However, the most obvious change on Mission Bell is the album's intimate yet expansive sound, which Lee credits to Joey Burns and John Convertino of Calexico. After a chance meeting in Vienna, Austria, a few years ago, the idea came up for Lee to go out to the band's Wavelab studio in Tucson and try some recording.


"The musicality that those guys bring is amazing," says Lee. "It was especially nice to work with John and get a very different texture rhythmically. They're great at creating atmosphere—sonically, they brought a beautiful dimension into a lot of the songs, and helped them to expand and breathe more."


The singer notes that the arrangements and instrumentation had a dramatic effect on some of the songs. "On ‘Hello Again,' they built the bed of the song out of nylon guitars, vibes, strings and all this other stuff. It's a grouping of instruments that's sort of all over the place, but Wavelab is nice for that because there are instruments everywhere, so nothing ever seems impossible. ‘Clear Blue Eyes' started out as a real straight, country gospel kind of thing, but when they got ahold of it, it got very atmospheric."


Also on for the ride on about half of Mission Bell's songs is the great R&B drummer James Gadson, who has recorded with Bill Withers, Marvin Gaye, Herbie Hancock, Beck, and countless others. "I've worked with James on three out of my four records," says Lee. "He's always a steady, positive influence." In addition, Gadson added a powerful vocal to the song "Jesus" after Lee heard him singing along to a playback. "I was like ‘Man, you gotta lay that down!' He's a strong, real singer, and I wanted to represent that."


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