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Truth and Soul Records

American record label

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ7848320
Source-derived summary

Truth & Soul was a record label and production team based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It was formed in 2004 by Leon Michels and Jeff Silverman with Philippe Lehman. The label was best known for their releases with Lee Fields & The Expressions and other New York retro-soul / funk groups. As a production house and recording studio, Truth & Soul worked with artists like Aloe Blacc ("I Need a Dollar") and Adele ("Right as Rain"). In 2016, Truth & Soul's catalog was acquired by The Orchard, and was succeeded by Big Crown Records and Mighty Eye Records.

History

Soul Fire Records

Truth & Soul was born out of Soul Fire Records, a label run by musician Phillip Lehman. Lehman had previously run soul revival pioneer Desco Records with Bosco Mann, and founded Soul Fire in 1999 as a funk label; Mann would later open the soulful Daptone Records. Between 1999 and 2003, Soul Fire put out numerous records by artists including Lee Fields and The Whitefield Brothers. In 2003, Lehman retired from the music business, leaving his studio to young musicians Jeff "Dynamite" Silverman and Leon Michels, both former Soul Fire artists.

Formation and releases of Truth & Soul

Silverman and Michels founded Truth & Soul with help from Lehman in 2004.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Truth and Soul Records” as american record label. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Truth, Soul and Records.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2004, 2016, 1999, 2003—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Truth, Soul and Records providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Truth and Soul Records”, the useful work is to connect “american record label” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7848320. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2004, 2016, 1999 and 2003.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Truth and Soul Records” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.