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Amos Lee Finds Mighty Inspiration On His New Album

Amos Lee performing at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, WA.
Courtesy of Melodic Caring Project
Amos Lee performing at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, WA.

"What inspired this song?" That's one of the most basic questions we ask artists when they share new music. Sometimes that question leads to an interesting answer, sometimes it leads to a cryptic answer, but rarely does it lead to a flight across the country to spend a day at the zoo with a remarkable nearly 9-year-old girl and her family.

The song in question is an unabashedly optimistic tune called "Little Light," which stands out among the complex, twisty and sometimes even dark material on Amos Lee's new album, My New Moon. The inspiration is Maya (or "Mighty Maya" as they call her) who lives in Seattle. And the story of Amos and Maya's friendship begins nearly two years ago when Amos teamed up with a Seattle organization called Melodic Caring Project.

Amos Lee with Maya at the Woodland Park Zoo.
/ Courtesy of Melodic Caring Project
/
Courtesy of Melodic Caring Project
Amos Lee with Maya at the Woodland Park Zoo.

The group livestreams concerts to children who are sick, and has the artists deliver personal shout-outs to the kids during their shows. In November 2016, after saying hello to Maya during his streamed concert, Amos went to meet her in person and was struck by her strength and spirit. At the time, she was 7 years old and had recently been diagnosed with kidney cancer. He began texting with Maya and her family and offered to help in the best way he knew how — through music. Amos sent Maya songs to cheer her up on some of the toughest days and to serve as lullabies on sleepless nights. Many of those songs (including a cover of "Let it Go" from Frozen and an original called "Pink and Purple") were just for Maya. But Amos decided that one song he was inspired by Maya to write, called "Little Light," needed to be a part of his new record.

Amos Lee with the Gladhart family — (left to right) Jerren, Pete, Maya, Jackie and Brayden — as well as Melodic Caring Project Founders Levi and Stephanie Ware and World Cafe host Talia Schlanger.
/ Courtesy of Melodic Caring Project
/
Courtesy of Melodic Caring Project
Amos Lee with the Gladhart family — (left to right) Jerren, Pete, Maya, Jackie and Brayden — as well as Melodic Caring Project Founders Levi and Stephanie Ware and World Cafe host Talia Schlanger.

In early August, I met up with Maya, her family and Amos before his show at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, where Amos premiered the bright, shiny studio version of "Little Light" for Maya for the first time, and we listened back to some of the other songs he sent during her treatment. We also celebrated Maya's upcoming 9th birthday and ongoing remission, and Amos shared the career-changing exchange he had with another family years ago in Massachusetts that reoriented the way he thinks about his mission as an artist and what it truly means to be of service. You can hear the whole story from Amos and Maya in the player above — and then come along to a mini-concert at the zoo below.

Copyright 2018 XPN

Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.
World Cafe senior producer Kimberly Junod has been a part of the World Cafe team since 2001, when she started as the show's first line producer. In 2011 Kimberly launched (and continues to helm) World Cafe's Sense of Place series that includes social media, broadcast and video elements to take listeners across the U.S. and abroad with an intimate look at local music scenes. She was thrilled to be part of the team that received the 2006 ASCAP Deems Taylor Radio Broadcast Award for excellence in music programming. In the time she has spent at World Cafe, Kimberly has produced and edited thousands of interviews and recorded several hundred bands for the program, as well as supervised the show's production staff. She has also taught sound to young women (at Girl's Rock Philly) and adults (as an "Ask an Engineer" at WYNC's Werk It! Women's Podcast Festival).