Family Tree Music Cd

Nick Drake - Family Tree

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Family Tree      Artist : Nick Drake      List Price : $15.98 USD        Your Price : $15.98 USD      ProductGroup: Music      Release Date : 2007-07-10      Studio : Tsunami Label Group      Label : Tsunami Label Group      Avg. Customer Rating : (13 reviews)

Reviews Customer Reviews for Family Tree      Going Back in Time      Rating:      Nick Drake's material has been packaged and repackaged extensively, but this is one posthumous release that truly provides fresh insight into his development as an artist. Comprised mostly of home demos and mixing in a generous helping of recordings of his mother, as well, this collection feels almost like a time portal, as though we've been given passage back into Nick's early life. I love the imperfections that go along with it; a flubbed lyric or dropped note here or there, his little commentaries at the end of some pieces, the sound of someone clanking a bottle in the kitchen behind him on one track. You feel like you're in the Drake's living room, and yet it doesn't just seem like the cannibalization of material from before Nick had fully emerged as an artist. There are some amazing and beautiful tracks here, including "They're Leaving Me Behind," "Winter is Gone," and even the brief "Sketch I." All the talent as a singer and player is there, just in a raw, early form. And the liner notes from his sister are a touching addition to the package. Maybe not the best option for introducing yourself to Nick Drake's music (I might pick "Pink Moon" for that), but definitely a must-own for anyone who already calls themselves a fan.     Customer Reviews for Family Tree Cd      Nick's Blues      Rating:      In the 34 years since the death of this coffeehouse (though he may have never played at one) folk legend, many of Nick Drake's most rabid fans shoved off to the English countryside on a hedgerow leaping pilgrimage to Tanwerth-in-Arden, where Drake hung out with his family to be carefree, lucid and eager to create fascinatingly original music, and hone his blues folk leanings to meld with his increasing melancholic and original laments in the headiest of pop music periods in the sixties. It was also where he holed up from the pressures of life away from the family nook, and to combat his debilitating, to the point of catatonic, depression that eventually led to the much debated and murky accidental death in 1974. It is here where the loving sister Gabrielle presided over the estate, allowing some of the diehard fans to lodge in Nick's room, after which, their gracious hostess would allow them to walk out with some cherished home recordings of her brothers music before he recorded Five Leaves Left. These recordings were decidedly cloudy in sound quality but heavily bootlegged never the less. The estate at FarLeys along with some original recordings from Aix En Provence, France provided by Nick's friends Robin Frederick and Robert Kirby has finally saw through to clean up the sound and give the recordings a much deserved official release. This Cd comes with insightful liner notes from friends and family, and a detailed list of the recordings and their origin. It can be seen as a Holy Grail for Drake enthusiasts and a muddy but intriguing home recording for the uninitiated. Most of those unfamiliar with Drake would assume he was simply a morose folkie, but it is in these bits, more than anywhere, when his blues base is exposed. His uniqueness came about by being the hopeless romantic lost in the blues, and meandering his tunings to blues of his record collection no doubt including Rev Gary Davis, Robert Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, to the sad fluttering folk sounds found in family gathering tunes played by his mother in these recordings. While seen as odd by some who wonder what they're doing here, it is quite easy to see the resonating sadness in his mother's voice that Nick would later have in his own timbre. The songs are quite listenable enough to appreciate this collection as music and not just a historical document. They're Leaving Me Behind finds him already predicting his lingering depression and perhaps cluing the listeners in to what caused it all. Elsewhere, he plunges into the Jackson C Frank songbook for a lot of his 1967 blues workouts, and hones his Bert Jansch meets the acoustic rockabilly busker guitar playing that has so many listeners pining to pin down, on tunes by Jansch and David Van Ronk. He often liked to tackle traditional ballads and it's quite fascinating and rewarding to see how clearly they influenced the embryotic versions of his originals in a low-fi stripped down setting. Perhaps some of his best world weary leanings come from the duet he does with his sister in All My Trials. One can imagine what it would have been like had he saw through enough to record with eager fan Francois Hardy before his mental collapse prevented him. While the quality is understandably shaky, it has been cleaned up enough to grab hold of those just discovering him or retracing his history. It is certain to keep his followers interested. In the world of sensitive melancholy folksingers, Nick was the genuine article and still has not been matched. This recording not only shows he was more than a folksinger; he had the blues and loads of it. It is probably the recording that best captures his true spirit. No need to get a passport and fly to England. His gracious family and friends will bring him to you.