Veteran soul artist Lee Fields (Photo courtesy The Syndicate)
Lee Fields doesn't quite agree when people say he's having a comeback. "I've always been busy," says Fields, a well-traveled soul-funk dynamo who will kick off the Friday Cheers season with his band the Expressions on May 5.
Known for the influential funk he cut in the 1970s, the Wilson, North Carolina, native has toured with Kool & the Gang, scored European dance hits with French house producer Martin Solveig, been sampled by Travi$ Scott and other rappers, and cut wax for more than a dozen record labels over the course of a near-50-year career. His latest disc is "Special Night" on the Big Crown imprint.
The performer's diminutive size, potent vocals and emotional stage show don't just harken back to the late James Brown — Lee Fields actually has been James Brown. Nicknamed "Little J.B.," he approximated the Godfather of Soul's grunts and croons for Hollywood in the 2014 film "Get on Up." When Richmond magazine caught up with him on the road, he had just returned from imitating Brown for a forthcoming animated short about an imaginary meeting between Brown and soul mainstay Solomon Burke.
Fields says he is looking forward to the Richmond gig because important things have happened to him in the region — his earliest recordings were for a record label in Hampton Roads called Norfolk Sound. "That was one of the most important deals of my life because I learned so much about the music business," he says. "I saw how things had to be done to make a record work. It was a learning experience." Plus, on a personal note, "I married a young lady out of Dinwiddie, Virginia, and she travels with me all over the world."
Richmond magazine: What kind of crowds come out to your shows these days?
Fields: Most of my crowd now is young people, college kids. And that just brings more excitement into it for me. A lot of young people are appreciating soul music now. I think because rappers are using samples, like when Travi$ Scott used one of my songs for "Antidote."
RM: Were you fairly compensated for that use?
Fields: Oh, absolutely. I have my managers and lawyers making sure I get paid. I would advise any artist in the music business to get a good lawyer and good management. You have to know your business.
RM: Your 1970s work is considered some of the era's rawest funk, but you kind of disappeared in the 1980s. What happened?
Fields: It was a slow period for me. I didn't fully understand the way the world works, and I did a lot of soul searching, mainly reading, especially the Bible. I asked the Lord to give me wisdom to understand, and once I did that the doors started opening and they've never been closed. And I attribute that knowledge of the word of God as the catalyst to what has been happening with me.
RM: Have you considered cutting a gospel album?
Fields: I sang gospel when I was coming up in the church in North Carolina, but no, never recorded gospel. But I do try to write songs that, when you listen carefully, there's a positive message, like "Make This World," off of the new album. That song came to me in a two-part dream where I woke up and went back to sleep. I was taken down this road where there was a lot of wars, strife, anarchy, pollution, and it was horrible. I woke up out of that dream, and then I was taken down that same road, and it was beautiful, the foliage was full, the water clear and pristine, and the people were living in harmony. What I got from that is that we can make the world better.
RM: You've written your own material since the beginning. How has songwriting changed for you?
Fields: All of the songs I've recorded are like children to me. If you put your spirit into the song, it develops its own life. They never go away. … I think of songwriting in basically the same way I always have. Most of the songs on "Special Night" I wrote or co-wrote, and they are about real issues, what people talk about, what people feel. People know when something is real. … I think an artist should try to be as real as possible.
RM: When you met James Brown, what did he think about your music?
Fields: We didn't talk about me. When I met James Brown, I listened to him talk about himself, about the things that he was doing. But when I met him and listened to him talk, I realized at that point that I needed to go in search of myself. The world has James, so the world doesn't need another James Brown. But it took me meeting him to fully realize that.
Lee Fields & the Expressions will appear at Friday Cheers on Brown's Island with Kings on Friday, May 5, at 6 p.m. $5. Details here.
