Mission Bell

Mojo - 4 stars out of 5 -- "His lyrics sweat with detail and nervy experience....He's moved house from well-made folk-country to heartfelt soul..." Paste - "['Violin'] is unsurprisingly, the album's clear highlight: a swelling, sweeping slow-burner with wide-screen atmosphere, angelic harmonies and pedal steel aching over modest acoustic strums." Billboard - "It's the new sounds that really give this gentle genius a genuine 'Bell' ringer of a fourth album." Entertainment Weekly - "[H]is soulful singing charms throughout." -- Grade: B- Rolling Stone - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he standouts on his chart-topping fourth album -- cut with Joey Burns of Western-mystic indie rockers Calexico providing moody backup -- are the cameo tracks."

After cracking the Top 40 with Last Days at the Lodge, Amos Lee enlisted some of his most famous fans to appear on a follow-up effort. The resulting Mission Bell features appearances by the likes of Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, and Iron & Wine's Sam Beam, all of whom contribute to the album's blend of folk, acoustic soul, and jazz.|

Recorded in Arizona with Calexico's Joey Burns producing, Amos Lee's fourth studio album, 2011's Mission Bell, finds the singer/songwriter in a thoughtful mood and once again wrapping his soulful folk numbers in country, blues, and soft rock. A ruminative, lazy summer day of an album, Mission Bell is not dissimilar to Lee's last effort, 2008's Last Days at the Lodge, but lacks the more contemporary R&B tracks that made Last Days a bit of a departure from Lee's more granola leanings. Here listeners get the introspective leadoff track "El Camino" and the airy Steve Winwood-sounding ballad "Violin." Similarly engaging is the jaunty mid-album anthem "Flower," which is equal parts the Commodores' "Easy" and Hall & Oates' "She's Gone." Lee is a talented songwriter with a distinctive pop voice who is becoming recognized as an heir to the American singer/songwriter throne -- a notion given weight by the addition of several well-known guest artists here, including roots rocker Lucinda Williams and country legend Willie Nelson. ~ Matt Collar