Catching Up With... Amos Lee

Amos Lee's soul-infused croon and tasteful guitar work have haveearned the road warrior the ringing endorsement of Paste editors and the chance to open for luminaries like Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard. Lee's third full-length album, Last Days at the Lodge (set to be released June 24 on Blue Note), continues the Philadelphia-based musician's tradition of stick-in-your-head, bluesy riffs and introspective (but never glum) meditations on subjects ranging from infidelity ("Truth") to born-again ex-cons ("Street Corner Preacher") to good, ol'-fashioned lust ("Baby I Want You"). Paste recently spoke to Lee about who makes his iTunes "Most Played" list, his work ethic at the titular Lodge, the rock 'n' roll session veterans who play on the new album, and his pal Oliver Wood's favorite down-home Atlanta blues joint.

Paste: Could you tell me a little bit about the making of Last Days At The Lodge?
Lee: Well, I got done doing this tour with Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello on October 30 and then the next day I flew out to Los Angeles because I felt like I was ready to make another album. We went out there to L.A. and got in touch with some people and I got a call back from Don Was—he had told me he was interested in seeing what I had going on. I went over to his house and played some songs for him and we talked about those songs and kinda just decided we would like to make a record together. He had an engineer and a studio that he liked and we chose some musicians and they all happened to be available the week that we wanted to record. We just went in there family-style and did it, that's pretty much step-by-step how it went.

Paste: You recorded the whole album in a week?
Lee: Well, we did all the basic tracking in a week and then we went in and did overdubs and mixing and that took probably about three weeks, so it took about a month between the cutting, the live tracking—which was like a week long—and the mixing and mastering and the overdubs and everything.

Paste: That seems super-fast...
Lee: Yeah, well, y'know, with the guys that I picked to play with, first of all, they weren't all that available timewise anyway, because they're a pretty busy bunch of people. Plus, I like to record quickly—I like to do live vocals and I like for the stuff not to be overwrought, necessarily. So we just kinda went in and played the songs a couple times over, went in with it like that, fixed it up a little bit and voila!

Paste: What was it like playing with musicians like Doyle Bramhall [Jr.] and Spooner Oldham?
Lee: Oh, it was great. Spooner's an interesting musician because... the first time I really heard him play live was at Willie Nelson's birthday party, he was playing with the Drive-By Truckers and my drummer and I were standing there kinda listening to him and just hearing what he was doing was really interesting. Because he picks these parts to play that, unto themselves, they might not seem like the thing that most people would think of but they work so well within what's happening. Spooner's such a listener and Doyle's the same way and James [Gadson] and Pino [Palladino] were the same way—they all not only listen to what I'm doing but they listen to what each other's doing, they're trying to further the whole thing musically, moreso than their particular part.

Paste: Did you take any sort of life lessons from working with them?
Lee: Yeah, well, Spooner's like, just being around him for me, and actually, all of them, everybody in that room, it was like, I can learn from them, and Don Was, too. The way they approach music, y'know, Spooner just sits there listening until he hears something, that's his thing. A lot of people have heard that old story about him—they caught him falling asleep on the stool and someone said, 'Spooner, are you there?' and he's like, 'Yeah,' they go, 'What are you doing?' and he goes, 'Well, I haven't heard anything yet!' He just waits until he hears stuff and then he plays it. I really dig that.

Paste: So, you've played with quite a few legendary musicians over the years. Who would be your next dream collaborator?
Lee: I'd like to work with Bill Withers, I'd like to do that, he's one of my big inspirations and I haven't really had a chance to work with him. I'd like to work with a lot of people, you know what I mean? There's so many people I really want to work with. I'd like to do some stuff with the Holmes Brothers, maybe, or, I mean everybody... put me in a room with anybody, I'm into it. D'Angelo, Iris Dement, John Prine, I'm just into it. So many people. But the first name that would come up would probably be Bill.

Paste: Have you ever talked to him?
Lee: Yeah, I got a chance to meet Bill actually, in Los Angeles. We hung out and had lunch together one day, it was great.

Paste: So you went to school down here in the south, right, at South Carolina?
Lee: And you're calling from Atlanta, right? 404, I've got some friends that live down there. Do you know Oliver Wood? He's in the band called the Wood Brothers, he lives in Atlanta, he's really good.

Paste: I don't know him, but I know the Wood Brothers.
Lee: Yeah, Oliver lives in Atlanta and he took me to this little blues bar down there that he goes to all the time, it's this kinda ramshackle little place that, they have music there a lot, like, real small, I can't remember what part, it's not in Little Five Points or anything, it's kinda a little bit more off the beaten path.

Paste: Is it also a barbecue place?
Lee: Yeah, it's also a barbecue place.

Paste: Is it Maddy's?
Lee: Yeah, I think that's it! ...that place is amazing.

Paste: It's great, and they'll pack 'em in there, too.
Lee: Yeah, I think he plays there a lot, anyway, sorry, I'm not trying to digress, but 404 leads to other things.

Paste: So, since you've been touring so much, do you have, like, a network in every city?
Lee: Not really. I have a couple friends here and there, but, y'know, the tours that we've done, aside from the Dylan and Merle Haggard tour, where we had a lot of cities where we stayed for many days, we usually get in and out pretty fast, because we got a lot of shows lined up, y'know? So, yeah, I wish I did have more a network set up. I think if you're doing it for maybe 20 years or something like that, I think that's when you start to really get comfortable with a lot of people.

Paste: How do you feel about playing festivals as opposed to solo shows? Do you notice a big difference?
Lee: One thing about a festival, there's a lot of really great stage managers involved in festivals, but oftentimes it's a difficult, rushed scene 'cause there's so many acts coming on and off and so many different inputs for the sound people to deal with and everything. So it's a little bit more rushed, which sometimes can make it great, 'cause you just fly in and fly out. But also the crowds are usually bigger and sometimes not as aware of your music—but that can work in your favor, too, because a lot of people get to hear you at once, y'know? So, I like 'em and I've had a lot of great experiences with festivals ... also, you get to listen to crazy-great music all day, too. We usually play early 'cause nobody knows who we are at a lot of festivals, so we usually get to hang out all day, and you get around a lot of music that you normally wouldn't hear other places, which is really cool.