Soulive & Van Hunt Honor Sly Stone, Brian Wilson & D’Angelo With ‘Flowers At Your Feet’ Single

Soulive pay homage to Sly Stone, Brian Wilson and D’Angelo with their new “Flowers At Your Feet” single featuring Van Hunt. The track appears on Soulive’s forthcoming album, Flowers.

Soulive – guitarist Alan Evans, organist Neal Evans and drummer Alan Evans – recorded Flowers earlier this year in Iceland at Floki Studios. Alan Evans produced, engineered, mixed and mastered the trio’s first full-length studio album since 2011.

Van Hunt, who contributed “layers a kaleidoscope of Clavinet riffs, Mu-Tron bass lines, and stream-of-consciousness lyricism inspired by the spirits of Sly Stone and Brian Wilson” to “Flowers At Your Feet,” shared the statement below regarding the single:

“When Alan sent me the track, it immediately felt like a Sly Stone homage – and with Sly’s passing, I wasn’t sure I could add anything to make it more special. Then Brian Wilson passed, and I knew I needed to say something – to honor both of these men who shaped my musical life.

“Soulive already had the Sly & The Family Stone DNA; I wanted to bring in the Smile-era Brian Wilson color and that early-’70s Sly energy. So I pulled out the Clavinet, the Mu-Tron bass, and some stream-of-consciousness lyrics, channeling all the joy and reverence they inspired in me.

“As I recorded, I thought about Sly, Brian, George Clinton, Prince, Thelonious Monk, and D’Angelo. And now, after losing D’Angelo too, this song carries even more weight. ‘Flowers at Your Feet’ became my way of saying thank you to the innovators who built this music, and to Soulive, for keeping the garden alive.”

Flowers will be released on January 30. Listen to the latest single, “Flowers At Your Feet,” featuring Van Hunt: