TREES

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.

We're setting off at a marching pace with "Soldiers Three", which sounds like a traditional Folky drinking song for listening to whilst downing a pint and scoffing a ploughman's lunch down at the local tavern before we go merrily on our way. Just don't let the ploughman catch you eating his lunch. The next song "Murdoch" is nothing to do with the media mogul and newspaper tycoon. No, this song is all about Murdoch's Mountain (wherever that is), which sounds remarkably similar to the Fairport Convention classic, "Tam Lin", particularly in the descending chord sequence. Lead vocalist Celia Humphris sings in a higher register than Sandy Denny of Fairport though, sounding more like Jacquie McShee of Pentangle on this charming Folk album. Maybe this sound-alike song is part of the reason why some Fotheringport Confusion was caused amongst the jaded British music press, who unfairly labelled Trees as a poor man's Fairport Convention. "On the Shore" is so far turning out to be a jolly good Folk album in its own right. We're heading across the Irish Sea to the Emerald Isle next for "Streets of Derry". It's a traditional Folk song with a slow marching rhythm, but don't let that put you off, because there are some scintillating acid- tinged psychedelic guitar vibes in the instrumental bridge section in this seven-minute Psych-Folk excursion to the streets of Derry (also known as Londonderry). The next song "Sally Free and Easy" is a 10-minute-long cover of the classic Pentangle song and it's a real highlight of the album. The hauntingly-beautiful vocals of Celia Humphris are enough to send a shiver up the spine and bring you out in goosebumps in this ghostly spine-tingling refrain.

The opening to Side Two is all about a "Fool" by the name of Oswald the Smith, whoever he might be. It's a 5-minute-long Psych-Folk acid trip. bathed in glowing psychedelic guitar colours, where Celia's normally high-pitched vocals drop a whole octave. This is where Trees get to display their very unconventional psychedelic Folk feathers and prove they're not just another carbon copy of Fairport Convention. It'd be no fool's errand to go out and buy this album. There's a brief acoustic guitar interlude now for "Adam's Tune" which leads us nicely into "Geordie", a traditional Folk song given the very untraditional Trees treatment of jangling psychedelic guitars combined with Celia's magnificently soaring vocals. There's no happy ending for the "Geordie" of the title though, because it's a dark and sinister tale of a man being hung for a crime he didn't commit, so it's too late to launch an appeal for clemency. It's time to strike "While the Iron is Hot" for our next Trees song, which opens deceptively as a traditional Folky number, but branches out into some wild Psychedelic Rock excursions. It's all Stetsons and cowboy boots next, because it's time now for a traditional country and western sing-along with "Little Sadie", a song which conjures up an image of a lively square-dance at a country hoe-down, so take your partner by the hand, and dance to the music of the band. Yee-hah! There's a return to some more traditional Folk music for our final song: "Polly on the Shore". This is one of the more conventional Folk songs on the album which most resembles the music of Fairport Convention, although being compared with the best English Folk-Rock band of all time can never be a bad thing.

Trees have branched out and explored the colourful psychedelic realms of Acid Folk with this unconventional second album. They're often compared to Fairport Convention, which is no bad thing, but Trees have carved their own particular niche in the vast forest of Folk bands, so you may wish to dip your toes into the rippling musical waves to be heard "On the Shore" before the tide comes in. You won't be disappointed. There's a whole wood-shed full of great songs to be heard on this album.

1. "Nothing Special" (4:29) opening the album with one of the band's original compositions, we hear a rather raw sounding strumming electrified 12-string guitar before the band joins in and the lead electric guitar launches into an emotional solo straightaway. Interesting! This guitarist has a lot to say! He may not be as flashy or polished as others but he is skilled, smooth, and confident. Lead vocalist Celia Humphris has a very nice voice of the crystalline higher register persuasion. (8/10)

2. "The Great Silkie" (5:11) * arranged with soft instrumentation--acoustic instruments able to stand above the muted electric ones--at least for the first 90 seconds as Celia sings. The band then shifts into a heavier, electric- centric stretch with more active drums and not one, not two, but three forward tracks dedicated to screaming electric guitars, all soloing at the same time. Everything settles back into the folkie sound of the opening for the final 30 seconds and Celia's final verse. (9/10)

3. "The Garden Of Jane Delawney" (4:05) a delicate folk song that opens with harpsichord before Celia's very soft, breathy voices launches into a painfully sad sounding song. Supported by softly picked nylon-string guitars, a second track of her voice is added in harmony as the multiple guitars become more active and the harpsichord returns. A very impressively arranged and delivered song--another of the band's originals. (9/10)

