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Here's why Amos Lee crafted a full album tribute to jazz legend Chet Baker

Raina Douris

Miguel Perez

Amos Lee on World Cafe

• "Look for the Silver Lining"
• "My Funny Valentine"
• "I Get Along Without You Very Well"

Humans haven't invented time travel yet, but if we ever do, it'll probably be pretty dangerous and expensive. The good news? We have music. Music can take you back to a place and time, even one you've never experienced.

In this session, you'll be transported by Amos Lee as he performs songs from his full album tribute to Chet Baker 's 1954 album, Chet Baker Sings . Lee's album is called My Ideal . Lee, along with pianist and producer David Streim, will take you back in time in this session, recorded at World Café in Philadelphia.

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• Date June 21 , 2024
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“There's a lot of existential stuff in these songs,” says Amos Lee. “If you really listen to what's in between the lines, there's a lot of grappling with your place in the world, grappling with loss.  There's a lot of grappling with the balance between bailing out the boat and rowing at the same time—the experience of writing music and playing songs while trying, as we all are right now, to make sense of a world that feels like it's changing really quickly.”  

On his eleventh studio album, Transmissions , singer-songwriter Lee continues to expand his sonic range while sharpening his closely observed lyrics that squarely address death, aging, and love. The force behind such acclaimed albums as Mission Bell and Mountains of Sorrow, Rivers of Song , ever since his gold-selling 2005 debut Lee has been known for his association with a long list of collaborators and touring partners, from Paul Simon to Zac Brown Band. 

For the new project, he craved a return to an old-school style of recording, working with his longtime band in a studio in rural Marlboro, New York that was built by drummer Lee Falco and his dad out of reclaimed wood from an old church (“it’s exactly what you’d think a studio in upstate New York should be,” notes Lee). Playing live on the floor for long hours, in close quarters, they were able to capture the album’s twelve songs in less than a week. 

“I really wanted us to be all in the room, making music together, listening to each other and responding to each other,” says Lee. “In this age where you can do everything at home and fly it in, there’s something really beautiful about getting in a room and starting at the top, the drummer counting in the song and everybody just playing. I would call it vulnerability.” 

Despite the simplicity of the set-up, though, Lee also augmented the band’s soulful, folk-funk sound with arrangements that extend the scope of some songs. “I've done a lot of shows over the past few years with orchestras,” he says, “and I wanted to find a way to have miniature moments that could represent those experiences. If you listen to the end of ‘Night Light,’ or ‘Built to Fall,’ there are moments that express those ideas of collaboration and orchestration.” 

Transmissions marks only the second time that Lee has produced his own album (following 2016’s Spirit ), a daunting challenge even for someone so familiar with the musicians. But he was determined not to overthink or over-complicate the task. 

“As a producer, I had to have a clean and clear vision of what I wanted before I went in,” he says. “Especially now that I've done ten albums. I'm not lighting a bunch of candles and trying to conjure the spirit—it's either there or it isn't. And it was there from Day One. We were playing the song ‘Beautiful Day,’ and I thought, ‘Okay, here's a song I have a demo for, but I don't have a full version in mind. I've never played it with anyone, I've never shown it to anybody, and it's a bit of a weird, herky-jerky tune.’ And the bass and drums kicked ass, the guitar playing is really cool—so yeah, I felt it from note one. I was never in doubt.” 

The’ last few years have been wildly productive for Philadelphia native Lee. After 2022’s Dreamland album (which featured “Worry No More,” a Top Ten AAA hit and his biggest single in over a decade), he followed up with two full-length projects paying homage to musical heroes— My Ideal: A Tribute to ‘Chet Baker Sings’ and Honeysuckle Switches: The Songs of Lucinda Williams . He expresses his awe for these two renegade artists; Williams for her incomparable language and Baker for his delivery. “I love songs that have the ability to expose a wide range of emotions in a short song,” he says. “That's what my favorite songs always do.” 

The Baker album in particular had a strong influence on Lee as a vocalist. “I didn't grow up singing anything other than what was on the radio,” he says, “and when I started playing guitar, it was John Prine and Dylan and Bill Withers and this classic songwriter stuff, but also all this ‘90s R&B that I loved. I'd never approached what we're calling jazz—the classics, the songbook—and listening to Chet singing and singing along with him was like, ‘Oh, my God, how is he doing this?’ It was like taking a master class in control and where to use your voice. That level of singing, that level of musicianship, was hugely inspirational—you don't have to sing loud all the time. You can be really vulnerable, and soft, and really be at your best.” 

Transmissions is Lee’s first release of original music on his own label, Hoagiemouth Records. “It's just a sign of the times,” he says. “Things have really changed for someone like me, and I’m going to adapt. I always wanted to have some kind of small label, so it's a cool opportunity.” (The imprint is distributed through the Thirty Tigers company, which Lee is especially excited about since he and president David Macias are friends through fantasy baseball.) 

Fresh off of some dates with Willie Nelson and heading into a co-headlining tour with the Indigo Girls, Amos Lee notes that his attitude about being embraced by his peers and his idols has transformed over the years, and that his gratitude deeply informs the emotions throughout Transmissions . 

“I just appreciate everything a lot more now,” he says. “When you're younger, you get it, but you don't really get it because you're like ‘Oh, cool—my first tour ever and I'm opening for Bob Dylan? Cool.’ Or Norah Jones, the biggest artist in the world, bringing you out right off the street. How do you appreciate that? I was just sort of clueless, honestly. Not out of malice, but you have no context. 

“So now I'm just grateful to have a career,” he continues. “I'm grateful to be asked to share the stage with folks who I respect and admire and love and want to learn from and want to support. Now it’s about really being present while it's happening and knowing that this is not promised, none of this is destiny. It's a lot of chance. So I’m making sure to really enjoy and appreciate all these opportunities.” 

