2007 rarities collection from one of the most influential UK Folk artists of all time. Family Tree tells the story of Nick Drake's musical development in the years prior to his debut album Five Leaves Left in 1969. It features lo-fi recordings made on a reel-to-reel tape recorder at his home, Far Leys in Tanworth In Arden, as well as eight songs recorded on cassette during his sojourn in Aix En Provence. The inclusion of two songs by his mother Molly Drake bears testament to her influence on her son. His final performances on Family Tree, 'Day Is Done' and 'Way To Blue', recorded by his Cambridge friend and arranger Robert Kirby are the end of one story and the beginning of another. Family Tree comprises mostly other people's compositions: the Folk and Blues tunes used by many a young guitarist in the '60s, attempting to master the fretboard. Nick played Jackson C. Frank, Bert Jansch, Dave Van Ronk and, of course, Bob Dylan. Booklet printed on 'bible ' paper for initial pressings only! 28 tracks. Island.
You'd think there wouldn't be much more to present by a songwriter who recorded three albums in his lifetime and has been dead since 1974. However, interest in Nick Drake's riveting music has grown enormously in the new millennium. Rarities were added to a number of posthumous collections, but with Family Tree his estate has brought forth an hour of music that predates his first album, Five Leaves Left. This set illuminates Drake's musical background, with his mother and sister appearing, and even Drake himself on clarinet for a Mozart trio. He covers traditional numbers as well as songs by Dylan, Blind Boy Fuller, and Jackson C. Frank. There are clear links to his own early compositions, including a couple early versions that appeared on his debut. Some of this has circulated on bootlegs over the years, but here assembled and sonically polished, it radiates with warmth. Recorded in casual circumstances, there are bits of chatter and laughter between songs, painting a picture of a happy, loving home scene. --David Greenberger
