Trees - The Garden Of Jane Delawney (1970/2008 Remastered & Expanded)
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Artist: Trees
Album: The Garden of Jane Delawney
Released: 1970/2008
SONY/BMG (88697356732)
Genre: Prog/Folk/Rock
Trees play folk rock comparable to bands like Fairport Convention or Mellow Candle. Beautiful compositions with a good balance between acoustic and electric pieces. Electric and acoustic guitar are the principal instruments. The vocals are handled by an excellent female vocalist. Sheer beauty reigns on this album. The melancholic title track is out of this world. An incredible folk rock classic.
gnosis200.net
A few years into the British folk-rock boom, came along a band called the TREES, that got slagged off by the mindless British weekly press as FAIRPORT CONVENTION sound-alike. If those so-called journalist had actually listened, they might have seen their mistake as the TREES were a lot more like the fantastically fabulous The PENTANGLE but only even more progressive. True the dual guitarist and female singer was a sort of blueprint (almost cliché) for bands of those days into folk-rock, but here the musical interplay got uncommon space to develop and the numbers frequently grew longer in time, something rare in the genre and only followed by COMUS. But that SMBWMP (stupid mindless British weekly music press) would keep on deriding this band that folded after two excellent but unsuccessful albums.
The TREES (along with the other bands mentioned in this article) are recommended to everyone wanted to investigate the folkish side of progressive rock and its acoustic side.
If you want to investigate Folk-rock this is the best point to start for it has everything to please : a superb female voice , excellent musicianship , quiet pastoral ambiances , long instrumental passages.... This band is among my favourite in the genre along with Pentangle and Comus and IMOHO much better than Fairport Convention or Steeleye Span , Mathews Southern Comfort , as those are just a tad too trad. (those village fair and celtic ambiances are fine but not really in the scope of our site and my personal tastes). Here this is really enchanting and enthralling mainly acoustical folk-prog (if you'll pardon me the creation of another sub-genre)
“Nothing Special” opens the record, and it is a quite conventional peaceful folk rock song. The next track ”Silkie” brings forth their most pleasant element, the psychedelic arrangements of the traditional Anglo-Saxon folk tunes. The influences from FAIRPORT CONVENTION’s “A Sailor’s Life” are clear, but this doesn’t bother at least me. The title song ”The Garden Of Jane Delawney” holds an ultimate beautifulness in it. Medieval oriented guitar chords back up the fragile voice of Celia Humphris, and as her voices caress the listeners ears from two channels, the grown men will start to cry. This song was also re-recorded at the 80’s by an indie group ALL ABOUT EVE. ”Glasgerion”, which is here surprisingly titled as ”Jack Orion” (different titles in versions from different countries?), is a fast and joyful Celtic sounding song. I wasn’t first very sure if I like it, but the tensions grows slowly through the composition, and after some digesting I have started to like it very much. I’m sure that it at least this track doesn’t leave anybody cold! ”She Moved Through The Fair” is another bow towards the direction of the FAIRPORT CONVENTION, who also performed this traditional tune on their “What We Did On Our Holidays” album. The rest of the tracks are also OK, the closing number ”Snails Lament” has also male vocals, and this is also more conventional folk rock in it’s style.
As a conclusion, this is truly an album of finest quality, though their next record “On The Shore” is still a bit better in my opinion. I recommend you grab this CD quickly when you see it, or alternatively you can spend your whole month’s salary on the original vinyl if you get insane.
progarchives.com
Track List:
1. Nothing Special 4:23
2. Great Silkie 5:13
3. Garden Of Jane Delawney 4:05
4. Lady Margaret 7:11
5. Glasgerion 5:15
6. She Moved Thro' The Fair 8:07
7. Road 4:35
8. Epitaph 3:23
9. Snail's Lament 4:38
Bonus Tracks:
10. She Moved Thro' The Fair 5:26 (demo version,previously unreleased)
11. Pretty Polly 4:50 (demo version,previously unreleased)
12. Black Widow 3:22 (recorded july 2008)
13. Little Black Cloud Suite 1:39 (recorded july 2008)
Line-up/Musicians
- Bias Boshell / guitar, bass, vocals
- Unwin Brown / drums, vocals
- Barry Clarke / guitar
- David Costa / guitar
- Celia Humphris / keyboards, vocals
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