Review: Amos Lee’s ‘My Ideal: A Tribute To Chet Baker Sings’

Amos Lee has been around for a while, an associate of Norah Jones, and a purveyor of a bluesy folk hybrid style. That he has recorded his first five recordings for Blue Note might also suggest someone somewhere could hear a hint of something jazzier to his bow. Rather than offer any view to his previous, let’s stick with My Ideal , wherein he deigns to replicate the mood of the album Chet Baker Sings , backed by a trio of Philly’s finest. These comprise David Streim on piano and trumpet, Madison Rast on bass, with Anwar Marshall on the drum seat.

Lee kicks off with “That Old Feeling,” It’s fine, but something just feels wrong. The vocals are too light, the mood too jaunty. It takes the more desolate “It’s Always You” to show off what Lee can do with his voice. His tone may be more molasses than Baker’s, but he hits the right sad spot for this song. Which is rather how all My Ideal goes; Lee adds his distinct nuance to the songs of angst and grief, but comes over karaoke for anything much livelier.

Most will head straight to the songs they know–“My Funny Valentine” and “The Thrill Is Gone,” say. Whilst Lee performs a quite lovely version of the former, the thrill has some difficulty even arriving for the latter. It hits all the right notes, in the right order, but it is all a bit, shhhhh, dull. To be fair, part the issue is the acetate honed precision of the backing. Ever so orthodox, it could come from any upmarket jazz club trio, filling in the time ahead the main attraction. Lee has a decent voice, but he would have done Baker a fair fewer favors by trying to update the arrangements a bit. Or to at least remove the whiff of tuxedos and cigars, because, even when he gets close, he is still a mile off the wracked anguish that only Baker could exude so effortlessly. Through, one might imagine, experience.

Highlights for the Baker-naive include “I Get Along Without You Very Well” and “Everything Happens To Me,” as well as “Valentine” and “It’s Always You.” But, you know what, if you are looking at this, cut out the middle man and stick with the real deal. The 1956 re-release of Chet Baker Sings carries the same tracks in the same order to better effect. OK, there are two extra tracks added to My Ideal , but that isn’t enough. Sorry.

My Ideal tracklisting (all songs previously sung by Chet Baker)

1. That Old Feeling 

2. It’s Always You

3. Like Someone In Love

4. My Ideal

5. I’ve Never Been In Love Before

6. My Buddy

7. But Not For Me

8. Time After Time

9. I Get Along Without You Very Well

10. My Funny Valentine (For Oskar and Eli)

11. There Will Never Be Another You

12. The Thrill Is Gone

13. I Fall In Love Too Easily

14. Look For The Silver Lining

15. Everything Happens To Me

16. I’m Old Fashioned

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Amos lee: for the love of chet.

Lee started listening to Chet Baker Sings every day during the initial weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For Amos Lee, the Philadelphia-bred singer-songwriter who first broke as the opening act on Norah Jones’ 2004 tour, the pandemic was defined by the loss of his two greatest musical idols who’d also become personal friends: Bill Withers and John Prine.

His go-to music listening now inflected with grief, Lee spent the initial weeks of the pandemic focused on an online Madden tournament, unable to listen to music at all. Then, one day he logged onto Spotify and clicked on Chet Baker’s iconic debut 1954 album, Chet Baker Sings .

Holed up alone in a house in the Philadelphia suburbs, Lee listened to Chet Baker Sings daily during quarantine, a ritual that helped him ground his grief and opened him up to new vocal approaches that he says have left him “forever changed.” As a result, Lee released his full-album tribute to the classic album, entitled My Ideal: A Tribute To Chet Baker Sings .

Though this is Lee’s first straightahead jazz recording, it is not his first exposure to the tradition. In his early 20s, Lee worked at Papa Jazz Record Shoppe in Columbia, South Carolina, where he got a crash course in the music, listening to Charles Mingus and other legends with owner Tim Smith, and reading copies of DownBeat.

“It was like going right to grad school,” said Lee, who, despite his lack of introduction, still loved what he heard, particularly Eric Dolphy. “They liked really heavy stuff in that shop. I didn’t get, ‘Hey, here’s some introduction to jazz.’”

Lee was also in school at University of South Carolina and beginning to write and perform his own songs. Eventually he recorded a demo that fortuitously landed in the hands of A&R at Blue Note Records, which was enjoying major success at the time with Norah Jones.

Blue Note signed Lee in 2004, and though he was not a jazz artist, he felt right at home at the label and with president and CEO Bruce Lundvall.

There was a full-circle feeling about it, too: He’d sold many Blue Note albums during his time at Papa Jazz.

“The origin of my music industry life was sitting in Bruce’s office and listening to jazz with him,” Lee said. “I never made jazz, but I always wanted to talk jazz with him, and I wanted to learn. I was a 26-year-old kid, and he was like the guru and he would play me stuff and be like, ‘What do you think of this?’”

Though Lee had never listened to Chet Baker until 2020, My Ideal is a return to the lesser-known jazz roots of Lee’s career, and an homage to an album that had a profound effect.

“I learn a lot about myself through other peoples’ music, and it sort of helped me reframe my sorrow.” Lee said. “I just kept listening to [Chet] and it kind of saved me in a lot of ways because I didn’t have any music that I felt like I really connected to, and there was something about this approach that Chet takes. I like the dynamic of all of these songs that are heartbreaking but also they’re like, look for the silver lining. I’m not saying there is one, but let’s look for it.”

The more Lee listened, the more entranced he became by Baker’s vocal technique, studying his quintessentially “cool” delivery that was a stark diversion from the more ornate or “hot” vocal styles of the other male vocalists of his day.

“You realize, ‘Where is he breathing?’” Lee said. “How are you singing this so softly but with the perfect amount of volume — with emotion? There’s not a ton of vibrato. There’s just an acuity, a tonal shape that he has that took me a long time to find.”

As Lee dug deeper into Baker’s nuance and the record’s arrangements, he got the idea to do a tribute album and called up his friend David Streim. Streim is an mainstay on the Philadelphia jazz scene who began playing and touring with Lee about six years ago. He ultimately played piano on and produced My Ideal .

Streim brought in Philadelphia jazz musicians Madison Rast on bass and Anwar M. Marshall on drums, and in one day, the three of them recorded several versions of the “alive and sweet and sad” arrangements Lee loves on Chet Baker Sings .

From there, Lee added his vocals, which strike a fine balance. They pay diligent respect to Baker while highlighting Lee’s talent in a new way. With a luscious, round tone, he keeps his vocal performance quite close to Baker’s original, while also letting the warmth and soulfulness of his own voice shine through at choice moments. This is particularly apparent on ballads like “I’ve Never Been In Love Before” and “My Funny Valentine,” the latter of which Lee almost didn’t record.

“It’s such a classic that I didn’t want to do it. And then after the project was done ... I was like, ‘Man, we can’t leave that off,’” Lee said. So, he decided to make the song his own by performing a “dark” version of it for Oscar and Eli, a fictitious couple from one of Lee’s favorite films, a Swedish romance horror called Let The Right One In .

In the end, My Ideal is a poignant tribute to the quiet brilliance of both artists, though Lee’s humility is quick to turn the spotlight back on Baker, who Lee thinks is often written off for being too commercial.

“I write songs, I write three-chord songs,” he said. “I’m not like this super heady jazz guy. [People say Chet is] too easy. Too straight. For me, it was interesting to not only dig into the singing part of [this record], but also the way that the lyrics worked and the way that the storytelling was happening. How simple they seem, but how not really simple they are ... and when you get underneath the hood, it is absolutely genius-level singing. That’s the thing I think a lot of people miss about Chet.” DB

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Amos Lee celebrates Chet Baker with My Ideal

Amos Lee has spent much of 2022 bringing the catharsis of his new album  Dreamland  to larger audiences than ever before: from Red Rocks and The Ryman to Good Morning America and The Late Late Show - but as this banner year comes to a close, he's shining a light on a musical inspiration that's helped him endure his own difficult times. Lee will return on November 18 with  My Ideal , a full-album tribute to the much-beloved jazz vocal classic  Chet Baker Sings  via   Dualtone Records. A daily listen for Lee as he weathered the darkest days of the pandemic - which included losing two of his closest mentors in Bill Withers and John Prine - Lee reflects that: "I was drawn to the aching and the tenderness, to the way it expressed sadness with levity, to the way it explored sorrow without becoming beleaguered by the depths of it." 

Back by a trio of jazz all-stars from his hometown of Philadelphia - David Striem (piano/trumpet), Madison Rast (bass) and Anwar Marshall (drums) - Lee reminds listeners of vocals perfectly suited for the genre while harkening back to the earliest days of his career on legendary jazz label Blue Note Records. A reverential collection without attempting to duplicate Baker's 1954 epic, Lee found himself inspired anew as a musician the deeper he dove into the source material: “When you listen to Chet Baker, it sounds like he took a drag on a cigarette and the smoke just came out as a song, but it’s so much more than that. The breath work, the pitch control, the poignancy, the gaiety; the deeper I got inside the music, the more I fell in love with everything about it...it was a revelatory experience. It didn’t just change the way I thought about these songs; it changed the way I thought about myself as a singer and as a songwriter. It changed everything."

Dualtone Music Group.

My Ideal  out November 18 digitally, and coming December 9 on LP and CD.

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November 03, 2022

Amos Lee to release tribute album to jazz legend Chet Baker

The kensington native released his eighth studio album 'dreamlands' earlier this year, delving into anxiety and depression.

Amos Lee is set to release a tribute album inspired by jazz legend Chet Baker's signature 1954 vocal debut "Chet Baker Sings," the Philadelphia native singer-songwriter told fans on Wednesday. 

In celebration of the upcoming release of "My Ideal," on Nov. 18, the folk singer released his own rendition of "My Funny Valentine," the jazz standard that has been performed by more than 600 artists since it was first published in 1937. Lee considers Baker his "lifelong musical hero," crediting him with changing his life and trajectory as an artist. 

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The tribute album, which features other Philly musicians including pianist and trumpeter David Streim, bassist Madison Rast and drummer Anwar Marshall, is meant to remind Lee's longtime fans of the early days of his career playing as an artist on jazz label Blue Note Records.  

Announcing: My Ideal: A Tribute to Chet Baker Sings out 11/18. Pre-order and pre-save now. Listen to Amos interpret Chet Baker's signature song "My Funny Valentine," a version he's subtitled "For Oskar and Eli" out today. https://t.co/cddrSPZ5oF pic.twitter.com/k41mf48BoV — Amos Lee (@amoslee) November 2, 2022

"I was drawn to the aching and the tenderness, to the way it expressed sadness with levity, to the way it explored sorrow without being beleaguered by the depths of it," Lee said of Baker's album.

Lee released his eighth studio album, "Dreamland," in February of this year. In it, the singer explored his experiences with depression and anxiety , much of which was brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the music industry. As part of his promotion for the album, he performed "Invisible Oceans" on "The Late Late Show with James Corden" in October, and began live performances of the album in April. 

The lead single of the album, "Worry No More," brings Lee back to his hometown to explore some of the most sentimental places of his childhood, including Starr Garden Park in South Philly. 

Lee, who was born Ryan Anthony Massaro in Kensington in 1977, briefly lived in South Philly before moving to Cherry Hill at 11 years old, where he attended and graduated from Cherry Hill High School East. The singer graduated from the University of South Carolina with a degree in English, before becoming interested in music. 

After college, he returned to Philly , getting a job as a second grade teacher at the Mary McLeod Bethune School in North Philly and bartending at music venues throughout the city. He spent some time as an opening act for Mose Allison and B.B. King before releasing his self-titled debut in 2005 while on tour with Norah Jones. 

