Trees

Signed to CBS

Trees were a London folk-rock band, active from 1969, who blended acoustic folk with psychedelia, reworking traditional songs alongside originals; their official site calls the sound gothic, arcadian acid folk. The original line-up was Celia Humphris on vocals, Barry Clarke on lead guitar and dulcimer, David Costa on acoustic and electric 12-string guitar and mandolin, Bias Boshell on bass, keyboards and vocals, and Unwin Brown on drums. Costa and Clarke met through a mutual friend, Boshell and Brown had been at Bedales School, and Costa suggested Humphris when they lacked a singer; she had just left the Arts Educational Schools. Rehearsals began in early spring 1969, with first gigs and demos in June and July, and they signed to CBS that August. Their management was Douglas Smith and Clearwater Productions, and John Peel, Bob Harris and Pete Drummond played them on the radio.

The Garden of Jane Delawney (April 24, 1970, 47:28) was produced by David Howells and Tony Cox, and its title song was later covered by Francoise Hardy, All About Eve and Dark Sanctuary. Nine songs include the traditionals "The Great Silkie", "Lady Margaret", "Glasgerion" and an 8:09 "She Moved Thro' the Fair". They played the Evolution festival at Le Bourget outside Paris in 1970 on a bill with Pink Floyd and Procol Harum, and supported Fotheringay, Fairport Convention, Fleetwood Mac, Genesis and Yes, often touring with Marc Ellington. Costa said we got labelled as a folk-rock band, full stop.

Afterward

Sales were modest and early reviews mixed, and the group began to split soon after the second album. A second line-up with Humphris, Clarke, Barry Lyons, Alun Eden and Chuck Fleming played in 1972 and 1973, leaving only bootlegs, and the band was done by 1973. Gnarls Barkley's "St. Elsewhere" (2006) sampled the groove of "Geordie" and renewed interest, with a 2007 deluxe On the Shore from Sony BMG (essay by Stewart Lee) and a 2008 reissue of The Garden of Jane Delawney. They played a reunion show at Cafe Oto in London in 2018, and a four-disc Trees (50th Anniversary Edition) box followed in 2020; Record Collector's Alex Neilson called On the Shore perhaps the most underappreciated folk-rock masterpiece of its era. Celia Humphris died on January 11, 2021, aged 70. Fore and After appeared on Earth Records in 2025.