Understand Each Other

Limited clear vinyl LP pressing. The last chapter of Lou Ragland's Cleveland career was perhaps the most monumental. By its completion, "Understand Each Other" - more often referred to as "The ConVeyor," with that uppercase V intentional but unexplained - featured generations of Cleveland luminaries, and representation from various scenes, genders, and ethnicities. The album's credits read like the guest list for a Lou Ragland episode of "This Is Your Life." Kathy Grant arranged the massive Cleveland Orchestra, with her father Frank on first chair cello. Dunn Pearson, pre-O'Jays, handled keys, and Richard Shann, whom Pearson would later replace in the O'Jays, received an arranger's credit. The horn section included Ulysses Young from Mother Brain Tree on trombone, Watson Vaughn from Bell Telefunk on trumpet, and Pierre Demudd, future Dazz Band trumpeter. Elaine Hines, Lou's live-in girlfriend, and Joyce Jenkins from First Light, both on break from Terry Knight's Grand Funk Railroad project, provided backing vocals. Leonard Jackson, one-time Co-Co co-owner, brought his Temps knock-off, the True Movement, as a male counterpart to First Light. Sonny Lovall, amidst his career on the Mystic Insight label, added another voice. Members from Hot Chocolateers and Seven Miles Highers, including Tony Roberson, Herbert Pruitt, R. C. Johnson, Tom Tichar, James