Lee took part in WXPN's Musicians on Call program , which brings live music to the bedsides of patients at hospitals throughout the Philadelphia area. Launched in 2004, the program now works with nine medical centers in the region, including Bryn Mawr Hospital in Delaware County. 

In 2017, Lee and soul singer Mutlu Onaral performed for staff and patients in the maternity, cardiac and oncology units of the hospital.  Lee performed his own song, 2006's "Sweet Pea," for newborns and their parents in the hospital nursery. 

In 2013, Lee received a mayoral citation from former Mayor Michael Nutter for his contributions to Philadelphia culture and music, as well as his volunteer efforts with the Musicians on Call program. Nutter also presented Lee with a Liberty Bell award, WXPN reported . 

"My Ideal: A Tribute to 'Chet Baker Sings'" will be released on all streaming platforms on Friday, Nov. 18. Until then, check out Lee's cover of "My Funny Valentine" with this lyric video below. 

Maggie Mancini PhillyVoice Staff

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Amos Lee: The My Ideal Tour - A Tribute to Chet Baker Sings Live

The following description comes from the event organizer.

Amos Lee has unveiled  My Ideal (A Tribute To Chet Baker Sings)  , a 16-song collection that simultaneously pays tribute to Lee's musical hero, reflects on the  Billboard  chart-topper's deep jazz roots, shines a light on his Philadelphia music community, and toasts an exciting year of returning to the road and releasing new music.  Chet Baker Sings  is a record that Amos has always loved, but now holds even deeper meaning as a source of light in the darkest days of the pandemic - where his daily routine included waking up, meditating and playing the 1954 jazz epic front-to-back. During what he describes as a "revelatory period" of diving deep into the nuances of the record, "seeing what it felt like to walk around in Chet Baker's shoes," Lee knew the next step was to take his deep reverence and curiosity into the recording studio. Accompanied by a captivating trio of jazz players from his hometown of Philadelphia - David Streim (piano/trumpet), Madison Rast (bass) and Anwar Marshall (drums) - Lee powerfully brings  My Ideal  to life.

The new album finds Lee bringing his own celebrated vocal work to the music of Chet Baker, taking inspiration from the originals without attempting to reproduce or duplicate his hero. Studying the breath work and pitch control behind Baker's legendary output proved to be an exercise that Lee says "changed everything," adding: "the deeper I got inside the music, the more I fell in love with everything about it.” On  My Ideal , listeners are reminded of a voice naturally suited for the jazz genre, and of Lee's earliest work on Blue Note Records. But  My Ideal  does not dwell in the past, neither Lee's nor Baker's, containing many of the same beloved elements that made 2022 such a banner year for Amos. Among those highs are shows at legendary venues like Red Rocks, The Ryman and The Kennedy Center, television performances from  The Late Late Show  to  Good Morning America  and the release of his critically-lauded new album of originals  Dreamland .  

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Singer-songwriter Amos Lee does a deep dive into the sound of Chet Baker’s vocals

Amos Lee sings . His voice’s unmistakable soul and warmth has been on heavy rotation for nearly two decades in the mainstream as a singer-songwriter — giving us silky coffee shop hits like “Arms of a Woman,” “Flower,” and “Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight.” After launching his career on the historic Blue Note Record label, the Philadelphia-based musician has embarked on a project in honor of another smooth and cool vocalist: Chet Baker — with the release of My Ideal: A Tribute to Chet Baker Sings , out November 18 on Dualtone Records.

Chet Baker’s 1954 vocal debut Chet Baker Sings remains a relevant stylistic touchstone in the jazz canon seven decades later for listeners and musicians alike—including Lee—who revisited the album during a darker period in the Spring of 2020. “[I] started listening to Chet Baker Sings over and over and over and over and over again, and the songs just resonated for me in a place that is deeply sad,” Lee explains. “But also there was a nonchalance about it that made a lot of sense to me and was comforting to me. Like, you can feel terrible and it's still okay.”

Baker’s album features irreplaceable entries in The Great American Songbook including “There Will Never Be Another You” and a haunting rendition of “My Funny Valentine.”

Listen to Chet Baker's version of "But Not For Me" from Chet Baker Sings here:

When embarking on his project, Amos Lee was aware of the challenge presented by paying tribute to these recordings that have been so closely associated with Chet and his inimitable voice. “He has such an idiosyncratic approach as a singer,” says Lee. “You want to imitate him to an extent, but then when you try to imitate him, it just sounds bad. So the thin line for me was how do I pay tribute to this in a way that feels honest and real to me and express the love that I have for this project without imitating.”

Listen to Amos Lee’s version of “My Funny Valentine” here:

Amos’ voice reaches new, lustrous levels throughout the project, which features all compositions tackled by Chet Baker in the original and 1956 reissue of Chet Baker Sings, albeit in a style that is still true to Amos Lee. “It's just a totally different way to approach singing than I had ever done,” Lee reflects on the record. “And it made me reexamine my own style and my own approach to songs and singing. And I'm grateful for it.”

Check out our entire conversation here:

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The My Ideal Tour—A Tribute to Chet Baker Sings Live. With special guest Caliko (AC Sapphire + Kendall Lujan)

Tickets are also available at the Portland'5 Box Office . Service charges apply.

Amos Lee - Look for the Silver Lining [Lyric Video]

The My Ideal Tour—A Tribute to Chet Baker Sings Live

With special guest caliko (ac sapphire + kendall lujan).

