It was late in Friday night’s roughly 100-minute set, as singer-songwriter Amos Lee, his four bandmates (guitarist Connor Kennedy, pianist-arranger Jaron Olevsky, bassist Solomon Dorsey and drummer Matt Scarano) and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Andrew Lipke, collectively leaned into the amiable, sweet shuffle of “Flower,” from Lee’s 2011 album Mission Bell.
As the song gathered steam, those gathered within the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center could contain themselves no longer.
Rising from their seats, stepping into the aisles and dancing with one another, couples from the floor on up to the rafters bathed in the moment and the music, swaying and smiling as Lee’s romantic affirmations — “I believe in the power of love,” goes one refrain — filled the majestic, comfortably full Meyerson space.
Lee was audibly and visibly pleased as the song drew to a close: “Wow, all right — shit! Y’all are in for a revival tonight,” he said, as ecstatic applause and whistles ricocheted off the austere surroundings.
Amos Lee performs with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, March 22, 2024.
Preston Jones
Yet, when the union works as it did on Friday, handled with confidence and care, the tension between the immense and the intimate can yield moments of startling beauty.
The Philadelphia-born Lee was making his first North Texas appearance in nearly six years (a 2018 Majestic Theatre show), ahead of his new studio album Transmissions, due out this summer via his own label, Hoagiemouth Records.
His diffuse blend of rock, pop, soul and folk meant the evening could go anywhere, and it often did, touching upon vast swathes of his two-decade career and incorporating an array of moods.
The night, cleaved by a 20-minute intermission, was elastic enough to incorporate a portion of Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat Major” (as transcribed by Lipke) as an introduction to Lee’s shattering (and as-yet-unreleased) “Madison” as easily as it pivoted into the glorious greasiness of Lee’s 2008 song “Street Corner Preacher,” which featured surprise recurring guest Mickey Raphael’s steely harmonica stabs. (Raphael joined the musicians for three songs overall, including “Jesus.”)
The 46-year-old Lee, whose limber body cannot help but move to the music, was an ecstatic presence throughout, frequently turning to gaze at the players behind him, mouthing the word “beautiful” as a violinist added a vivid flourish to “Wait Up for Me.”
“Seriously, this is just so much fun for me,” Lee told the attentive, appreciative audience more than once Friday.
The joy was balanced by the melancholy, which often yielded the night’s most transfixing moments — Lee’s otherworldly voice, a multi-octave wonder capable of guttural rawness and ethereal falsetto, made fine use of the Meyerson’s impeccable acoustics, often taking flight in pin-drop silence.
The one-two punch of Lee’s “Out of the Cold,” a bruised tribute to a late friend, and a cover of Paul Simon’s enduring “American Tune” was breathtaking, as was the incredible “El Camino,” another showcase for Raphael’s tasteful brilliance, and “Violin,” a finely etched howl of pain: “Oh God, why you been/Hanging out in that old violin/While I’ve been waiting for you/To pull me through?”
Lee took care to credit Olevsky’s arrangements throughout the evening — the pianist even got a moment to share his “Quarantine Etude,” composed during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns four years ago — and the balance between orchestra and performer was nigh perfect. As Lee himself said before the night’s final song, “Windows Are Rolled Down”: “I don’t even know if I could ask for anything more. I love you, Dallas, Texas.”
The sweet kiss of strings or brass or percussion from the skillful Dallas Symphony Orchestra players would fill in behind Lee and his more-than-able collaborators at the front of the stage. The result was a cohesive whole that amplified Lee’s songwriting, enhanced his luminous singing and made for an evening that often felt like a waking dream, a blissful union of rock concert and recital.
