Listening back to Fields’ all-too-brief modern catalog, I’m left to marvel at how we’ve moved from the swagger of My World’s “Ladies” to the surrender of Emma Jean’s opener “Just Can’t Win.” Is this the same Lee Fields? The one once called “Little JB”? The one who owned the stage and wowed the crowd at Jazz Fest last year?
Yup. There were hints of this in the plaintive desperation of “My World Is Empty Without You” (and consider the fact that this title track was shortened to My World to hide said desperation). Two years after that record, Fields was “Still Hanging On” to hope on Faithful Man, but now we find the man pleading “Don’t Leave Me This Way” as Emma Jean draws to a close. I don’t know if Fields conceived of these three albums as a song-cycle, but taken together they make a fascinating study of a lovelorn protagonist, baring his soul and burrowing deeper into his pain.
While the cover art of Fields standing in a barren wintry field suggests he’s all alone, the singer is once again ably backed by The Expressions who – in the grand tradition of Motown’s Funk Brothers – show brilliance without overshadowing their frontman. Consider the organ that echoes Fields’ mournful moans on the J.J. Cale cover “Magnolia” and the way the guitar line nearly weeps with his sorrow. Love isn’t always happy, but Emma Jean serves as a reminder of the value of slogging through the sadness. Fields and his love can’t see “Eye To Eye” but he’s still “the man you made me.” There’s hope for him yet. (Truth & Soul, truthandsoulrecords.com) Michael Elves