered the University of South Carolina in 1995, where he began to play acoustic guitar and write songs. “I met my kind of people in there: down-to-earth, sincere folks who didn’t belong to any club. They were all musicians, and they taught me how to treat my music with sincerity and integrity.”
After graduating college with a degree in English, Amos returned to Philadelphia where he taught elementary school. His desire to pursue music as a career forced him to make the difficult decision to leave teaching. To earn a living he waited tables, tended bar, and continued writing songs.
“I started playing open mikes and getting some feedback. I started feeling a little more confidence.” A self-released EP with five of his original songs made Amos “one of the area’s most-talked-about emerging talents” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
After having had the honor of opening shows for such legends as Bob Dylan, BB King, and Mose Allison, a break came when Norah Jones became an early convert to his cause and invited Amos to open her European tour, beginning in April 2004. Equipped with only his voice and guitar, Amos found himself facing 3,000-5,000 listeners a night—and up to three times that number when he joined Norah’s US tour (through November ’04).
And yet, night after night, he pulled it off. In their concert review the Los Angeles Times referred to Amos as a “writer and singer with enough personality to charm a crowd impatient for Jones to take the stage.” The Albany Times-Union praised Amos’s “charming and soulful solo set”; the Seattle Post-Intelligencer heard him blend “a folksy, flannel-and-denim sound with sultry R&B.”