Amos Lee has unveiled   My Ideal (A Tribute To Chet Baker Sings)  , a 16-song collection that simultaneously pays tribute to Lee's musical hero, reflects on the Billboard chart-topper's deep jazz roots, shines a light on his Philadelphia music community, and toasts an exciting year of returning to the road and releasing new music.  Chet Baker Sings   is a record that Amos has always loved, but now holds even deeper meaning as a source of light in the darkest days of the pandemic - where his daily routine included waking up, meditating and playing the 1954 jazz epic front-to-back. During what he describes as a "revelatory period" of diving deep into the nuances of the record, "seeing what it felt like to walk around in Chet Baker's shoes," Lee knew the next step was to take his deep reverence and curiosity into the recording studio. Accompanied by a captivating trio of jazz players from his hometown of Philadelphia - David Streim (piano/trumpet), Madison Rast (bass) and Anwar Marshall (drums) - Lee powerfully brings  My Ideal  to life.

The new album finds Lee bringing his own celebrated vocal work to the music of Chet Baker, taking inspiration from the originals without attempting to reproduce or duplicate his hero. Studying the breath work and pitch control behind Baker's legendary output proved to be an exercise that Lee says "changed everything," adding: "the deeper I got inside the music, the more I fell in love with everything about it.” On  My Ideal , listeners are reminded of a voice naturally suited for the jazz genre, and of Lee's earliest work on Blue Note Records. But  My Ideal   does not dwell in the past, neither Lee's nor Baker's, containing many of the same beloved elements that made 2022 such a banner year for Amos. Among those highs are shows at legendary venues like Red Rocks, The Ryman and The Kennedy Center, television performances from The Late Late Show to Good Morning America and the release of his critically-lauded new album of originals  Dreamland .  

amoslee.com

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My Ideal: A Tribute to Chet Baker Sings

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Amos Lee | by Denise Guerin | courtesy of the artist

Amos Lee announces Chet Baker covers album; shares version of “My Funny Valentine”

His song-for-song reimagination of ‘Chet Baker Sings,’ titled ‘My Ideal,’’ will be out November 18th.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Philly’s pride Amos Lee lost two of his mentors—Bill Withers and John Prine. During this period of external loss and internal soul-seeking, Lee turned to Chet Baker Sings for comfort. “I was drawn to the aching and the tenderness, to the way it expressed sadness with levity,” said Lee in a press release. Recorded with Philadelphia-based jazz musicians David Streim, Madison Rast, and Anwar M. Marshall, My Ideal is his tribute to that music and the meaning it held for him: a song-for-song cover of Chet Baker’s 1956 original.

The project’s lead single is a sparse rendition of Baker’s “My Funny Valentine,” this time titled “My Funny Valentine (For Oskar and Eli).” It’s a faithful cover, but the voice at the center is unmistakably Amos. His performance trades Baker’s droll delivery for something a little more soulful and drama-laden. “I wanted to wear Chet Baker’s shoes for a minute and see what it felt like to walk around in them. It was a revelatory experience. It didn’t just change the way I thought about these songs; it changed the way I thought about myself as a singer and as a songwriter,” Lee says.

Listen to “My Funny Valentine (For Oskar and Eli)” below. My Ideal comes out November 18th on Dualtone Records. Stay tuned for a World Cafe session, recorded live at WXPN Studios, coming in December.

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Saturday, June 22, 2024

Rock the Ruins at Holliday Park

Amos Lee with special guest Mutlu to perform live in concert at Rock the Ruins at Holliday Park in Indianapolis on Saturday, June 22, 2024!

Listen | Watch

“There's a lot of existential stuff in these songs,” says Amos Lee. “If you really listen to what's in between the lines, there's a lot of grappling with your place in the world, grappling with loss. There's a lot of grappling with the balance between bailing out the boat and rowing at the same time—the experience of writing music and playing songs while trying, as we all are right now, to make sense of a world that feels like it's changing really quickly.”

On his eleventh studio album, Transmissions, singer-songwriter Lee continues to expand his sonic range while sharpening his closely observed lyrics that squarely address death, aging, and love. The force behind such acclaimed albums as Mission Bell and Mountains of Sorrow, Rivers of Song, ever since his gold-selling 2005 debut Lee has been known for his association with a long list of collaborators and touring partners, from Paul Simon to Zac Brown Band.

For the new project, he craved a return to an old-school style of recording, working with his longtime band in a studio in rural Marlboro, New York that was built by drummer Lee Falco and his dad out of reclaimed wood from an old church (“it’s exactly what you’d think a studio in upstate New York should be,” notes Lee). Playing live on the floor for long hours, in close quarters, they were able to capture the album’s twelve songs in less than a week.

“I really wanted us to be all in the room, making music together, listening to each other and responding to each other,” says Lee. “In this age where you can do everything at home and fly it in, there’s something really beautiful about getting in a room and starting at the top, the drummer counting in the song and everybody just playing. I would call it vulnerability.”

Despite the simplicity of the set-up, though, Lee also augmented the band’s soulful, folk-funk sound with arrangements that extend the scope of some songs. “I've done a lot of shows over the past few years with orchestras,” he says, “and I wanted to find a way to have miniature moments that could represent those experiences. If you listen to the end of ‘Night Light,’ or ‘Built to Fall,’ there are moments that express those ideas of collaboration and orchestration.”

Transmissions marks only the second time that Lee has produced his own album (following 2016’s Spirit), a daunting challenge even for someone so familiar with the musicians. But he was determined not to overthink or over-complicate the task.

“As a producer, I had to have a clean and clear vision of what I wanted before I went in,” he says. “Especially now that I've done ten albums. I'm not lighting a bunch of candles and trying to conjure the spirit—it's either there or it isn't. And it was there from Day One. We were playing the song ‘Beautiful Day,’ and I thought, ‘Okay, here's a song I have a demo for, but I don't have a full version in mind. I've never played it with anyone, I've never shown it to anybody, and it's a bit of a weird, herky-jerky tune.’ And the bass and drums kicked ass, the guitar playing is really cool—so yeah, I felt it from note one. I was never in doubt.”

