Amos Lee Shares New Song 'Beautiful Day' About Self-Acceptance
The song is from his much-anticipated new album, Transmissions, due out Friday, August 9.
By: Josh Sharpe May. 29, 2024
Acclaimed singer-songwriter Amos Lee shares "Beautiful Day," a deeply personal song about self-acceptance and anxiety from his much-anticipated new album, Transmissions, due out Friday, August 9 on his own Hoagiemouth Records via Thirty Tigers.
"I have had serious anxiety problems my whole life, panic attacks from the time I was very young," says Lee. "I don't remember much time in my life where I wasn't depressed. This is a song about accepting that in yourself, and not fighting it — knowing that you have this bear inside of you, this thing rattling around, and just being like, 'It's okay; I know, you're never going to completely disappear, but that doesn't mean you're going to eat me.' So the whole tune is sort of self-acceptance, and then the bridge is accepting other people — when they're coming to you with their pain, you don't have to judge them. They're much more than just the pain that they have inside of themselves.
"When I wrote that song, I was like, 'Look, man, you don't have to judge yourself so hard. The s you feel is just s you feel. Work through it and try to get out and do stuff.' Just because you feel pain or feel fear doesn't mean that you have to be incapacitated by it. The last verse is very autobiographical. I live in this little shack-y house right on the side of a huge highway. Every single day, all day long, these tractor-trailers just shake the whole place. When I moved in there, I was cursing myself and wanting to leave, but now, I sort of find them to be soothing."
Transmissions is Lee's 11th studio album and first new collection of original songs in more than two years. The album was heralded last month with the premiere of the graceful first single, “Hold On Tight,” available everywhere now. An official music video by Anthony Mulcahy & James Delahunty is streaming on YouTube.
Transmissions sees Amos Lee continuing to expand his sonic range while sharpening his closely observed lyrics that squarely address death, aging, and love. Self-produced by Lee for only the second time in his chart-topping, RIAA Gold-certified career (following 2013’s Spirit), the Philadelphia, PA-based artist returned to an old-school style of recording, working with his longtime band in a studio in rural Marlboro, NY built by drummer Lee Falco and his dad out of reclaimed wood from an old church. Playing live on the floor for long hours in close quarters, Lee and his fellow musicians were able to capture the album’s twelve songs in less than a week. Despite the simplicity of the set-up, Lee augmented his band’s soulful, folk-funk sound with arrangements that extend the scope of songs like the autobiographical “Beautiful Day” and the upbeat, jam-powered “Darkest Places.”
“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.”
Transmissions represents the first release of original music on Lee’s recently launched label, Hoagiemouth Records (distributed through Thirty Tigers), following last year’s Honeysuckle Switches: The Songs of Lucinda Williams. A full range of exclusive merchandise is available now at his official web store HERE.
Lee just finished his May tour celebrating Transmissions and his incredible career, which included a special three-night stand at Nashville, TN’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center accompanied by the Nashville Symphony (Andrew Lipke, conductor). Lee will begin the next leg of dates at the end of June and continue through July. He will then join forces with Indigo Girls for a co-headline tour getting underway September 13 at Vail, CO’s Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater and featuring sold-out shows at Dillon, CO’s Dillon Amphitheater (September 14), Morrison, CO’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre (September 15), and San Francisco, CA’s The Masonic (September 25). For complete details and remaining ticket availability, please visit www.amoslee.com.
AMOS LEE - ON TOUR 2024
JUNE
21 – Chicago, IL – Auditorium Theatre #
22 – Indianapolis, IN – Rock The Ruins #
24 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant #
25 – Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater #
27 – La Vista, NE – The Astro #
28 – Minneapolis, MN – State Theatre #
29 – Milwaukee, WI - Summerfest
JULY
1 – Ann Arbor, MI – Michigan Theater **
3 - Grand Rapids, MI - Fifth Third Bank Summer Concerts at Meijer Gardens **
5 – Cleveland, OH – House of Blues **
6 – Columbus, OH – Southern Theatre **
8 – Deerfield, MA – Tree House Brewing Company
11 – Lancaster, PA – American Music Theatre **
13 – Atlantic City, NJ – Music Box at the Borgata
SEPTEMBER
13 – Vail, CO – Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater †
14 – Dillon, CO – Dillon Amphitheater † (SOLD OUT)
15 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre † (SOLD OUT)
17 - Salt Lake City, UT - Red Butte Garden
19 – San Diego, CA – The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park †
21 – Santa Barbara, CA – Santa Barbara Bowl †
23 – Los Angeles, CA – Greek Theatre †
24 – Saratoga, CA – The Mountain Winery †
25 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic † (SOLD OUT)
27 – Troutdale, OR – McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheater †
28 - Woodinville, WA – Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery †
** w/ Mikela Davis
+ w/ The Nashville Symphony
^ Amos Lee Solo Acoustic Performance
# w/ Special Guest Mutlu
† Co-Headline w/ Indigo Girls
Photo Credit: Denise Guerin
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