4. "Lady Margaret" (7:09) * an arrangement of a very familiar ("classic") folk song that has a sound like BLIND FAITH's "Can't Find My Way Home." Unfortunately there is not much excitement or development to this one except in the story itself and, of course, in the amped up psychedelic instrumental jam at the end (though the sudden addition of reverb on Celia's voice in the fourth minute and the subtle Stephen Stills-like electric guitar solo in the fifth minute are pretty cool). Still, this is probably the most memorable song from the album. (14/15)

5. "Glasgerion" (5:15) * single note on the high E string of the electric guitar provides the metronome for the first minute of the song as all instruments and Celia rise and gel in order to deliver and support this classic melody. The instrumental arrangement is very cool but I fear that Celia falls "out of the pocket" a few times with her delivery of the intricate lyrics. (9/10)

6. "She Moved Thro' The Fair" (8:04) * A unique rendering of a classic song. I love the dichotomy of the very slow vocal and acoustic guitar strum delivery coupled with the speed-walking of the bass finger picking on the second and third guitars. (13/15)

7. "Road" (4:33) a Trees original, there is a traditional feel to the foundational rhythms of this song while the electric and acoustic guitar work make it more BLIND FAITH-like. The alternation of male and then female voices for the four verses is nice. (8.75/10)

8. "Epitaph" (3:23) another Trees original that sounds very steeped in the structures and sounds of traditional British folk music, the vocal work by Celia Humphris here is quite skillful and impassioned. The bluesy lead acoustic guitar work--especially the matching of Celia's singing and vocalise is neat. (8.75/10)

9. "Snail's Lament" (4:39) the fifth and final Trees original opens with slow strummed electrified acoustic guitar before lead electric guitar and the rest of the band join in to support the twin-singing of Bias Bashall and Celia. Nice soft rock song, nicely constructed and rendered. (8.75/10)

Total time: 46:51

* Traditional songs

4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of progressive rock music and a brilliant example of early prog folk.

The band's history was quite short actually and only existed from 1969-72 and released two albums but despite a rather weak reception during their existence despite a vigorous touring schedule, the two albums have nonetheless found more interest has time has elapsed. THE GARDEN OF JANE DELAWNEY consisted of nine tracks. Four were traditional British folk songs that the band made their own by adding rock elements which included the soaring electric guitar solos of Barry Clarke and the other five were originals written by the bassist and secondary vocalist Bias Boshell who had a knack for writing songs that sounded like the timeless classics. All tracks mix together surprisingly well.

The music consists of acoustic, 6- and 12-string as well as electric guitar, bass, drums and the female vocal charm of Celia Humphris dominating the flow. Occasionally Bias Boshell takes on the lead vocals and during a few moments they share the spotlight. The songs themselves are very much of the era as they tackle a traditional folk song approach in the ways of Fairport Convention with the extra rock gusto of bands like Spyrogyra however the tunes overall are on the softer side of the spectrum with Humphris' vocals taking on a fragile role like a much less dynamic version of Linda Perhacs. The psychedelic elements are minimal however the progressive elements tucked into the traditional sounds breathes new life into the classic sounds with extended jams and lengthy embellishments.

The lyrics are quite poetic and sometimes sound a bit too hippie hippie for my tastes but all in all not horribly out of fashion with the trends of the era which add an aura of West Coast hipness to the whole affair as heard by the psychedelic interpretation of the 1938 Orkney folk standard "The Great Silky of Sule Silkie" transmogrified into "The Great Silkie." Generally speaking the electric guitars are reserved for supplemental leads as the acoustic guitar riffs provide the main impetus for the folky feel. Tracks like the twin vocal "Road" sound more like traditional jigs but in fact are originals with a more uptempo rock feel. Newer remastered versions have several bonus tracks that are as worthy as the original material and surely would've been released had this been a more modern creation.

THE GARDEN OF JANE DELAWNEY was a noble effort indeed but it doesn't quite compare to the highlights of the era such as the Fairport Convention's outstanding "Unhalfbricking" or "Liege & Lief" nor does it contain the sublime melodies found on Spyrogira's excellent debut "St. Ragibunds." Likewise it isn't freaky enough to fall into the Comus or Jan Dukes de Grey camp and doesn't compare in the excellent authenticity of traditional British folk songs like bands like the Pentangle dished out. While there are no bad tracks on here some are clearly better than others. I find the album starts out sluggishly generic and only picks up towards the end with "Glasgerion" providing an uptick in quality. While i can understand the big bugaboo about this album, in the end for me it doesn't quite stack up to the other greats of the era but by no means a throwaway, just not up to par with the best including the band's own second album. Still though, quite a decent folk rock album from 1970 focused more on the traditional side of the folk equation.

