From the beginning, Harley Felton knew exactly what he wanted Full Tilt to be: the best damn “’70s R&B and funk and soul [cover] band” ever.

“The philosophy of the band was to do more difficult music than most any band would tackle, and to do it better than anybody would,” explains Felton, trombone player and de facto musical director for the ambitious eight-piece funk band. Or maybe “engineer” is the most accurate term for his crucial role; the band seems to have had a shared vision from the very beginning that grew out of Felton’s almost clinical approach to doing things right from top to bottom – to engineering a machine that works, and works well.

Full Tilt uses every ounce of skill and ingenuity available from the three-piece horn section and the five-piece band to create arrangements that wow revelers and fellow musicians at the same time. The engineered complexity of the arrangements is something like what must go on at a place like Disney World. What people see is the sparkling, rehearsed product of a disciplined vision. So, Full Tilt may bring the funk, the R&B and the soul to a party and have people dancing and reminiscing about the ’70s, but those people don’t see the wizard behind the curtain wiping his brow after a hard day’s work.

 “It’s not like we just walk in and go, ‘OK, let’s learn the songs,’ Felton says. “There’s a lot more documentation involved.” Felton’s wizardry encompasses writing sheet music for horn arrangements, writing background vocal arrangements and then orchestrating that with the rhythm section and guitar players. “We might spend … four, five, six hours writing up a horn chart,” he says, “and then we have to learn the songs.”

The songs come to the stage in the form of expertly crafted montage-style blocks that aim to take people back in time. When asked if there are highlights or favorites among the signature pieces that Full Tilt is known for, Felton says, “We do a real nice Motown medley that people seem to like a lot. We do another block of tunes that includes some Earth Wind and Fire, some Average White Band …” Recently, Full Tilt has begun to tackle some ’70s ballads that, Felton says, “I don’t think anybody has ever played.

“We put a lot of time and effort into them, and people are like, ‘Wow, is that ever neat!’”

When you’re good, you’re good, and having a matter-of-fact approach to discussing it that transcends humility doesn’t change that fact. Just ask Kanye West or Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt. Felton explains what sets Full Tilt apart in the over-saturated world of cover bands: “The genre we play is, I think, typically a little more difficult for bands to pull off, quantity of personnel-wise. I’m not trying to put down a classic rock band by any means … but that’s just the way it is.”

The question that always eventually arises for a cover band is whether or not originals are going to be part of the mix. The members of Full Tilt have been around long enough to know how challenging it can be. They know their scene and, more importantly, know their demographic. Felton explains, “With the audience we target ourselves to, we’d starve to death playing originals. … Just because of what we do and who we play for, our stuff has to be covers.”

Felton estimates that Full Tilt performs about 99.9 percent covers. In the past, however, the band was signed to a record deal and released a full-length album of original material. When the label disappeared, as many do, Full Tilt went back to what they knew best – covering their favorite ’70s funk, soul and R&B songs. Fenton won’t rule out playing more originals in the future, however. He says that although it is “a tough nut to crack, we’re with some newer members and they’re a little more open to writing.”
An album of original Full Tilt material may not be the next thing on the horizon, but there are plenty of other glimmers that indicate a future that is as steady and long-standing as the band’s history. Felton, who has worked with Major Harris and the legendary, Grammy-winning Delfonics several times before, says Harris has been calling about possibly booking Full Tilt as his backing band for some festival gigs. Felton alludes to some other potential collaborations with ’70s luminaries as well. Beyond the specifics, Felton and Full Tilt’s goals are simple. Felton says, “Let’s see how far we can take this. It seems like every year, we get a chance to do something that’s a little bit higher on the scale, if you will – the food chain.”

Then, of course, there is the goal that most musicians would admit to: Playing music as a full-time job. “How realistic that is is another question,” says Felton, ever the pragmatist. “At our age, we have mortgages and kids. Almost everyone is married and has kids or even grandkids.”
For now, the members of Full Tilt are happy reveling in the respectable success they’ve achieved thus far, not to mention the smaller ego-boosting perks. Felton is proud of the fact that Full Tilt has numerous times drawn crowds of over 1,000. However, he seems even prouder of the fact that this has allowed the band to connect with real people, many of whom come back. He says, “There’s been a lot of venues like that, where you see a lot of familiar faces – you see ’em again, you see ’em again, you see ’em again. They know your name after a while. They’ll say, ‘Haven’t seen you in a while, Harley. How’s your wife?’”