Lee Fields & The Expressions Faithful Man LP (Grape Purple Vinyl)

It's hard to find another active singer today that has the background Lee Fields does: a first release in 1969, records on thirteen different labels, and close to 45 years of music making, touring, and recording. With such a seasoned past, it's amazing that the musician and artist, Lee Fields, a North Carolina native, is as busy and focused as ever.

Backed by The Expressions and their incomparable soul-sound musicianship, as well as Brooklyn's own Truth & Soul record label, Lee Fields' albums My World (2009) and Faithful Man (2012) landed the group all over the world. From sold-out shows in music meccas like New York City, L.A., Chicago, Berlin, London, and Amsterdam to TV performances in France, the UK, and Germany - there is a perfection and evolution of the soul sound from Lee Fields & The Expressions that everyone needs to hear.

The formula seems to be two-fold: sticking to the raucous-yet-tender voiced soul music Lee Fields has always made, yet updating it - pushing the boundaries of what it can be. The result is an unmistakable sound, something that, as Pitchfork put it in its review of Faithful Man, "isn't indebted specifically to Atlantic or Stax or Philadelphia International or Chess or Fame or Motown so much as it's indebted to all of them at once."

This is why no one can call a Lee Fields record on Truth & Soul a "throwback." It has hints, sounds, and feelings that may be familiar but then there are textures, themes, and approaches that challenge the genre and stretch the sound into something else, something decidedly Lee Fields.

To be sure, a good part of this Lee Fields sound can be chalked up to Truth & Soul producers and co-owners Jeff Silverman and Leon Michels, as well as the team of top-notch musicians involved. The artists you hear behind Lee Fields are some of the same that have backed the likes of Aloe Blacc, Sharon Jones, El Michels Affair, Adele, Liam Bailey, Ghostface Killah, and Jay-Z to name a few.

There are those that may be content with identifying and following the formulas of soul music's past. But this Lee Fields, The Expressions, and Truth & Soul are more interested in where it can go next.

Once the opening salvo of the title track explodes out of the speakers, anyone even vaguely interested in rootsy soul will be hooked for the next 40 minutes. Fields is in amazing form throughout; pleading, begging, and generally testifying with the passion of a musician who has never lost touch with his church beginnings... Everything from the production, arrangements, and songwriting is synched to yield a soul gem whose retro roots prove that themes of those disillusioned with love remain timeless, as does music like this that so perfectly conveys them.

Fields personifies deep soul, and he is at the top of his game on Faithful Man.

While never a big name outside of a select group of fans, Fields has remained true to the music he always loved. Backed by the exceptional talents of The Expressions, Faithful Man channels Curtis Mayfield or Donny Hathaway's slick, emotive arrangements, polishes them with the sheen of Isaac Hayes and punctuates them with horns worthy of Muscle Shoals.

Fields has found in The Expressions a band that can flip from Muscle Shoals to Philly soul lushness to sweaty talcum shuffling, showcasing his versatility and establishing him as very much his own artist.