The’ last few years have been wildly productive for Philadelphia native Lee. After 2022’s Dreamland album (which featured “Worry No More,” a Top Ten AAA hit and his biggest single in over a decade), he followed up with two full-length projects paying homage to musical heroes—My Ideal: A Tribute to ‘Chet Baker Sings’ and Honeysuckle Switches: The Songs of Lucinda Williams. He expresses his awe for these two renegade artists; Williams for her incomparable language and Baker for his delivery. “I love songs that have the ability to expose a wide range of emotions in a short song,” he says. “That's what my favorite songs always do.”

The Baker album in particular had a strong influence on Lee as a vocalist. “I didn't grow up singing anything other than what was on the radio,” he says, “and when I started playing guitar, it was John Prine and Dylan and Bill Withers and this classic songwriter stuff, but also all this ‘90s R&B that I loved. I'd never approached what we're calling jazz—the classics, the songbook—and listening to Chet singing and singing along with him was like, ‘Oh, my God, how is he doing this?’ It was like taking a master class in control and where to use your voice. That level of singing, that level of musicianship, was hugely inspirational—you don't have to sing loud all the time. You can be really vulnerable, and soft, and really be at your best.”

Transmissions is Lee’s first release of original music on his own label, Hoagiemouth Records. “It's just a sign of the times,” he says. “Things have really changed for someone like me, and I’m going to adapt. I always wanted to have some kind of small label, so it's a cool opportunity.” (The imprint is distributed through the Thirty Tigers company, which Lee is especially excited about since he and president David Macias are friends through fantasy baseball.)

Fresh off of some dates with Willie Nelson and heading into a co-headlining tour with the Indigo Girls, Amos Lee notes that his attitude about being embraced by his peers and his idols has transformed over the years, and that his gratitude deeply informs the emotions throughout Transmissions.

“I just appreciate everything a lot more now,” he says. “When you're younger, you get it, but you don't really get it because you're like ‘Oh, cool—my first tour ever and I'm opening for Bob Dylan? Cool.’ Or Norah Jones, the biggest artist in the world, bringing you out right off the street. How do you appreciate that? I was just sort of clueless, honestly. Not out of malice, but you have no context.

“So now I'm just grateful to have a career,” he continues. “I'm grateful to be asked to share the stage with folks who I respect and admire and love and want to learn from and want to support. Now it’s about really being present while it's happening and knowing that this is not promised, none of this is destiny. It's a lot of chance. So I’m making sure to really enjoy and appreciate all these opportunities.”

‍Rock the Ruins Concert Series

Rock the Ruins is a summer concert series hosted by The Vogue at Holliday Park, an enchanting 95-year-old park nestled in a gently wooded neighborhood just six miles north of downtown Indianapolis. Perfect for experiencing live music, catching up with neighbors and friends, and connecting with nature, a Rock the Ruins concert is the ideal spot to spend a summer evening. We encourage our all-ages guests to bring chairs/blankets for all Rock the Ruins shows as seating will not be provided for general admission guests. No outside coolers or alcoholic beverages will be permitted in the park as guests will be encouraged to take advantage of a variety of local and artisan vendors selling food and beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic). Guests must present a valid ID (and be 21+) to purchase alcoholic beverages while on-site for any Rock the Ruins event at Holliday Park.

AMOS LEE WITH SPECIAL GUEST MUTLU

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2024

ROCK THE RUINS AT HOLLIDAY PARK

INDIANAPOLIS, IN

TICKETS AT ROCKTHERUINS.COM

PLEASE NOTE:

‍All tickets are non-transferable and non-refundable. This event is rain or shine. This event is General Admission and seating is not provided. For a full list of permitted and prohibited items, parking and transportation details, information on ADA seating, and answers to other frequently asked questions, visit the FAQ page .

ABOUT FORTY5

‍Music is in Forty5’s DNA. The organization exists to bring people together through music. Forty5’s platform includes talent buying, event production, ticketing, box office management, and promotion for events at venues across Indianapolis and the surrounding areas including The Vogue Theatre, Rock the Ruins at Holliday Park, I Made Rock ‘N’ Roll, and The Tobias Theater at Newfields, all powered by the technology platform Opendate. Learn more at https://forty5.com .

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Amos Lee “My Ideal (A Tribute to Chet Baker Sings)”

The My Ideal Tour / A Tribute to Chet Baker Sings Live with special guest Daniel Bailen 

SOLD OUT!  Please check back for last minute availability.

Doors: 6:30 PM

Showtime: 7:30 PM

With one foot in the real world and the other in a charmed dimension of his own making, Amos Lee creates the rare kind of music that’s emotionally raw yet touched with a certain magical quality. On his eighth album Dreamland, the Philadelphia-born singer/songwriter intimately documents his real-world struggles (alienation, anxiety, loneliness, despair), an outpouring born from deliberate and often painful self-examination. “For most of my life I’ve walked into rooms thinking, ‘I don’t belong here,’” says Lee. “I’ve come to the realization that I’m too comfortable as an isolated person, and I want to reach out more. This record came from questioning my connections to other people, to myself, to my past and to the future.”

In the spirit of fostering connection, Lee made Dreamland in close collaboration with L.A.-based producer Christian “Leggy” Langdon (Banks, Meg Myers). “I met with Leggy, who I really didn’t know anything about, and before we even started to work we had a very open and vulnerable conversation about what was going on in our lives,” he recalls. “So much of what I do is solitary work, and it felt good to find someone I could connect with—sort of like, ‘I’m a lonely kid, and I wanna play.’” Thanks to that palpable sense of playfulness, Dreamland embodies an unpredictable and endlessly imaginative sound—a prime showcase for Lee’s warmly commanding voice and soul-baring songwriting.

The very first song that Lee and Langdon created together, “Hold You” set the standard for Dreamland’s open-hearted confession. With its delicate convergence of so many exquisite sonic details—luminous guitar tones, ethereal textures, tender toy-piano melodies—the track finds Lee looking inward and uncovering a deep urge to provide comfort and solace. “Especially if you’ve grown up with a less-than-appealing inner voice, you have to start with yourself,” he notes.

