NickDrake.com

[Matt (admin)]

Nick Drake’s "Family Tree", featuring never before heard recordings, to be released June 19, 2007 by Tsunami LG/Fontana

Nick Drake’s "Family Tree", featuring never before heard recordings, to be released June 19, 2007 by Tsunami LG/Fontana
Family Tree, to be released on June 19th, 2007 on Tsunami LG/Fontana, will feature previously unreleased tracks from the vaults of the Estate of Nick Drake. The album, produced by Drake Estate manager Cally, tells the story of Nick Drake’s musical development in the years prior to recording his official debut, Five Leaves Left.

Family Tree explores the upbringing of an artist who-- in his tragically short career-- produced three albums which continue to be treasured by fans. Recorded in the late 1960’s, the 28 tracks feature 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, “Poor Mum” and “Try to Remember”, written and performed by Molly Drake bears testament to her musical influence on her son, conscious or otherwise.

After Nick Drake’s death in 1974, his parents Rodney and Molly Drake began to receive visits from fans compelled to understand more about the source of his music by traveling to the place where he lived and died. For Rodney and Molly, this was no invasion of privacy. On the contrary, aware that this might be the beginning of the recognition that their son had longed for in his lifetime, they invited those fans in and quite often shared the music a young Nick had recorded on an early reel-to-reel recorder. Often fans left with their own cassette tapes of those songs.

Some third and fourth generation versions of these tapes circulated among collectors on rare bootlegs for decades. The overwhelming fan demand for unreleased material or stronger versions of these poor-quality bootlegged songs has thrown up a challenge to the estate to release something worthy of his legacy.

The Family Tree release will include a letter written from Gabrielle Drake to her brother in which she reminisces about their growing up, their family life, and explains how she has tried to preserve his legacy as she thinks he would approve. “I hope that, in the circumstances, you could have given “Family Tree” your blessing. Or if not, that you could have at least looked on with that wry smile of yours.”

Family Tree, unlike Nick’s albums which contained only his own material, features the young artist mastering the compositions made famous by Bob Dylan, Blind Boy Fuller, and Jackson C Frank. It also showcases his early songwriting skills on tracks like “They’re Leaving Me Behind”, “Blossom” and “Come Into The Garden”. In segues between tracks, the listener hears Nick speaking aloud to himself, even laughing in between takes. The album also includes two versions of songs that ended up on Nick’s first album ‘Five Leaves Left’ which were recorded by his arranger Robert Kirby whilst they were both studying at Cambridge University in 1968.

You need only hear Nick and Gabrielle’s exquisite blood harmonies on “All My Trials” – or Nick playing clarinet with his aunt and uncle on “Mozart’s Kegelstatt Trio” – to realize that this was a house whose inhabitants entertained themselves and each other by playing music. In the album closer “Do You Ever Remember?” Molly Drake sings not just for their sorrow, but also for the laughter that once resounded throughout a happy, loving home. It’s a laughter that resounds – sometimes literally – throughout the whole of Family Tree. In doing so, it brings us closer to who Nick Drake was than perhaps any written account of his life thus far.

In addition to the release of Family Tree, 2007 will see the release of an upgraded version of the Fruit Tree Box Set – which includes Nick Drake’s three original studio albums; a new book; as well as a DVD of the “A Skin Too Few” documentary. Fruit Tree will also be available in limited edition vinyl.

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Track listing:
1. Come In To The Garden (introduction) (Nick Drake)
2. They're Leaving Me Behind (Nick Drake)
3. Time Piece (Nick Drake)
4. Poor Mum (M.Drake) performed by Molly Drake
5. Winter Is Gone (Traditional, arr: Nick Drake)
6. All My Trials (Traditional) performed by Nick and Gabrielle Drake
7. Kegelstatt Trio for clarinet, viola and piano, (W.A. Mozart)
8. Strolling Down the Highway (Bert Jansch)
9. Paddling In Rushmere (Traditional)
10. Cocaine Blues (Traditional)
11. Blossom (Nick Drake)
12. Been Smokin’ Too Long (Robin Frederick)
13. Black Mountain Blues (Traditional)
14. Tomorrow Is A Long Time (Bob Dylan)
15. If You Leave Me (Dave Van Ronk)
16. Here Come The Blues (Jackson C. Frank)
17. Sketch 1 (Nick Drake)
18. Blues Run The Game (Jackson C. Frank)
19. My Baby So Sweet (Traditional)
20. Milk And Honey (Jackson C. Frank)
21. Kimbie (Traditional)
22. Bird Flew By (Nick Drake)
23. Rain (Nick Drake)
24. Strange Meeting II (Nick Drake)
25. Day Is Done (Nick Drake)
26. Come Into The Garden (Nick Drake)
27. Way to Blue (Nick Drake)
28. Do You Ever Remember? (M. Drake) performed by Molly Drake

