Amos Lee's folksy blues: downright funky at the Borgata

At 38, Kensington-born songwriter-singer Amos Lee is at a strange point in his career.

Known first for his pastorally soulful folksy blues and nice-guy earnest emotionalism that earned him No. 1 Billboard chart slots (e.g. 2011's Mission Bell), Lee recently won a rep as a wanted songwriter and a musician's musician. Along with having penned songs and performed with country cousins Zac Brown and art hopper RJD2, Lee got a nod from Eddie Vedder during one of Pearl Jam's Philly shows, just for showing up. So the question became, going forward, what would humble Lee do with such infamy?

Lee answered that Saturday at Atlantic City's Borgata Music Box with a handful of new soul-country songs (for an album he's releasing this August), some genuine touches of Al Green vocal influences, and a more confident and funkier lover-man persona than the shy singer-songwriter dude of yore.

Shorn of his onetime longer locks, scraggly beard and baggy pants, Lee was a lean, mean, semi-coiffed, slow dancing machine (OK, just some hip swivels and knee wiggles - but that's a start) quick with a Green-like falsetto, be it new tune or a racier, rearranged Lee oldie. For the former, "Running Out of Time" found Lee & Co. adding Hi label-esque horn blasts and an occasional "Lord, have mercy" to the sultry R&B proceedings.

Lee's slow classic "Flower," in its new incarnation, featured a yawning pedal steel and bits of "Moon River" with the singer racing to the finale with a sexy, talking blues edge added to the tune's true tale of heartbreak. 2008's "Won't Let Me Go" took the Green-seducer role to the extreme with a wah-wah-heavy vibe, talk of going "from the first time I saw you in Runnemede, New Jersey" to Inn of the Dove to comparing their sex life to McDonald's Playland. All that silliness somehow managed to be a perfect entrée to yet another new Lee song, the yowling, creamy R&B ballad, "Lost Child."

Not everything was soul and seduction. His solo acoustic guitar set was old-school Amos with a bit more patter added to the mix.

With big, soft harmonies and a Garth Hudson-like organ roll behind him, Lee let loose with a high prairie's yodel on the twangy "Windows Are Rolled Down" and the handclapped country-gospel-y "Jesus."

On a bass-ier note, Lee pitched his vocal octave a wee bit lower for the murder ballad "El Camino" with its conjunto vibe and Freddie Berman's brushed drum pacing. Along with an oddly layered new song - "Vaporize" - filled with "sleeping in the rain" imagery, prancing pianos and synthetic drum pads, Lee made "Arms of a Woman" a little less welcoming with its deep blue groove.