Release date Friday 13th November 2020.
Trees classic albums, beautifully packaged as a four-disc anniversary edition includes 12” book with liner notes from founder member David Costa and comedian Stewart Lee - Features two new discs of alternate mixes, early demos, BBC session tracks and 2018 live recordings in London - Includes lost demos of ‘Polly On The Shore’ and ‘Streets Of Derry’ It’s now over fifty years since Trees’ formation and, although ‘Acid Folk’ has now become a sub-category in the lexicon of record dealers and music critics, and although founder member David Costa feels the original noughties reissue helped consolidate a gathering wave of curiosity, they themselves remain in the shadows. Earth’s new Trees collection brings together both albums adding shiny alternate mixes of key tracks along with a selection of radio sessions and demos, all sounding brighter and cleaner than ever before.
Trees first album, ‘The Garden of Jane Delawney’ (1970) snuggles nicely into contemporary nu-folkies’ idea of the genre, and shares some of the pastoral-whimsy that characterised The Incredible String Band or Donovan, offset by some stunning interpretations of traditional material and Bias’ own songs, which were somehow part of the tradition Trees had adopted. Readings of ‘Lady Margaret’, ‘Glasgerion’ and the old standard ‘She Moved Thro’ The Fair’, and the extended fade of the group’s own ‘Road’, presage the explosive instrumental duelling that would come to characterise the follow up album, ‘On The Shore’.
There’s a definite shift between the records, the second being darker and more ambivalent. Here Trees don’t tell you what to think. You’re left to formulate your own response to this odd, opaque music.
The ‘Streets of Derry’ session version leans into the brain vibrating drone-groove they somehow found at the traditional tune’s centre. ‘Polly On The Shore’, another traditional tune, is one of the definitive moments of English folk rock.
This special expansive collector’s edition celebrates the bands 50th anniversary.
“A beautiful hybrid, Trees found a unique space between intimate folk and freewheeling psychedelia. Musically ambitious yet brilliantly balanced, they have left an enduring legacy for those lucky enough to be in on the secret”
Edd Gibson, Friendly Fires
Disc One - The Garden of Jane Delawney (EARTHLP036)
Side A
Nothing Special
The Great Silkie
The Garden Of Jane Delawney
Lady Margaret
Side B
Glasgerion
She Moved Thro' The Fair
Road
Epitaph
Snail's Lament
Disc Two - On The Shore (EARTHLP035)
Side A
Soldiers Three
Murdoch
Streets Of Derry
Sally Free And Easy
Side B
Fool
Adam's Toon
Geordie
While The Iron Is Hot
Little Sadie
Polly On The Shore
Disc Three - Fore & After (Part 1)
Side A
Soldiers Three (Remix 2007)
Murdoch (Remix 2007)
Streets Of Derry (Remix 2007)
Geordie (Remix 2007)
Side B
Polly On The Shore (Remix 2007)
Fool (Remix 2007)
Polly On The Shore(demo 1970) Previously unreleased
Streets of Derry (demo 1970) Previously unreleased
Disc Four - Fore & After (Part 2)
Side A
She Moved Thro' The Fair (Demo 1969)
Pretty Polly (Demo 1969)
The Great Silkie (BBC 1970) Previously unreleased
Soldier's Three (BBC 1970) Previously unreleased
Little Black Cloud (demo 1969 )
Forest Fire ( BBC 1970)
Side B
She Moved Thro' The Fair (Live at Cafe Oto 2018)*
Murdoch (Live at Cafe Oto 2018) *
Black Widow (2007)
Little Black Cloud Suite (2007)