Preview the new album from Lee Fields on CBC Music until June 3.
Lee Fields is a warrior of the heart. If there’s one word that best befits the soul singer, it’s passion. Over the last few years he has wowed audiences and critics alike with his raw, powerful sound, and a voice that comes from the depths of his soul.
Fields’ two previous albums, My World and Faithful Man, have cemented his pedigree in contemporary soul music, and now he and his band the Expressions are back with their latest album, Emma Jean.
“I think people can expect something different,” the singer said over the phone on his way to New York to promote the album. “They can expect a different feeling in a positive way and they can expect something familiar in a positive way.”
The record builds on the foundations Lee Fields and the Expressions established on their previous albums: the deep, robust vocals, tight musicianship and emotional punch that is laced with years of soul history. But Emma Jean brings in new elements and experimentations to keep the music fresh.
“What we did, we ventured, we did a lot of things, we took a lot of other roads to capture the full feeling we know if we do it right we can get,” Fields says. ”We try not to stay exactly the same, because if someone stays exactly the same in the music business you become boring.”
The album begins with a mix of melancholy and intensity, with slower, pensive tracks, such as "Paralyzed" and the cover of the American songbook classic "Magnolia" by J.J. Cale. It’s an unexpected choice for the artist, which brings a country flavour to the record, complete with steel guitar twang.
“Leon [the guitarist with the Expressions] was the one who advocated adding the country and western flavour, which I think was an excellent idea and things turned out very well…. We used a steel guitar, another new element and I’m very pleased.”
As the album moves along the sound becomes harder, more beat-heavy. The fervour, passion and emotion of Fields come to the fore, with tracks like "Eye to Eye" and "Still Gets Me Down." For Fields, expressing that raw emotion is an important personal release, one that he believes will resonate with listeners.
“All of it is from the way I feel, it is my way of letting out my emotions, relieving myself of inhibitions, the things inside of me that don’t rest easy…. It’s good therapy for me because I’m able to let out all of these emotions through song, and I think it helps people in general because they can feel what I feel and they in turn are being relieved as well.”
On Emma Jean, there are nods to more of a '70s sound, borrowing from both soul and rock, in songs such as "In the Woods," "Talk to Somebody" and "Stone Angel," which might surprise fans. But there is always enough of the man anchored in the tracks to reassure the listener of the direction the music is taking, and the rawness and emotion that people connected with in his former records has not faded in this newest offering. The opening track, "Just Can’t Win," the next single from the album, sets up the record perfectly. It’s a classic Fields vocal delivery and has a beautiful organ lick that reaches down, gets inside of you and doesn't let go.
“We didn't plan it,” Fields says. “We didn’t plan anything on this album, we went in the studio to just have fun and make fun songs, and songs that we could really feel, emotional songs, everything on that record was spontaneous and random.”
As with all recent Lee Fields records, the Expressions, his backing band, are an essential factor as to why the sound works so well. Here again they demonstrate their craftsmanship by providing tight accompaniment to his voice, striking a note that aids the emotion, though they never lay the sound on too thickly so that it feels disingenuous or over-produced. It is that organic honesty in the music that Fields attributes to the appeal of the sound.
“I try to bring something genuine, something real filling to the table," he says. "I think everything nowadays in regard to pop music and more involved music, most of the stuff is synthesized, it’s not of the real core. What we do is play with human beings playing the music, like there’s a guy playing the horn, a guy playing trumpet, a guy playing keyboards, a guy singing, it’s all human beings, instead of succumbing to the machine.... What I’m saying is to a lot of people that think we are doing old school, it’s not actually old school, it’s the way the music should sound when you’re using real instruments and real human beings.”
Emma Jean is a progression for Fields musically, but it is also an important work personally. The title is a tribute to his late mother.
“We used to talk so much, and had such a good time together and every time I think about her that she’s no longer here and it moves me emotionally as well as personally.... I couldn’t think of a better way to honour my mother, because it seems like when I speak about her, her spirit is close to me.”
For Fields, who is now 63, the album is the latest in a career that has spanned over four decades. He released his first single, “Bewildered,” in 1969, but despite never giving up on music, and releasing a wealth of music, it took until the 2000s for Fields to get the attention he deserved — most notably with the 2009 album, My World.
“I think every artist that part of giving up has crossed their mind, but as an artist you’re moved by what you think you should do, you’re moved by the passion, when the passion is aroused you follow the passion.... I think God has a plan for all things, so when God opened the door, you know I just welcomed the gift.”
Fields contains all the passion and heart you would expect from someone who has struggled for years to make it in the industry, but to really understand the emotion involved you need to experience him live. There are West coast and Alberta dates scheduled for July, and more Canadian shows are in the pipeline.
“Every time that I know that I have a Canadian tour I’m very, very excited, because I know from past shows when they’ve given me so much love — and I’m going to try to give them more love than they give me this time! That’s my mission. We’ll have a competition to see who can give out the most love you know, but I’m going to try to win this time!”
Emma Jean is available June 3 from Truth and Soul Records. For more information and tour dates, go to Leefieldsandtheexpressions.com.
