Lee Fields
spent most of the '90s on the
Ace
label, recording soul-blues albums whose funkiness was often dampened by cheap-sounding, partly synthesized backing tracks. Judging by his performance on his
Desco Records
debut full-length
Let's Get a Groove On
,
Fields
' move to the pioneering old-school funk-revival label freed him to do the kind of gritty, authentic funk album he'd been itching to record for quite some time. Laying out his principle of "rough...nasty...genuine" funk in a spoken intro,
positively smokes through the whole record, capturing all the fire of late-'60s
James Brown
(whom he strongly and unashamedly resembles, vocally) with the help of the
Desco
house band,
the Soul Providers
, who lay down a richly organic set of guitar-and-organ-dominated funk backings.
is blatantly derivative of its influences, but the simple act of returning wholeheartedly to those influences -- in a musical climate which has assimilated and moved away from them -- could in itself be considered an innovation. Regardless, it's a stunning performance from
and the record that fulfills
's promise -- quite possibly one of 1999's best, and definitely one of its most overlooked. ~ Steve Huey