Love Is The Way, by Key & Cleary

Love Is The Way

by Key & Cleary

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This is the 11th release in the deluxe Now-Again Reserve Edition. A detailed book is included with the album, and that book is included as a bonus, digital PDF.

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Double album packaged in a gatefold sleeve w/ OBI and resealable plastic bag. Contains an oversized booklet that contains Key & Cleary's incredible story and the story behind these recordings, including many previously unpublished photographs.

Includes unlimited streaming of Love Is The Way via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	A Man 03:50	buy track
2.	There Are Troubles 03:05	buy track
3.	Young People 03:23	buy track
4.	Turn Me On 04:35	buy track
5.	The Secret 01:44	buy track
6.	Dog's Delight 04:25	buy track
7.	Since I Lost Your Love 02:51	buy track
8.	Lay Your Head 04:03	buy track
9.	Salamanca 05:24	buy track
10.	Storm of '77 03:26	buy track
11.	Help Build Buffalo 02:57	buy track
12.	What It Takes To Live 03:05	buy track
13.	To Live 03:38	buy track

about

In the early ’70s, Jessie Key and Sylvester Cleary – two passionate idealists living in Buffalo, New York – formed a close friendship based on a mutual mission to better their city. The Attica State Prison Riot of 1971 was a burning memory, and the Arthur vs. Nyquist lawsuit – brought against the City of Buffalo for creating and maintaining a racially segregated school system – was on the docket. Key was once a cotton-laborer in Mississippi, who journeyed north for school where he met his kindred spirit, Cleary. The two struck up an intense friendship, bought a drum machine and recorded their first 45, “A Man,” a paean to self-actualization and Black American empowerment, which they custom pressed and issued privately.

Dozens of recordings followed over a decade long span, issued on local labels and warehoused on cassette tapes. Perennial optimists, Key & Cleary tried any – perhaps every! – path they could demarcate in hopes of forwarding their agenda of self-effected, positive change. They formed Buffalo’s first minority-owned construction company, opened a health food restaurant in a building previously occupied by a fast food chain, and even concocted a candy bar called “The Buffalo Treat,” which they manufactured and sold locally. Eventually they started their own label, Buffalo’s Reflection. On it they released their masterpiece, “What It Takes To Live,” a sought-after disco and Northern Soul classic, which previously appeared on Now-Again’s Soul Cal anthology.

This album collates the breadth of Key & Cleary’s recordings from 1970 until the mid 1980s, both the songs issued on rare 7” singles and previously unreleased. It presents a conjoined musical vision and tells the story of a duo years ahead of their time, both musically and culturally. Love Is The Way was their ethos – their goal was to enlighten humanity and to bend history in a more loving direction through communion.

credits

released January 1, 2019

“A Man / There Are Troubles”
“A Man” arranged by Jesse Key; “There Are Troubles” arranged by Key & Cleary.
Recorded at Mark Studios, 6010 Goodrich Rd, Clarence Center, NY by unknown engineer
circa 1970.

Personnel: Jesse Key (Lead Vocal), Sylvester Cleary (Backing Vocal, Conga Drums), Stu
Shapiro (Rhythm Guitar)

Originally released in 1972 on Mark Custom, MC 5692A/B, 6010 Goodrich Rd, Clarence
Center, NY.

“Young People / Lay Your Head”
Arranged by Key & Cleary.
Recorded at Studio 9, Lovelace Bailey Ave, Buffalo by Rick McCarthy in 1974.

Personnel: Jesse Key (Lead Vocal, Rhythm Guitar), Sylvester Cleary (Backing Vocal, Bass
Guitar), Stu Shapiro (Lead Guitar, Drums), John Valby (Synthesizer)

Originally released in 1974 on Amherst Records, A-1115, Buffalo, NY.

“Turn Me On / The Secret”
Arranged by Key & Cleary.
Recorded at Key & Cleary’s office and rehearsal space, 1600 Genesee St., Buffalo, NY by
Key & Cleary circa 1972.

Personnel: Jesse Key (Lead Vocal, Rhythm Guitar), Sylvester Cleary (Backing Vocal, Bass
Guitar), Joseph Zoeckler (Violin, Drum Machine)

Previously unreleased. Same personnel for “Interlude”

“Dog's Delight”
Arranged by Key & Cleary.
Recorded at Mark Studios, 6010 Goodrich Rd, Clarence Center, NY by unknown engineer
circa 1974.

Personnel: Jesse Key (Lead Vocal, Rhythm Guitar), Sylvester Cleary (Bass Guitar), Joseph
Zoeckler (Violin, Drum Machine)

Originally released circa 1974 on Mark Custom, MC 5564A/B, 6010 Goodrich Rd, Clarence
Center, NY.

“Since I Lost Your Love”
Arranged by Pamela Murphy-Cleary.
Recorded in an apartment building, 47 Parkdale Ave., Buffalo, NY by Key & Cleary circa
1973.

Personnel: Pamela Murphy-Cleary (Lead Vocal, Guitar) Sylvester Cleary (Bass Guitar,
Backing Vocal, Drum Machine)

Previously unreleased.

This anthology produced by Eothen Alapatt and David Griffiths.
Original sessions produced by Key & Cleary.
Liner notes by Eothen Alapatt with John Adamian, and contributions by David Griffiths.

Restored and remastered by Jason Bitner at Traffic Entertainment Group, Boston.
Lacquered by Chris Potter at Electric Mastering, London.
Art Direction by Errol Richardson.
Licensed courtesy Sylvester Cleary.

Special thanks to Jesse Key.

“When we let our inner light shine outwardly, we are in direct communication with the
universal laws of nature.”
– Sylvester Cleary

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about

Now-Again Records Los Angeles, California

Now-Again Records is the imprint founded by Eothen Alapatt 2002. He oversees all of the label’s reissues and manages a vast catalog of music from the 1950s through the present day, with a focus on the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s.

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