Soul and R&B singer Charles Bradley definitely didn't arrive as a recording artist by taking the easy route. A gritty, fiercely passionate vocalist in the tradition of Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett, Bradley worked for decades as a journeyman soul shouter and sometimes-James Brown-impersonator before he was belatedly discovered in the 2000s by the soul-focused Daptone label, which released his first album, 2011's No Time for Dreaming, when Bradley was 62 years old. Delivering plain-spoken original songs and idiosyncratic covers of rock tunes in a vintage R&B style, Bradley became the subject of a celebrated documentary (Charles Bradley: Soul of America), cut two more acclaimed albums (2013's Victim of Love and 2016's Changes), and performed on top-rated TV shows and at major international music festivals before fate brought his late-in-life career to a close in 2017.
