Trees

Trees (50th Anniversary Edition)

Fire Records

The name Trees might not inspire immediate recognition for music fans but the English group’s brief, but bright three year existence from 1969-1972 has played the long game as obsessive psychedelic and folk musicologists discovered them and quietly spread the word. Fifty years later we have this wonderful anniversary edition release that compiles their two studio albums with new mixes, demos, unreleased recordings, radio sessions and a couple of live songs from a brief and partial 2018 reunion show.

Folk music at its core, there’s a freewheeling psychedelic aspect that forges the bands own unique sonic real estate. The combination of the high register, pure vocals of Celia Humphris, the pastoral, traditional British folk acoustic sound of David Costa and the freewheeling and exploratory electric guitar of Barry Clarke made them a unique proposition. The latter seemed to draw from the sound of Crazy Horse and forecast the sound of Television. 

The band’s first album The Garden Of Jane Delawney was a statement of intent but its follow-up, On The Shore, cemented their traditional and surreal Arcadian psychedelic aspirations. The band drifted apart within eighteen months but they left an unknowing folk-rock legacy, now given its full due courtesy of Fire Records.

Chris Familton