THE WEED TREE

One of my favourite albums of all time. I discovered it in October 2005 as I was driving on US1 in New Brunswick NJ. I tuned in to the Rutgers Radio station, and this moody folky song was playing. It grew in intensity and an electric guitar came in howling. It got louder and more avant garde with a squealing cello, strong but dusty drums, solid bass - I was hooked. When the song was over I was stuck at a light and called the station asking what song with that wild scary guitar work. The DJ was "huh"? I described it more and he asked what the vocals were, and I said I didn't remember any vocals, just this long noisy crescendo that started folky and creepy and turned into this psychedelic proggy howlfest. He recognised it and said "Yeah - that was Espers. They're from Philly. That song is called "Flaming Telepaths". I thanked him and bought the CD the next day.

It's brilliant. It's mostly an album of covers, but a very imaginative collection of covers. Normally, people will cover things that are roughly in their wheelhouse of sound. Not this bunch. The singer and acoustic guitarist, Meg Baird, sings like an angel. A very depressed angel. She's also a fine guitarist, and studied with Burt Jansch. Greg Weeks plays electric guitar and synth and sings. Brooke Sietinsons played acoustic rhythm guitar, and is also very good. The cello is played by Helena Espvall who has done a lot of avant garde music since then, including with free jazz people like Alan Sondheim.

"Rosemary Lane" (traditional; arrangement influenced by Bert Jansch) Excellent version of a trad folk song, as it restores some of the darker lyrics that are often left out in more sanitised versions. Meg Baird's vocals shine through this bringing a delicacy to this profoundly sad and bleak trad folk tale of power imbalance, sex, and resignation to a horrible fate.

"Tomorrow" (Vini Reilly; originally by The Durutti Column) The Durutti Column are a whole thing unto themselves and to cover them in this raw folky way is remarkable. Again, Meg's voice is a beautiful thing. A song of longing for different outcomes and alienation of affections.

"Black Is the Color" (traditional; arrangement influenced by The Famous Jug Band) Another trad folk song. This one was covered by Nina Simone decades ago, and is the version I was most familiar. No shade to Nina's genius, but I rather prefer this version. There's something deeply spiritual and yet utterly disquieting about this. Brilliant. Weeks sings some fine and oddly complex harmony here.

"Afraid" (Nico) So, it was trad folk, Durutti Column, trad folk - how do you follow that? With a gloomy goth tune by Nico OF COURSE. The song sounds like a toy - gentle guitars, xylophone, cello - sweet, and yet: Nico's lyrics are just open despair. A wonderful counter to the arrangement.

"Blue Mountain" (Michael Hurley) This song by Michael Hurley is from 1965, and is a classic singer songwriter folk song from that time. Only in the hands of the Espers it is vastly more psychedelic and richer. Weeks sings the lead in this and his vocals are OK, certainly no worse than Hurley's, and Baird's harmonies really make this swing.

"Flaming Telepaths" (originally by Blue Öyster Cult) The centrepiece of the album. Stunning. especially as the original is about as unfolky as a song can get, being a brassy loud track from the Hard Rock band Blue Oyster Cult. Love it. 10 out of 10.

"Dead King" (Espers original) This is the only original on the album, and another version was released on Espers 2. Frankly, I think this version is better - it's a bit more open and direct.

This (and Espers 2) while not technically Prog Rock, is a Top Album in my world - required listening, period.

Band members: Greg Weeks Meg Baird Brooke Sietinsons Otto Hauser Helena Espvall Chris Smith.

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