TREES

By far the best known British folk rock groups coming in the late 60's were Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and The Pentangle, plus perhaps The Incredible String Band somewhere behind them. One of the short-lived acts -- and there were quite many -- was TREES who at the time didn't receive the recognition and appreciation they surely deserved, but whose two albums, The Garden of Jane Delawney (1969) and On the Shore (1970), have nowadays a classic status within the genre. The best stylistic reference is PENTANGLE, most obviously because of two guitarists and a clear-voiced female vocalist (Celia Humphris). Since both of the albums have gained several reviews here, I'm not going to analyze them as individual albums in my overview at this box set containing all the Trees material ever recorded.

On the outside, the book-shaped set of four discs is undoubtedly appealing to a connoisseur of the band. Let's deal right away with the crucial question: how essential and worth purchasing this set is for someone already owning both albums? Not much if you ask me. But please note that I personally have minimal interest towards alternate/demo/live/whatever versions of the same songs. I do like borrowing box sets of artists/bands (although mainly for the album-originating contents instead of the collector's stuff) but I wouldn't buy them myself. Now, if you're the opposite, you may ignore my reserved attitude. Still I'd say FOUR discs is a bit of an unnecessary boasting concerning the actual contents. By omitting a few tracks -- for instance, six tracks of the second album reappear as 2007 remixes -- everything would fit in two CD's. Or then, without taking anything away, by putting just a couple of the alternate versions after the original albums (on CD's 1 and 2), all the rest would elegantly form a third, full- length CD of the collector's stuff.

The third disc [44:47] only features the most of On the Shore album as a remix dating from 2007, plus demos from '70 of 'Polly on the Shore' and 'Streets of Derry'. The fourth disc [45:38] is where the fan has more to be delighted by, although the words "previously unreleased" are not very often repeated on it either (see the 2007 remaster of On the Shore). The debut album's song 'The Great Silkie' and 'Soldiers Three' from the follow-up were recorded live at the BBC in 1970. It seems this band had relatively little live activity, so these two live tracks are fairly interesting, as is naturally the non-album song 'Forest Fire', also a BBC 1970 track, which is for some reason not marked as a Trees performance, even though the line-up is almost identical: Celia Humphris, Bias Boshell, Barry Clarke, David Costa, Unwin Brown plus the non-member Paul Gardener. The very brief non-album song 'Little Black Cloud Suite' dates from 2007.

'She Moved Thro' a Fair' and 'Murdoch' were recorded at London's Cafe Oto in December 2018 as a performance of "The On The Shore Band, a group of like-minded, independent young musicians (...) joined by both Bias Boshell and David Costa from Trees' original lineup, introduced by long-time ally and loyal friend Stewart Lee". If the mentioned tribute group performed further Trees material, it's a pity only these two tracks are to be heard here -- perhaps for legal reasons? Of course the box set also features a lengthy essay on Trees, written by Stewart Lee. If you wish to dive a bit deeper into the history of this fine folk rock band, you will enjoy having this set, but for the less dedicated listeners perhaps already having both albums I wouldn't see this release so valuable.