{"id":9356,"date":"2014-08-12T14:41:40","date_gmt":"2014-08-12T14:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=9356"},"modified":"2014-08-12T14:41:40","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T14:41:40","slug":"lee-fields-the-expressions-emma-jean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2014\/08\/12\/lee-fields-the-expressions-emma-jean\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee Fields &#038; the Expressions &#8211; Emma Jean"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/2014\/08\/12\/lee-fields-the-expressions-emma-jean\/leefields\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9357\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-9357\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stylusmagazine.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/leefields-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"leefields\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Listening back to Fields\u2019 all-too-brief modern catalog, I\u2019m left to marvel at how we\u2019ve moved from the swagger of <i>My World<\/i>\u2019s \u201cLadies\u201d to the surrender of <i>Emma Jean<\/i>\u2019s opener \u201cJust Can\u2019t Win.\u201d Is this the same Lee Fields? The one once called \u201cLittle JB\u201d? The one who owned the stage and wowed the crowd at Jazz Fest last year?<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Yup. There were hints of this in the plaintive desperation of \u201cMy World Is Empty Without You\u201d (and consider the fact that this title track was shortened to <i>My World<\/i> to hide said desperation). Two years after that record, Fields was \u201cStill Hanging On\u201d to hope on <i>Faithful Man<\/i>, but now we find the man pleading \u201cDon\u2019t Leave Me This Way\u201d as <i>Emma Jean <\/i>draws to a close. I don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n<p>While the cover art of Fields standing in a barren wintry field suggests he\u2019s all alone, the singer is once again ably backed by The Expressions who \u2013 in the grand tradition of Motown\u2019s Funk Brothers \u2013 show brilliance without overshadowing their frontman. Consider the organ that echoes Fields\u2019 mournful moans on the J.J. Cale cover \u201cMagnolia\u201d and the way the guitar line nearly weeps with his sorrow. Love isn\u2019t always happy, but <i>Emma Jean<\/i> serves as a reminder of the value of slogging through the sadness. Fields and his love can\u2019t see \u201cEye To Eye\u201d but he\u2019s still \u201cthe man you made me.\u201d There\u2019s hope for him yet. (Truth &amp; Soul, truthandsoulrecords.com) <strong>Michael Elves<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listening back to Fields\u2019 all-too-brief modern catalog, I\u2019m left to marvel at how we\u2019ve moved from the swagger of My World\u2019s \u201cLadies\u201d to the surrender of Emma Jean\u2019s opener \u201cJust Can\u2019t Win.\u201d Is this the same Lee Fields? The one once called \u201cLittle JB\u201d? The one who owned the stage and wowed the crowd at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9356\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}