On The Shore - TREES***

Soldiers Three/Murdoch/Streets Of Derry/Sally Free & Easy/Fool/Adam's Toon/Geordie/While The Iron Is Hot/ Little Sadie/Polly On The Shore

On The Shore was the second and final album release from the now little known British folk group Trees. At the time they were quite well known on the university folk circuit, without achieving a commercial breakthrough.

“A lovely psych-folk record which transports me to a different time and place. Truly excellent musicianship, the atmosphere is pleasant, the compositions ornate and slightly psychedelic with beautiful soaring vocals, evocative of a quaint English country garden.”

“Showing a boldness in stark contrast to the quieter, softer approach taken by many of their contemporaries, this second album presents a perfect blend of traditional folk and psychedelic-tinged rock with long virtuoso guitar solos that I can get lost in.”

“On all tracks we can hear some great melodic compositions and on the longer tracks Trees score with atmospheric interplay. I wouldn't call them a very progressive band, but there's a lot of very tasteful musicianship, arranging and some nice atmospheric passages. The production is really good, capturing the spirit of its time.”

“Very beautiful female vocals and music laden with psychedelic overtones. Often the vocals come in an agreeable male and female duet when the music becomes pretty airy. On The Shore is a mature set of mellow folk-rock songs.”

“This is groovy, hippy folk rock that balances that fine line between the folk and rock aspects. For the most part the playing is more focused then on its predecessor, less drawn out, but the quality of the songs is also more hit and miss.”

“The music is very folky and quite rock/hard rock, and is definitely influenced by Fairport Convention. I find the songs more catchy than on their earlier album. There is a slight psychedelic dimension, but not too pronounced. The tracks are not very progressive, and the rare keyboards are quite timid, mainly consisting in very good piano arrangements on a few tracks. This music is definitely acoustic guitars driven.”

“They're quite different because of the sound of the lead guitarist's playing, which can be pretty heavy and even psychedelic on several songs, and last but not least, Celia Humphris has a beautiful voice.”