[Suzan]

THANK YOU MATT!!!! So it IS to be released on Nick's birth date. US release date? UK? I need time to absorb this... looking forward to reading other's reactions, speculation, anticipations....

[Richie]

Wow - well this is interesting to read! Having given a quick scan through the tracklisting, a lot of it looks like familiar names from the bootlegs but there are a few novel things there also.. After a quick count I make it 10 original pieces by Nick (with 'Come Into The Garden' there twice), 14 covers, the 2 songs by Molly and then the 'Kegelstatt Trio' piece which seems to be a bit of an anachronism. 'Time Piece','Paddling In The Rushmere' and 'Sketch 1' are all unfamiliar titles (unless Time Piece and Sketch 1 are names for the instrumentals that we've already heard).. I'm excited at seeing Way to Blue at the end there - presumably this is a solo guitar version of the song, which I'm very intrigued to hear.

[wayne]

Sounds good, will be interesting to see how much better it is than the bootlegs - shame there's not much more 'new' stuff there, but I suppose they're getting harder to find now.
At least it will put an end to all the repackaged bootlegs which keep coming up.

Also great to hear Nick will be talking between the tracks!

[wayne]

Shame Don't Think Twice is not included - it would be nice to have a verion without the missing verse - if there is one.

It would be also nice if there was a 2 disc version with some of the other stuff we all know about cleaned up and released officially. That would be a nice treat for the fans.

Still very excited though

[Richie]

Yeah.. I would've really liked to have a complete good-sounding recording of that fingerpicked Place To Be demo, as well as Nick's solo version of Three Hours, but hopefully his estate have good reasons for putting on everything that they've chosen to release here. It's also a shame that the Caius College live tape appears to have been deemed unsuitable for release, or maybe they thought it didn't fit in thematically with the contents of this album.

[Suzan]

Wouldn't it be curious if on this version of Day Is Done Nick actually sings "sped the ball across the court"!

It had been said that Nick spoke between songs on the Aix tape ("this next song is..."). Maybe a spoken introduction to Come Into The Graden is used for track 1? The Aix tape was said to have better sound quality than Nick's home reel-to-reel (which ran off-speed), though I imagine there won't be much variation in Nick's performances from what we've heard on the TIA tapes. (As he could do that, perform a song exactly the same, over & over).

Wayne, I also would've liked a decent recording of Don't Think Twice. Nick probably didn't sing it on the Aix tape.

I'm with Richie, hoping Way To Blue is solo guitar, performed for Robert Kirby the way River Man was, Oooo! Place To Be, the fingerpicked version, I want that too. But, this is a "pre-recording contract" album, so Place To Be would not "qualify."

Perhaps someday it will be a bonus track on the 18th edition of the Fruit Tree compilation... One can only hope!

[hazeyjane]

I'm so anxious!
I can't wait to have it in my hands.

A stupid question:

Is it a double-CD, right?
Not a box?

I'm hoping that it's cheaper than what I was expecting.
It won't be released here in my country, so I'll have to import it from USA.

[roseclouds]

My money's on way to blue being a piano version...I'm a bit dissapointed there isn't more stuff on this...I really hope that the quality makes up for the relatively small quantity...

[Sylvia]

Thankx Matt! Looking forward to this June release!

[bernie49]

Now I'm really very much looking forward to hear that CD !
So excited to hear some never before published tracks.
Two more months of waiting...
_________________
"Look through time and find your rhyme / Tell us what you find
We will wait / At your gate / Hoping like the blind"

[eldorado]

How many vinyl boxes will there be released?? numbered?

[Matt (admin)]

I don't know about numbers I'm afraid but I doubt there will be that many of them.

[Summer Rain]

Wow, that's the first I've heard of this being released. Thanks so much for enlightening us.

[Nihilist]

Ooh, I can't wait!

Keep digging for more material.