On “Worry No More”—the mantra-like lead single to Dreamland—Lee shares his hard-won insight into riding out anxiety. “I’ve had a lot of episodes with anxiety in my life and now I feel much more equipped to handle them, partly because my family and friends have always been so supportive of me,” he says. “Music has also been so healing for me, and helped me to find a place in my mind that isn’t purely controlled by fear.” To that end, “Worry No More” gently exalts music’s power to brighten our perspective, with the song’s narrator slipping into a headphone-induced reverie as they wander a broken world (“I’m listening to the sounds of Miles/Spanish sketches, playground smiles/Crowded streets and empty vials/For all to share”).

All throughout Dreamland, Lee embraces an unfettered honesty, repeatedly shedding light on the darkest corners of his psyche. On “Into the Clearing,” for instance, the album takes on a moody intensity as Lee speaks to a desire for obliteration. “There’s always a longing to be one with the universe, to be one with nature, to be one with the sky,” he says. “And sometimes the only way you can be with the sky is to be smoke.” A powerfully uplifting track with a gospel-like energy, “See the Light” evokes a fierce resolve to hold tight to hope (“Since I know I’m going to be singing these songs over and over, I like to infuse them with helpful messages to myself,” Lee says). With its soulful piano work and soaring string arrangement, “Seeing Ghosts” reflects on anxiety’s insidious ability to warp our perception. “For a lot of people with anxiety disorders, there’s this fog that sets in, where your brain becomes overwhelmed and you disconnect,” says Lee. “I’ve definitely seen ghosts my whole life.” In a striking tonal shift, Lee then delivers one of Dreamland’s most euphoric moments on “Shoulda Known Better,” a radiant piece of R&B-pop fueled by his dreamy falsetto. “That song’s looking at the messy side of life,” he says. “It’s saying, ‘I was dumb, I shouldn’t have done that, but we had a lot of fun. I don’t regret it at all.’”

In the making of Dreamland, Lee found his songwriting indelibly informed by his recent reading of Johann Hari’s 2018 book Lost Connections. “It’s about depression, which I have a pretty deep history with, and how our society and our generation looks at mental health and healing in terms of medication rather than thinking about our personal relationship to the people and the world around us,” he says. And with the release of Dreamland, Lee hopes that his songs might inspire others to live more fully and free of fear. “Over the course of my life I’ve come to understand that music is my bridge to other people,” he says. “I have no idea what the waters are like below that bridge—it might be lava for all I know—but music allows me to float over the whole thing and connect. To me that’s the whole point of why we do this: to give people something to listen to and be enveloped by the love of another human being, and just be reminded that humanity is beautiful.”

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A Philadelphia singer-songwriter with heartfelt lyrics and finespun vocals.

From his humble beginning teaching elementary school and slinging cocktails (non-simultaneously, of course), Amos Lee has catapulted himself into the international music scene — all while never losing the stark vulnerability that made his music so well-loved. Over the course of his nearly two-decade long career, Lee’s alluring vocals and thoughtful lyrics have placed him among a pantheon of singer-songwriters that includes Bill Withers, Joni Mitchell, John Prine, and Norah Jones. Born and based in Philadelphia, PA, Lee’s music reveals a soft heart and introspective mind.

Described as ‘Philadelphia’s Anonymous Hit-Maker’ by the Philadelphia Inquirer , Amos Lee found his beginnings at Open Mic Nights hosted in local coffee houses — both in his college town of Columbia, SC. and his hometown of Philadelphia, PA. His big break undoubtedly occurred when Norah Jones heard one of his demos through the Blue Note Records company. The artist immediately invited Amos Lee to join her on her 2004 tour as the opening act.

The following year, Amos Lee traveled as an opening act for Bob Dylan and released his debut album, Amos Lee . It was widely praised, with critics across the U.S. and Europe noting Lee’s impressive vocal control. Since his first album, Amos Lee has released eight studio albums and two live albums. His most recent release, My Ideal , is a tribute to the album Chet Baker Sings (1954). Along with the artists mentioned above, Amos Lee has collaborated with Adele, the Zac Brown Band, and even Elvis Costello.

Overall, Amos Lee's fans love him hard — his reviews, comment sections, and Facebook pages are consistently flooded with people thanking the universe for Lee’s melodious voice and raw lyrics. Lee’s subject matter ranges from city life and stormy romances to mental health advocacy. As he did in the early days, he still writes the majority of his songs. However, Lee's recent release entitled “Invisible Oceans” was co-written with Ethan and Bianca Gruska, Lee's two close friends. Bianca Gruska is a nurse, and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lee felt her story needed special focus. Amos Lee’s post-COVID interviews have seen him expressing a desire to “make people feel better” with his music.

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2023 Outdoor Concert Series: AMOS LEE

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Please Note: This event has expired.

Presented by Red Butte Garden at Red Butte Garden , Salt Lake City UT

AMOS LEE THE MY IDEAL TOUR A Tribute to Chet Baker Sings Live Aug. 7, 2023 Gates at 6 p.m. / Show at 7 p.m.

ADMISSION INFO

Garden members: $47 / Public: $52

Website: https://redbuttegarden.org/concerts/

300 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, UT 84108

Accessibility Information: Currently, no accessibility information is available for this event.

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Please park in the Red Butte Garden Visitor Center parking lot.

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98.9 WCLZ presents

Transmissions tour, with julia pratt, sat, may 25, 2024, state theatre, doors: 7:00pm - show: 8:00pm - all ages, $65, $55, $45, $40 - reserved seating.

Buy tickets in person (without fees) at the State Theatre box office Fridays 10am-5pm, or the night of any State Theatre show starting 1 hour before doors. Please note that ticket prices may fluctuate based on demand.