3.5 rounded down

Britisch psychedelic folkrock group Trees released two records in 1970. The debut (currently being reviewed) and slightly more stately yet stiff 'On the Shore'. Both albums are hailed as favorites by listeners.

Trees has a sound that reminds us of Sandy Danny era Fairport Convention and early Steeleye Span; traditional and pure female vocals, folky guitar drones, some playfulness and beautiful ballads in the minor key. Yet Trees is slightly more progressive then beforementioned bands with some nice psychedelic electric guitar playing and a more dynamic approach to songwriting - which becomes appearant mainly on the first side of the record. Trees makes good use of two skilfull guitarplayers, which also adds to the progressive vibe. The title track is surely one of the most beautiful folksongs I've ever heard, the vocals of Celia Humphris are outstanding.

Conclusion. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite folk records and I can warmly recommend it to every-one with even the slightest interest in folkrock of progressive folk. This is what collecting little known music from the progressive period is about. Five stars.

I like my folkrock music, it fills the room with its pleasant atmospheres and I love the slightly magical feel. Furthermore, it is the only music genre I listen to in which female vocals work really well for me. Now most of us will have heard of Steeleye Span, Pentangle and Fairport Convention. Trees' second album 'On the Shore' can easily compete with the best works of beforenamed bands.

English folkrock group Trees has two guitar players that fill the space brilliantly, great interplay and unsterstanding of roles. The vocals of Celia Humphris struck me as the best folk vocals I can think of. The warmth of a mother, the magic of an angel and the power that destincts folkrock from acoustic folk. The band has a drummer and a bass player and a slightly reverb folkrock sound, which I like. On all tracks we can hear some great melodic compositions and on the longer tracks Trees scores with atmospheric interplay. Some tracks like 'Soldier Three', 'Murdoch' and 'Fool' are very catchy in a good way. I wouldn't call Trees a very progressive band, but there's a lot of very tastefull musicianship, arranging and some nice atmospheric passages. The production is really good, captures the spirit of its time.

Conclusion. If you like folkrock this is the ideal obscurity. Four stars, but I almost fellt tempted to give five because I just like to listen to this kind of music often.

Trees are a band which actually only a few die-hard folk rock fans know, and they mostly do because of the unexpectedly much-covered song The Garden of Jane Delawney or due to bassist Bias Boshell's work with The Moody Blues and Barclay James Harvest. The few discussions about the band that do occur in the web, however, empty quite frequently in the awareness that this band is a particularly uninspired Fairport Convention clone with much too long instrumental sections - and that the two albums of this band are pretty similar in quality, the debut album being a wee bit more successful than the second one.

After having given both albums some spins in manifold situations, including checking the music out one afternoon while gazing at the sea from the coastline of the British county Dorset, I came to the conclusion that none of these points really suit my own perception of this album. It's hard for me to profess that this album is of a consistently superlative quality (hence the rating), but there are plenty of breathtaking moments which are utterly atmospheric, in an utterly British way.

Many bands from the, as I put it, 'back rows' of electric folk (Steeleye Span etc. being the 'front row') don't really get the essence of folk music and end up strumming around on a guitar and singing about maidens and pheasants and other occurances which are far away from their actual experiences, hence making their music unauthentic and pathetic. This problem mars a lot of the so-called 'acid folk' releases, albums which mix stoned-out jams with some shallow and badly-sung lyrics with pseudo-medieval topics. I personally think that this band's debut album The Garden of Jane Delawney falls, at least partly, into this category. Apart from the sometimes shrill vocals by Celia Humphris the band wasn't really able to pull together, the muffled drums being unable to carry three estranged lead guitars through the songs.

Unexpectedly, this album makes a huge difference. The drummer finally pulls his socks up and sets a stable rhythmic base, the lead guitar plays in a more restrained way - and with the help of a better production and the choice of slower songs this album turned out perfectly well. Of course, Trees aren't innovators like the Albion Country Band or Fairport Convention, but especially in folk music I don't care too much about innovation as long as the interpretations are able to cast a certain spell on me. Pieces like Polly On The Shore and Geordie only look like Fairport Convention on the surface - especially regarding the female vocals, the multiple electric guitars and the chunky bass guitar. But the overdriven guitar notes swell in and out in a nearly Steve Hackett-like manner on top of some pretty heavy power chords while the bass guitar rambles around the hectic drum fills. All that is distinctly more psychedelic than the gritty and more rootsy sound of Liege and Lief, especially in Polly On The Shore, my favorite piece on this record, which floats in its own sonic world with the distant fading guitars, some particularly heavenly - but at the very same time harsh - vocals by Celia Humphris, the wonderful acoustic breakdown around the 2/3 mark of the song and the climactic electric guitar solo in the last two minutes. These are definitely 6 minutes of folk rock of the finest kind.

