Impressions is a 10-track album of cover songs written by various Folk songwriters that have been influential to James Lee Baker’s emergence as a writer and recording artist. While several songs were written by acclaimed troubadours like Bob Dylan, David Gray, Anais Mitchell, a few songs were written by friends in the songwriting community such as Rick Todd, Steve LaSala, and Kevin Faherty. Rick co-led an open mic event for several years in Amarillo, Texas where James Lee grew up and cut his teeth learning to play the songs of artists he would later cover on this release. James Lee crossed fortunate paths with Kevin and Steve at songwriting retreats like Camp Ned, run by Darryl Purpose, and the New England Songwriter’s Retreat, established by Ellis Paul.

The record was primarily recorded at Blue Rock Studios in Wimberley, Texas by engineer Chris Bell (The Eagles, U2) and produced by James Lee Baker and Roscoe Beck (Leonard Cohen, Eric Johnson). Chris Johnson (The Fray) recorded Steve LaSala’s song Rolling Rock and Rock ‘n’ Roll in Denver, Colorado at Mighty Fine Productions.

With this project, James Lee’s focus was to bring to life the emotion of the messages in these songs while balancing the feel from the original writer with James Lee’s own fingerprint. The result is a collection of songs rich in audio landscape, diverse in mood and tempo, and replete with beautiful stories from the best Folk writers in the industry.

All songs recorded at Blue Rock Studios except for Rolling Rock and Rock ‘n’ Roll, which was recorded at Mighty Fine Productions In Denver, Colorado

All songs recorded by Chris Bell and Nathan Walters except Rolling Rock and Rock ‘n’ Roll, which was recorded by Christopher J. Bloom

Produced by James Lee Baker & Roscoe Beck