“There’s a lot of existential stuff in these songs,” says Amos Lee. “If you really listen to what’s in between the lines, there’s a lot of grappling with your place in the world, grappling with loss. There’s a lot of grappling with the balance between bailing out the boat and rowing at the same time—the experience of writing music and playing songs while trying, as we all are right now, to make sense of a world that feels like it’s changing really quickly.”

On his eleventh studio album, Transmissions, singer-songwriter Lee continues to expand his sonic range while sharpening his closely observed lyrics that squarely address death, aging, and love. The force behind such acclaimed albums as Mission Bell and Mountains of Sorrow, Rivers of Song, ever since his gold-selling 2005 debut Lee has been known for his association with a long list of collaborators and touring partners, from Paul Simon to Zac Brown Band.

For the new project, he craved a return to an old-school style of recording, working with his longtime band in a studio in rural Marlboro, New York that was built by drummer Lee Falco and his dad out of reclaimed wood from an old church (“it’s exactly what you’d think a studio in upstate New York should be,” notes Lee). Playing live on the floor for long hours, in close quarters, they were able to capture the album’s twelve songs in less than a week.

“I really wanted us to be all in the room, making music together, listening to each other and responding to each other,” says Lee. “In this age where you can do everything at home and fly it in, there’s something really beautiful about getting in a room and starting at the top, the drummer counting in the song and everybody just playing. I would call it vulnerability.”

Despite the simplicity of the set-up, though, Lee also augmented the band’s soulful, folk-funk sound with arrangements that extend the scope of some songs. “I’ve done a lot of shows over the past few years with orchestras,” he says, “and I wanted to find a way to have miniature moments that could represent those experiences. If you listen to the end of ‘Night Light,’ or ‘Built to Fall,’ there are moments that express those ideas of collaboration and orchestration.”

Transmissions marks only the second time that Lee has produced his own album (following 2016’s Spirit), a daunting challenge even for someone so familiar with the musicians. But he was determined not to overthink or over-complicate the task.

“As a producer, I had to have a clean and clear vision of what I wanted before I went in,” he says. “Especially now that I’ve done ten albums. I’m not lighting a bunch of candles and trying to conjure the spirit—it’s either there or it isn’t. And it was there from Day One. We were playing the song ‘Beautiful Day,’ and I thought, ‘Okay, here’s a song I have a demo for, but I don’t have a full version in mind. I’ve never played it with anyone, I’ve never shown it to anybody, and it’s a bit of a weird, herky-jerky tune.’ And the bass and drums kicked ass, the guitar playing is really cool—so yeah, I felt it from note one. I was never in doubt.”

The’ last few years have been wildly productive for Philadelphia native Lee. After 2022’s Dreamland album (which featured “Worry No More,” a Top Ten AAA hit and his biggest single in over a decade), he followed up with two full-length projects paying homage to musical heroes—My Ideal: A Tribute to ‘Chet Baker Sings’ and Honeysuckle Switches: The Songs of Lucinda Williams. He expresses his awe for these two renegade artists; Williams for her incomparable language and Baker for his delivery. “I love songs that have the ability to expose a wide range of emotions in a short song,” he says. “That’s what my favorite songs always do.”

The Baker album in particular had a strong influence on Lee as a vocalist. “I didn’t grow up singing anything other than what was on the radio,” he says, “and when I started playing guitar, it was John Prine and Dylan and Bill Withers and this classic songwriter stuff, but also all this ‘90s R&B that I loved. I’d never approached what we’re calling jazz—the classics, the songbook—and listening to Chet singing and singing along with him was like, ‘Oh, my God, how is he doing this?’ It was like taking a master class in control and where to use your voice. That level of singing, that level of musicianship, was hugely inspirational—you don’t have to sing loud all the time. You can be really vulnerable, and soft, and really be at your best.”

Transmissions is Lee’s first release of original music on his own label, Hoagiemouth Records. “It’s just a sign of the times,” he says. “Things have really changed for someone like me, and I’m going to adapt. I always wanted to have some kind of small label, so it’s a cool opportunity.” (The imprint is distributed through the Thirty Tigers company, which Lee is especially excited about since he and president David Macias are friends through fantasy baseball.)

Fresh off of some dates with Willie Nelson and heading into a co-headlining tour with the Indigo Girls, Amos Lee notes that his attitude about being embraced by his peers and his idols has transformed over the years, and that his gratitude deeply informs the emotions throughout Transmissions.

“I just appreciate everything a lot more now,” he says. “When you’re younger, you get it, but you don’t really get it because you’re like ‘Oh, cool—my first tour ever and I’m opening for Bob Dylan? Cool.’ Or Norah Jones, the biggest artist in the world, bringing you out right off the street. How do you appreciate that? I was just sort of clueless, honestly. Not out of malice, but you have no context.

“So now I’m just grateful to have a career,” he continues. “I’m grateful to be asked to share the stage with folks who I respect and admire and love and want to learn from and want to support. Now it’s about really being present while it’s happening and knowing that this is not promised, none of this is destiny. It’s a lot of chance. So I’m making sure to really enjoy and appreciate all these opportunities.”

Julia Pratt

Julia Pratt is a 22 year old singer-songwriter based in Philadelphia. A songwriter at heart, Julia’s music blends pop, jazz, r&b, and folk, with dashes of electronic production. Grounded in poignant lyricism inspired by songwriters such as Kevin Garrett, Amy Winehouse, and Hozier, Julia writes about family, love, betrayal, and grappling with the concept of “the self.” She kicked off 2023 opening for artists such as Brandi Carlile, Hozier, The Head and the Heart, the Revivalists, and Adam Melchor, embarked on a national tour opening for Australian ambient pop artist Vancouver Sleep Clinic, and was runner up for NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest On The Road tour in Philadelphia. Julia is gearing up for a series of releases throughout the rest of 2023 and 2024, starting with her brand new EP Two To Tango (Out 10/27). It features A Little Love, her hit collaboration with Matt Quinn of Mt. Joy.

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