FIRST LISTEN : Lee Fields

70's Funk/Soul Legend Continues Comeback with New Album


Neo-soul revivalists like Aloe Blacc, Raphael Saadiq, and Mayer Hawthorne most certainly owe a portion of their pedigree to Lee Fields. While the more polished (but still funky) crop of modern-day/under-40 acts have enjoyed increased success and acceptance in recent years, Fields (along with contemporaries like Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley), has a career in music spanning over forty years. First singing in his church choir then getting his professional start with Kool and the Gang in the late sixties, Fields has been howling, screaming, and grunting over classic, gritty blues and R&B since before most of his modern-day emulators were even born.

Admittedly, his music has changed over the years to reflect more modern tastes, but the end result is still raw, sweaty emotion ; a highly personal sound that is chalk full of soul and cuts right to the bone. While there have certainly been lean years/decades (Jones famously spent years as a Rikers Island Prison corrections officer before beginning her comeback on a Fields studio session in the 90's), Fields plugged away and gained some national acclaim with 2009's My World, teaming with Truth and Soul Records' house band The Expressions, on tracks like "Ladies," and "My World is Empty Without You." 

His new album, A Faithful Man, is set to be released March 13th  (30-40 tour stops are planned as well) , and the first single, "You're the Kind of Girl," is below: "You're The Kind Of Girl" by Lee Fields & The Expressions by truthandsoulrecords A Faithful Man is due for release on March 13th (Truth and Soul Records).