A Schaefer Spotlight Series Event
Series Sponsorship provided by Bonnie and Jamie Schaefer. Supporting Sponsorship provided by App State Campus Store, Broyhill Family Foundation, Appalachian Home Care LLC, The Art Cellar, Explore Boone, Goodnight Brothers, Mast General Store, and SkyBest Communications, Inc.
Philadelphia-born singer-songwriter Amos Lee released his gold-selling self-titled first album in 2005 and has been known for his association with a long list of collaborators and touring partners, from Paul Simon and Bob Dylan to Zac Brown Band and Willie Nelson. The force behind such acclaimed albums as Mission Bell and Mountains of Sorrow, Rivers of Song, Lee’s recent years have been wildly productive. After 2022’s Dreamland album (which featured “Worry No More,” a Top 10 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. Don’t miss Amos Lee live at the Schaefer Center!
Tickets
Contact theschaefercenter@appstate.edu, call 800-841-2787 or 828-262-4046, visit the box office at the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts, or purchase online.
$65 Tier 1
$55 Tier 2
$45 Tier 3
$25 App State students
App State Faculty/Staff:
10% off Tiers 1, 2 & 3. Contact Box Office for discount code.
Parking
Parking can be challenging, particularly for sold-out events. Please allow extra time to park and arrive at the theatre before showtime. See map for parking recommendations.
Accommodations
App State is committed to providing an inclusive experience for individuals with disabilities. If accommodations are needed in order to fully participate on the basis of a disability, contact the Office of Disability Resources (828-262-3056). It is recommended that accommodation requests be made two weeks prior to the event.
About Amos Lee
“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 11th 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.
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 12 songs in less than a week.
Fresh off 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.”
“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.”
