Amos Lee, with a new album recorded in Tucson and produced by Joey Burns of Calexico, is one of those singers who people will thank you for introducing them to, and be amazed that they hadn't heard of sooner.
The 33-year-old is good enough to tackle "Ain't No Sunshine" in concert, which is not to say that he sounds like Bill Withers. But he has one of those rare emotional voices, like Withers', that never sounds forced. It's understated, yet moves the listener at an almost primal level.
Besides Withers, Lee puts me in the mind of Ted Hawkins (a great Venice Beach street singer who died in 1995 just after getting his first widespread success) and Ray LaMontagne ("Trouble"). He doesn't sound too much like any of them, but his voice is distinctive enough to warrant a mention.
Beyond that, he's a good - make that a very fine -songwriter.
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None of this is to say Lee is an unknown. A lot of people have heard of him; he's had some radio play and got some attention he might not have found so soon when he played and recorded with Norah Jones a few years ago.
The match with Jones was particularly good, in that Jones is another singer with the good taste not to swing for the fences on every syllable and has a broad musical palette.
Lee grew up in Philadelphia listening to hip-hop and R&B, but says he expanded his range when he "started playing guitar and working at this record shop. I started listening to old R&B. Before that I was just checking out the radio. I didn't know the depths of everything."
He worked in the record shop while a college student in Columbia, S.C.
"It was a specialty record store, vintage vinyl," Lee said in a recent phone interview. "The people that worked at the record store picked what we would play while we worked, so you wound up being influenced by everybody, classical, Robyn Hitchcock … I just fell in love with all the music. The guy who owned the music store was a (Thelonious) Monk fan. Monk and Miles spoke to me pretty quick."
"Mission Bell" (Blue Note/EMI, released Tuesday) shows how comfortable Lee is with all those styles he heard and, apparently, absorbed. It's a fine album but tough to classify. The styles range from folk to rock with a touch of country, but none of it sounds affected.
Burns, of Calexico, produced and played on Lee's latest album, "Mission Bell," recorded at Wavelab studio in Tucson last year. Calexico co-founder and drummer John Convertino and trumpeter Jacob Valenzuela also played on the recording. Wavelab's Craig Schumacher even played some harmonica on the album, Lee said. Burns says he plans to sit in with Lee at the Rialto show, but doesn't know about other Calexico members.
It says a lot for Burns, and for Calexico and Wavelab Studios, as Lee has had an album produced by Don Was, one of the three hottest producers of the last decade, as well as recording with big names like Jones. The Calexico founders and Wavelab have a huge role in the number of out-of-town artists, some well-established, who have been choosing to record here in the last few years.
The guest artists on "Mission Bell" include real country guru Willie Nelson (with whom Lee later did Farm Aid 2010) and Americana roots singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams.
Lee said they were both on his "wish list," and he just called up and asked them to contribute vocal tracks to "Mission Bell."
Asked how the Tucson sessions with Burns compared to working with Was, Lee said, "The connecting piece is that both are great musicians. Everybody who has produced my albums so far has been a bass player (Was played bass with the killer funk band Was Not Was).
"Both created a great environment," Lee said of Was and Burns.
But, in the end, Lee said he had more instrumentation on "Mission Bell" than on earlier albums, and played more electric guitar than he has in the past, when his guitar work was mostly acoustic.
"And I spent more time with Joey actually creating the music because he plays so many different instruments. He thinks of things as a songwriter, so compositionally as well.
"The real positives I took away from the sessions were how devoted to music those guys are, Joey and John. … they're devoted to the life, the sanctity of the art form and craft. It comes through to me."
If you go
• What: Amos Lee in concert. Vusi Mahlasela opens.
• When: 8 p.m. Sunday.
• Where: Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St.
• Tickets: Advance tickets for the all-ages show, $23, and $25 day of show. Available at the Rialto box office, online www.rialtotheatre.com and 740-1000 .
