With a movie appearance, some tour dates and his solo debut hitting store shelves, Isaac "Dickie" Freeman has seen his career take off in the past two years.

But for Freeman — a black gospel singer with a distinctive, heavy bass voice and a repertoire of folksy songs drawn from a Southern upbringing — these recent developments aren't ploys to establish himself as a musician.

That's because, with 73 years and a successful career with the a cappella group the Fairfield Four under his belt, Freeman has been there, done that.

Now he's just reaching a wider audience.

"We tend to revere our blues pioneers, but we don't know much about pioneers of African American gospel," said Jerry Zolten, assistant professor of speech communication at Penn State Altoona and executive producer of Freeman's solo debut Beautiful Stars.

"With this, especially the way he walks a thin line between blues and gospel, it's a way of getting this music out there to a broader public."

What the broader public is about to find out, however, is something Zolten has known for almost 20 years. He was originally drawn to the Fairfield Four in the early 1980s, when a personal rediscovery of black gospel music led him to some of the group's original recordings.

He then experienced a live performance by the group at a convention at the Smithsonian Institute in 1983 and, from that point on, Zolten was hooked.

He has since served as the group's producer on their 1998 live recording, Wreckin' the House (Live at Mt. Hope). But, whether it was Freeman's unusual ability to carry a melody as a bass or his strong vocals, something always pulled Zolten toward the singer's individual talents.

"Every time Mr. Freeman would just step up to the microphone and say his name, the audience would just go 'wow,'" Zolten said. "That's how I realized this guy had an exceptional voice."

Zolten also believed it was a voice that could stand by itself. He said that earlier recording methods didn't capture the true brilliance of Freeman's unique vocals, and he wanted an opportunity to preserve the singer's talents using modern technology.

"Somehow, his voice has gotten even more profound with age," Zolten said. "People are shocked when they hear how low he sings."

So, after suggesting a solo album, the two partners began working on Beautiful Stars while on tour with the Fairfield Four. Zolten remembers sitting in his hotel room for hours — armed with a guitar and a tape recorder — helping Freeman dredge up songs from his past.

The duo then selected ten of those songs, along with a special track written especially for Freeman by public radio's Garrison Keillor, and recorded them with the accompaniment of the Nashville-based band The Bluebloods during the summer of 2000.

"There's a deep meaning," Freeman said of the album, which was released in October by the independent Dead Reckoning label and will be re-released next month under Universal's Lost Highway label.

"I was thinking about when I was really small, growing up with my mother. I was also thinking about the rest of the guys in the group who had passed on . . . It meant a great deal to me to go into the studio and say something I had on my mind."

Around the same time plans for Beautiful Stars were in the works, Freeman's career received an unexpected boost from movie directors Joel and Ethan Coen. While selecting music for their film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the Coens stumbled upon the Fairfield Four and decided to include a song by the quartet on their soundtrack.

In addition, Freeman and two other members of the group were offered cameo parts as singing gravediggers in one of the final scenes of the film.

"That was something I never, never dreamed of doing at all," Freeman said. "They had me all wound up to go."

And that's just like Freeman, all wound up and still going at 73 years old. In fact, he will join a tour of artists from the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, which was spawned by the album's success, for several dates at the end of January and beginning of February.

That's because, for Freeman, the publicity and excitement associated with big-time movies and highly-anticipated recordings can't keep him from what he truly loves.

When it comes down to it, he said, he's a performer.

"It's a feeling that I can't explain," said Freeman of performing live. "Once you walk out on that stage, and people start applauding, I can't explain it. You feel uplifted. It's like a burden lifted off your shoulders.

"It's a real good feeling, real good."