SLY & THE FAMILY STONE: One of the most innovative groups popular music has ever known, the
band that instigated a musical revolution! Black and white, male, and female, SLY & THE FAMILY
STONE were the first- and still the most significant - integrated combo in the history of popular
music. Founded in November 1966 by Sly Stone by merging The Stoners with his brother Freddie’s
Stone Souls, this new sound was a unique and unprecedented fusion of Soul, Funk, Rock, R&B and
Psychedelia. Sly himself was a master musician who wrote, arranged, and produced all the group’s
material, fashioning ingenious musical arrangements with a blend of syncopated rhythm, pop
melody, lowdown funk and unorthodox harmony. And he chose the best players in the San Francisco
Bay Area to implement this outrageous musical vision. With the compilation STONE SOUL we are
focusing upon their rarely heard roots and the earliest examples of the style that would take the
music world by storm. This fascinating set includes the complete recordings of FREDDIE AND THE
STONE SOULS, early solo experiments by SLY and ROSE STONE, the very first SLY AND THE FAMILY
STONE studio session that predates their signing with Epic Records, and the tremendous 1968 demo
‘Man Does Not Live’. Also featured are the gospel sounds of THE HEAVENLY TONES, whose members
would provide vocal backgrounds on multiple Family Stone albums and later become known as Little
Sister. So Ride the Rhythm and let the music take your mind!