On that fateful decision to leave the South for New York City, Fields can laugh these days. “Two dollars in my pocket? In New York City? Oh wow! Can you imagine that? That shows you how naïve I was.” But it paid off; Fields tracked down the man to whom the business card belonged, one Fred Williams, and within a short while was making his stamp on the Big Apple.
“In North Carolina I figured the opportunities were very slim at that time, I thought New York would be the place to go. I would have dreams about going to New York!”
Soon after he met the love of his life (to whom he’s still married), Fields getting a little sentimental as he looks back on that time. “So many beautiful things happened after that. If I had to do it all over again I would.”
He enjoyed success cutting records through the late ‘60s and ‘70s, but he, and as soul music in general, took a beating during the ‘80s. During that time he wanted to make music but didn’t think it possible.
“Music had changed. In the ‘80s it was completely dance music – I thought I was done. But I always had hope and faith that something would happen and I could get back into it.” During that dark musical period he bought real estate, looked after his family and enjoyed some domestic bliss. Oddly it was his move to open a fish restaurant in Newark that led to his return. Upon seeing the prospective premises for the business, his wife simply looked at him and asked, “What do you know about fish?”
“All I could say was, ‘It tastes good!’” he says laughing. “She said to me, ‘Stick with what you know.’ So we saved some money, went and bought a lot of equipment and cut my first return to music record on that equipment.” That was in the early ‘90s, and thanks to a renewed interest in soul music due to hip hop sampling, and a hit with the track Meet Me Tonight, Fields was back in the music game.
Though the ‘90s involved a fair amount of funk for Fields, in recent times he’s returned to soul with his band The Expressions, with whom he’s made two lauded soul records that sound like they should be printed on vinyl. He also thanks them for energising him as an artist.
“The combination between The Expressions and myself, well I was from that era, the soul era, and these guys are from this era. Merging together and working in a harmonious way brings out a whole other kind of soul music, new and fresh.”
Talking to Fields and listening to his music, it’s not hard to understand why he’s lasted this long. His voice still sounds incredible, and in conversation he’s generous and jovial. Though he owes in part his success to a Christian upbringing that prevented him from going down a path that saw those more prone to partying burn out, I’d suggest his mannerisms, work ethic and demeanor have had a lot to do with it as well. Being, as one Vice journalist put it, “the coolest motherfucker to ever sing into a microphone” probably doesn’t hurt either. But it’s not about being cool says Fields.
“I really don’t try to be a cool guy – I try to be a guy that’s coming from the soul, from the spirit. I try to keep the music as real and as close to the heart as possible.” After all he says soul is uplifting music. “To me” he says, “it’s all about love.”
BY GARRY WESTMORE
