The Family

This page refers to four different artists...

1)The first being The Family that were a R&B band signed to Prince's record label Paisley Park Records. The band consisted of remaining members of The Time (Jellybean Johnson, Jerome Benton and St. Paul Peterson), Eric Leeds (brother of Prince's tour manager Alan Leeds) and Susannah Melvoin, the twin sister of Wendy Melvoin, who was Prince's guitarist in his band The Revolution. Susannah was also Prince's love interest at the time.

The band's material was composed entirely by Prince, with the exception of "River Run Dry", which was written by Bobby "Z" Rivkin. Prince wrote and performed all the other tracks and simply overdubbed Paul and Susannah's vocals and added saxophone by Leeds.

The project turned out to be short-lived. Peterson opted to pursue his own career and Prince absorbed most of the remaining members into The Revolution (with the exception of Johnson, who went on to join the Flyte Time music production team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis). The band did, however perform a single concert and released a self-titled album. The album contains of eight tracks consisting of funk-jazz with two instrumentals and three ballads. A single was released for "The Screams Of Passion", a modest hit which was re-released in 1996 on the Girl 6 soundtrack. The album's crowning achievement, however was "Nothing Compares 2 U", an emotional ballad covered five years later by Sinéad O'Connor.


2) Secondly it refers to an energetic 5 piece band from Southampton with a country/folk/blues sound to them. They released their debut single 'Falling For You' last year, which was received so well it sold out!


3) The third refers to: "Four brothers fusing their Blues, Country and Tropicalia roots into a joyful pshycedelic current. Founded in 2005, the Family has undergone multiple lineup changes, but they are finally the symbiotic collective they have always wanted. In July of 2007 they recorded their first full length album, entitled From Brasil to the Back Country."

4) The fourth refers to an Australian lo-fi electronica group active in Sydney during the 1990's and associated with clan-analogue.