​Sly & The Family Stone (from album The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967

​Sly & The Family Stone (from album The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967

​Sly & The Family Stone (from album The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967 on High Moon Records) (by Danny McCloskey)
 
Sly Stone was an innovator on many levels. Sly and The Family Stone expanded on musical potential as the originators of Funk as well as stretching out the borders of Rock and Soul by fully representing each style in with own sound brand. Recorded a full year before the band achieved mainstream success with their first (of many) chart hits, “Dance to the Music”, the recording of the band’s original line-up captures both Sly and the band’s musical genius. A selection of the then-popular Rock’n’Soul covers such as Otis Redding’s “I Can’t Turn You Loose” and The Four Tops “Baby, I Need Your Lovin’” receive the Sly-treatment. A version of Blues standard “St. James Infirmary” opens the instrumental with a traditional Blues tone before morphing into a band jam that includes a drum solo.
 
Recorded in 1967 at a club just south of San Francisco in Redwood City, The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral showcases Sly & The Family Stone when they were a buzz-band without a label. Originals pepper the recording with the majority of material showcasing the band’s take on Vintage Soul. The beat has a hyper-attack on the tunes, with Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness” keeping the slow rise of the song’s original recording as it produces musical layers with the excitement of a live band willing to take chances. Sly & The Family Stone show the exit to The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967 on a hyper-groove of “I Gotta Go Now (Up on the Floor)/Funky Broadway”. (by Danny McCloskey)
 
Listen and buy the music of Sly & The Family Stone from AMAZON
 
For more information, please visit the Sly & The Family Stone website