Those who appreciated this song may also enjoy the fairly similar interpretation of Geordie which provides many languorous chills with the fantastic interplay of the swelling lead guitar and the sharp counterpoints of the rhythm guitar. This recording predates Deep Purple's Fools by a year, but the guitar technique in the solo is quite similar. After listening to the fairly messy instrumental parts of the debut album I find Unwin Brown's brief unaccompanied drum breaks quite rewarding, especially the one before the gorgeous restrained guitar solo around 2:25. And in this context one should also mention the tasteful choice of traditional folk songs, all of which have never gotten a rock band outfit before and most of which the band has seemingly learned from recordings of Carthy & Swarbrick.

Streets of Derry, making good use of the pretty unknown Fender 12-string electric guitar, is for sure the most professionally arranged song in which a consequent splitting of guitar duties makes the whole band extremely tight and interesting to listen to. The very first stanza is even stripped from all electric guitars and features only drums, a melodically independent bass line and drums plus Celia Humphris' voice. During the course of nearly 8 minutes there are always new ideas, different guitar solos by different guitarists and everything is covered in that bittersweet harmony which draws through the whole album. Sally, Free and Easy is the piece which actually brought me to this band as I was looking for a folk rock version of that Cyril Tawney song. Profiting from Bias Boshell's well-performed classicistic piano work and some competently rapid acoustic guitar picking the band manage to catch my interest for the complete 10 minutes - more so than their previous She Moves Through The Fair rework, although it's clearly music which allows you to let your mind wander for a little while. I quite like it that the band, starting with the quiet vocal parts and letting the whole piece grow into a louder instrumental part, ends the piece in a similarly peaceful vein to the beginning.

The two shortest numbers on the album are the traditional Soldiers Three and the cheekily entitled Adam De La Halle adaptation Adam's Toon. Both of them are, regarding their short length, unexpectedly effective. The former, serving as the opener of the record, features wonderfully grim harmony vocals by nearly the complete band, very much in contrast to a peaceful instrumental version of the verse placed in the second half of the song. Adam's Toon is entirely instrumental, played with guitar and percussion instruments, echoing the minimalism of the Middle Ages when this tune was composed.

Although I'm usually a bit sceptical when songwriters of our times write songs in the vein of the old folk songs, the three original compositions Bias Boshell provided for this album turn out to be quite decent; actually, the original compositions were those which, in my opinion, also saved the group's debut album from complete irrelevance. Murdoch, a ballad depicting a Tolkienesque mountainside quite akin to how one imagines Mordor, succeeds in captivating an uncomfortably dark, cold and ghostly atmosphere which one also knows from British literature. The multi-tracked vocals of Celia Humphris in the last part are indeed remarkable, but don't ever listen to this album in the car, particularly when you aren't the only one sitting in this car. Somehow the composition with the many many words put on one chord reminds me a bit of Ian Anderson's acoustic songs, mainly the ones in the end of the Ch'teau d'Isaster tapes. While The Iron Is Hot, a historically founded protest song written by Boshell from the perspective of the working class, proves that Bias Boshell wouldn't be a good lead singer, but in combination with Celia Humphris and some other band member singing backing vocals his voice is perfectly okay. With the slightly Kirby-like (q.v. Nick Drake) restrained string arrangement in the background and a fairly crude rock band part in the middle it shows in which direction folk rock may be taken as well. Fool is a nice listen, especially because of a blazing guitar solo, but ultimately not really memorable, apart from the hushed guitar lick which appears after nearly every line which is sung. Overall there are too many Celia Humphris overdubs and too few real harmony vocals.

Little Sadie, a brief piece of American folk, however is a complete let-down which cannot be saved by some half-decent instrumental parts between the stanzas. Celia Humphris cannot keep the timing of the song, the whole arrangement is a mess and the melody gets on my nerves terribly. Think Rocky Raccoon by the Beatles or Benny the Bouncer by ELP, but performed in an amateurish way.

Since I only own the original album without the bonus CD I cannot say if buying the expanded edition would be recommendable. Apart from a BBC track and a demo you only find remixes of the original album among the bonus tracks. The remixes reportedly add additional backing vocals, lack some reverb and

The album itself is absolutely recommendable to folk rock lovers, in particular because of there are plenty of excellent haunting moments gathered on the record (Soldier's Three, Polly On The Shore, Streets of Derry, Geordie). These ethereal renderings of pretty unknown folk songs easily touch the 5-star mark. I give the complete album merely 3 stars overall because the other songs, ranging somewhere between 'bad' and 'very decent', cannot really keep up with the rest.

Favourite tracks: "Murdoch", "Sally Free And Easy", "Fool".