Family Album
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Album Summary
Stoneground's 'Family Album' came to life in 1971 through the warm, communal energy that defined everything this band did — a sprawling collective of musicians, singers, and free spirits who had been road-tested on the legendary Medicine Ball Caravan tour. Released on Warner Bros. Records and produced by the band themselves alongside Ry Cooder's associate Tom Wilkes and others in the orbit of that freewheeling West Coast scene, the record captured Stoneground in their most natural habitat: a big, joyful, soulful gathering of voices and styles that felt less like a studio session and more like a front-porch revival. The double album format gave the band the room they needed to stretch out across gospel, blues, rock and roll, and country, letting their ten-plus-member lineup breathe and testify in equal measure.
Reception
- The album did not make significant waves on the mainstream Billboard charts, as Stoneground remained a beloved cult act whose appeal ran deeper in the underground and college radio circuits than in the pop marketplace.
- Critics who paid attention responded warmly to the album's raw, inclusive energy, praising the way the band blended gritty blues sensibilities with gospel fervor and rootsy Americana without ever feeling contrived.
- The sheer ambition of releasing a double album this early in their career was noted as both a bold artistic statement and a commercial gamble that reflected the band's communal, uncommercial spirit.
Significance
- Stoneground's 'Family Album' stands as one of the early examples of a West Coast collective rock sound that drew deeply from gospel, blues, and Americana traditions, helping to bridge the gap between the hippie communal ideal and the roots rock movement that would gain momentum through the decade.
- The album's sprawling double-LP structure and multi-vocalist approach anticipated the kind of loose, democratic ensemble rock that would influence artists throughout the 1970s, making it a quiet but meaningful touchstone in the evolution of American roots rock.
- As a document of its time, 'Family Album' captured the post-Summer of Love spirit attempting to find grounding in older American musical forms — gospel shouts, Delta blues, and country soul — giving it a unique historical texture that rewards deep listening decades later.
Tracklist
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A1 Get Rhythm 101
4:40
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A2 Passion Flower 143
3:40
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A3 Corrina 77
5:40
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A4 Big River 94
6:15
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B1 Won't Be Long 186
3:34
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B2 Super Clown 138
4:35
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B3 Richland Woman 133
3:35
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B4 Queen Sweet Dreams 150
4:05
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B5 Precious Lord 132
5:27
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C1 It Takes A Lot To Laugh (It Takes A Train To Cry) —
3:25
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C2 I Can't Help It —
3:05
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C3 No Doreen —
3:30
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C4 It's Not Easy —
3:10
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C5 If You Got To Go —
3:28
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C6 Total Destruction To Your Mind —
6:05
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D1 You Must Be One Of Us —
3:25
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D2 All My Life —
3:00
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D3 Where Will I Find Love —
4:07
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D4 Gonna Have A Good Time —
4:43
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D5 Jam It —
5:40
Artist Details
Stoneground was a sprawling, soulful collective born out of the San Francisco Bay Area scene, a band that wore its communal heart right on its sleeve and never once apologized for it. They rose to wider attention as part of the legendary Medicine Ball Caravan in 1970, a rolling musical happening that captured the last gasps of the sixties idealism on film, and they carried that freewheeling, everybody-sings spirit into every record they made. With a rotating cast of voices and a deep love for blues, rock, and raw Americana, Stoneground was less a conventional band than a musical family, and their records remain warm, honest artifacts of an era when rock and roll still believed it could change the world.
