Key & Cleary - Love Is The Way

Drum-machine soul,
funk, disco and boogie from Buffalo, NY. Rare 7" singles and previously unreleased tracks presented as a complete album. 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
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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 with 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. A1. A Man A2. There Are Troubles A3. Turn Me On A4.
Since I Lost Your Love A5. Dog’s Delight A6. The Secret A7. Young People B1. Lay Your Head B2. Salmanca B3. Storm Of ’77 B4.
Help Build Buffalo B5. What It Takes To Live B6. To Love