THE WEED TREE

This cover album came out halfway between Esper's two albums, partly to soothe the fans' impatience. Already by this time Espers had grown to the sextet that will record the superb II album, and although a cover album, it is fairly representative of the group's sound. The album came with a fluo orange colour and a fluo yellow inside cover, sporting a simplified paisley artwork.

Starting out on the trad folk Rosemary Lane, and a bit later Black Is The Colour, the album starts out smoothly in a mellow tone. Weirder is the Nico cover of Afraid, version that lost all of the usual macabre ambiance of the German singer. One of the more engaged (energy-wise) tracks on this album is Blue Mountain, which is the closest they come to their original albums. Another surprising treatment is Blue Oyster Cult's Flaming Telepaths, and the least we can say that Espers dared to strip this rock piece to its bare bones. Quite a change, even if the progheads had wished for a not-so-wise rendition in the song proper, it does get there but only during the lengthy song finale of the track where electric guitars make an appearance. Very cool track, indeed and making honour to BOC. The only original Espers track is Dead King (which will have an answer on the next album with Dead Queen), and it gives a good foretaste of their next album. Not quite essential as their two studio albums, The Weed Tree is still quite a treat in its own genre, but clearly the second half of the album is really worth it.

Great EP of mostly cover songs recorded after Espers' first album. Though all of the songs with the exception of Dead King are covers, the group manages to consistently showcase their original sound. The first half of this long EP are fairly standard folk songs. However all of them are well chosen and very well played by the new version of this great band.

The second half picks up with more progressive songs, most notably the cover of Flaming Telepaths by Blue Oyster Cult. They remain true to the original with their own unique sound until the end, where it meanders into a psychedelic frenzy of electric guitars. Dead King is a taste of what we will see on the group's second essential album, II, though the version on II is longer and better produced.

Overall, the album sounds great but not entirely progressive. Essential for fans of Espers and certainly worth checking out otherwise. However for those new to Espers and this interesting neo-folk subgenre, their two studio albums are the essential releases, especially their second one.

There are only two observations I would make about this Espers EP that might be taken as anything but complete praise. First, these are cover tunes, not original ones (except for “Dead King”, and be aware that this one is generally not available from sites where the EP can be purchased as a download). And second, the release timing between the band’s first and second studio releases makes this seem like a bit of an opportunistic venture to leverage interest in the band’s stellar debut to pull a few more dollars out of fan’s pockets. And to bolster that perception, the price of this EP in most places I’ve seen it is usually as much (or even more) than a full-length album. You can find it reasonably-priced but be prepared to look a bit.

Beyond those two minor nuisances, this is a great piece of music. The opening treatment of Bert Jansch’s “Rosemary Lane” sets the tone for this being a nostalgic and charming highlights tour by Meg Baird and Greg Weeks to show off some of their musical influences. This is followed by Tomorrow from Durutti Column, which is a song I’d never heard in its original format but am left feeling like I’ve revisited an old musical friend after hearing Espers’ version of it anyway.

Meg Baird comes off nearly as young yet world-wise as Jill Johnson did on the Famous Jug Band’s original version of “Black is the Color”, and the achingly mournful violin/cello/whatever it is Baird is bowing is intoxicating.

Nico’s “Afraid” is another song I don’t have much knowledge of, but Baird’s version here has a timeless feel to it that reminds me of lavender potpourri bowls at Grandma’s house and dew-glistened grass on a lazy spring Saturday. All those comfort memories that hit you every once and a while when you slow down long enough to let them.

The band’s rendition of Michael Hurley’s “Blue Mountain” showcases a bit more of Weeks’ digital experimentation than most of the other tracks here, as well as he and Baird’s fits-like-a-glove harmonizing vocals. This is more like what the band’s debut sounded like before they expanded to a sextet and added more emphasis on the acoustic and percussion side of their sound. I have mixed feelings on which sound is better, but that’s kind of like trying to decide which of two sweet candies is the sweeter. You can’t lose either way.

The most surprising cover here is Blue Öyster Cult’s “Flaming Telepaths”. On the one hand this one makes a little bit of sense since if you were going to cover a BÖC tune on a folk album this would be one of the less-metal ones that you could probably pull that off with. But whatever possessed Weeks (and I gotta’ believe this was his idea) that this was something Espers needed to do is beyond me. The psychedelic cacophony Weeks launches toward the end is a bit of a departure for Espers but not for him, so maybe he just wanted to put his own signature sound on the album to muss up Baird’s calico folkiness a bit. Whichever, this is an interesting and bold attempt and although I personally thought it drug on a bit longer than necessary I also applaud their bold effort.

Finally the closing “Dead King” is an original track but this is an abbreviated version. The full-length one would show up on the band’s next studio release, but this is a nice preview and a decent way to close the EP.

If you know of Espers and are a fan then I would say this is probably essential; otherwise I would recommend it if you are looking to discover the band but only if you can purchase it as a download or find a reasonably-priced copy. If you can only locate one of those $25USD range copies, buy either of their full-length studio albums instead. Three stars.

peace

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.