Nick Drake - Family Tree

  by Jon Rogers

published: 9 / 7 / 2007

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Review

It might say something about the company this reviewer keeps but I’ve yet to meet anyone who was passionate about music who didn’t, at the very least, appreciate the wistful folk music of the doomed Nick Drake. Flick through your collection and how many groups and artists have made such an impression on you that you can distinctly remember the exact circumstances that you first heard them? I can think of very few but Drake is etched on my memory. After sitting three A-levels a whole group of us hired a barge, loaded it up with beer and sailed around the Norfolk broads. One night and afriend and I declined the usual evening trip to the nearest local. After a while of playing a few tapes – yes it was that long ago – my friend pulled out a recording of the now out of print compilation 'Heaven in a Wild Flower' saying: “I think you’ll like this”. He wasn’t wrong and I was instantly a devoted fan. The tape then got constantly played over and over until the early hours, neither of us listening to anything else. The music was revelatory. Here was something of a fragile young man out of time and out of place with his times – the late 60's and early 70's – that, in his upper-class manner, related achingly passionate songs that would progressively turn darker and darker. Running at just over half-an-hour, his final album, the stark 'Pink Moon' is a still difficult, if captivating, listening. Before a contract with Joe Boyd’s Witchseason was forthcoming and the subsequent albums 'Five Leaves Left' and 'Bryter Layter', Drake made various recordings at his home in Tamworth-in-Arden and during a 1967 trip to Aix-en-Provence. Over the years these recordings have been bootlegged many times over and its only now that they’ve been cleaned up – to some extent – and officially released. Any dedicated fan expecting an Aladdin’s Cave of previously unearthed gems is going to be very disappointed as there’s nothing here that hasn’t appeared on some under the counter bootleg already but that doesn’t make it any less special. 'Family Tree' collects up the best – or at least the ones that are of a efficiently good enough audio quality – of these recordings, giving a glimpse into the influences of a young Drake. There’s Bob Dylan and Bert Jansch covers along with traditional blues like 'Black Mountain Blues' and 'All My Trials' plus a handful of Drake originals such as 'Way to Blue' and 'Strange Meeting II'. As with any home recordings that weren’t meant for public hearing the songs are a little rough and ready and unpolished but Drake can still make them spellbinding despite the occasional wrong phrasing and bum notes. There are even a few oddities included. His mother, Molly, gets a look in on two tracks: 'Do You Remember?' and her response to Drake’s 'Poor Boy' – 'Poor Mum' with her gentle ribbing of her son. And for some reason the compiler has decided to include a recording of the family playing Mozart’s 'Kegelstatt Trio'. Throughout though there are hints of the troubled future that lay in store for Drake and his death from what was probably an accidental overdose of anti-depressants. 'Come into the Garden' has Drake as the troubled troubadour and 'Way to Blue' and 'Day is Done' mourn the loss of a world and time that has long since disappeared. 'Family Tree' might not be the best place to start for the uninitiated into Drake’s music but for anyone even vaguely familiar with his music this is essential listening.

Track Listing:-

1 Come Into The Garden (Introduction)
2 They're Leaving Me Behind
3 Time Piece
4 Poor Mum
5 Winter Is Gone
6 All My Trials
7 Kegelstatt Trio For Clarinet, Viola And Piano
8 Strolling Down The Highway
9 Paddling In Rushmere
10 Cocaine Blues
11 Blossom
12 Been Smoking Too Long
13 Black Mountain Blues
14 Tomorrow Is A Long Time
15 If You Leave Me
16 Here Come The Blues
17 Sketch 1
18 Blues Run The Game
19 Milk And Honey
20 Kimbie
21 Bird Flew By
22 Rain
23 Strange Meeting II
24 Day Is Done (Family Tree)
25 Come Into The Garden
26 Way To Blue (Family Tree)
27 Do You Ever Remember?

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