TREE is a music CD featuring 15 folk-style songs about trees, forests and their relationship to climate, communities, individuals and history. Tamarack's great appreciation of Canada's natural and human heritage shows up in their music, which is fun and educational, with a positive message.

Liner Notes
For nearly a quarter century, Tamarack have crisscrossed the continent telling Canadians our own stories with a unique blend of traditional and original songs, tight harmonies, and masterful musicianship. Tamarack originals such as Frobisher Bay and Maple Syrup have quietly snuck into the canon of classic Canadian folk songs. Tamarack's most recent CD (their 20th I think), is entitled simply Tree. It is a collection of songs about Trees prepared in conjunction with Tree Canada, a charity dedicated to planting trees in urban areas, and caring for the forests within our communities.

The lineup for this album was Alex Sinclair on guitar and vocals, Molly Kurvink on vocals and bass, and Shelley Coopersmith on violin, mandolin, mandola, and vocals. Although Alex handles most of the lead vocals with Molly and Shelley on harmonies, all three members take turns singing lead vocals. As usual with a Tamarack album, the musicianship is superb with guest appearances by Tamarack founders, James Gordon and Jeff Bird, as well as other Canadian Folk notables such as Steve Briggs, Steve Fruitman and Terry Tufts. Shelley Coopersmith has since left the band, and has been replaced by Duncan Cameron, who appears on this CD providing penny whistle and violin accompaniment.

The CD is a collection of original, traditional and cover songs which explore the theme of humanity's relationship to trees - past present and future. I've long been an admirer of Alex Sinclair's songwriting and he is at his best here. The album opens w i t h an upbeat folk-rock tune, Plant a Tree. Molly Kurvink takes the lead vocals in Made From Trees, a catalogue of all the things we use day-to-day which are made from trees. City Trees laments the hard and short life of city trees. It exclaims, "City trees get old before their time." Alex shows off his humorous side in Keep the Brown Side Down, which answers the question, "How do you plant a tree?"

My Grade Two students' favourite classroom song last year was Maple Syrup. This album contains version of the song in both official languages. Both arrangements are arranged in a traditional folk style, the English version as an English folk song, and en francais in the French Canadian style. Tamarack has a long history of performing and leading workshops at schools (including my own school later this winter) . The album contains the students of Gooderham Elementary School singing The Gooderham Loggers, a collaboration with Tamarack during a songwriting workshop at their school.

The traditional songs on the Tree CD include, The Firewood Song, and The Ash Grove. To round out the album, they have chosen several tunes from respected Canadian singer-songwriters, Ian Tamblyn, and Don Freed. The final song on the CD, The Trees Came Back, was written by Peter Murphy, a long-time forester and technical advisor to Tree Canada. It recounts the ongoing work and success of Tree Canada sung to the tune of The Cat Came Back, a song near and dear to my heart.

The album succeeds in exploring its theme of mankind's dependence upon trees, and of our responsibility to ensure we eplenish his vital resource. Kudos to Tamarack for undertaking such an ambitious project to benefit such a worthy charity as Tree Canada.

Sean McGaughey aka the cyberfolkie