But the music will live on! I will continue to create, perform, and record music as long as I live. Me and Tree People double bass player Rich Hinrichsen are forming a new ensemble with a new name, new members, and new music, with plenty of Tree People songs thrown in for good measure. And we are just getting warmed up on promoting and sharing this last Tree People album.
But back to the concert at the Old Church: It was a cold and rainy evening with a threat of snow in the air. But inside the warmth of the Old Church, a old style concert hall with perfect concert hall acoustics, we played a totally acoustic set of music from all 3 Tree People albums to a perfect listening audience. Our program included No More School, Sliding, Pot of Gold, the Pineapple Song and Morning Song from the 1st album; Thomas, Rain, Rain, and 3 Dances from the 2nd album, and It's My Story, Living with the Animals, x times y, Sunday, More than Yoko, Melody for 3, Legends of the Tree People, and Space Heater from the new album. It was a big thrill to have vocalist Nicole Campbell (a great singer-songwriter, musician in her own right) join us on It's My Story and Living with the Animals- she sang her parts beautifully! And as always, I felt I had the best seat in the house, where I could hear and see Jeff on my left and Rich on my right!
Stephen Cohen, December, 2010
In attendance was Tony Coulter, a WFMU (a wonderful radio station that can be heard in the New York City area) ,music host and blogger who has recently moved to Portland.
Here the blog (which has mp3s from our 2nd and 3rd albums) he posted after the concert on WFMU's Beware of the Blog:
Next up is a wonderful Oregon group (based initially in Eugene, and then in Portland), whose two founding members -- Stephen Cohen (guitar, vocals) and Jeff Stier (flute, recorder, percussion) -- have developed their own subtle and refined, yet emotionally gripping brand of psych folk. The band's first LP, self-titled and from 1979, has slowly built a well-deserved reputation, and on its reissue it got a fair amount of airplay on WFMU (as you can see
here ). The group's second and third albums, though, have garnered comparatively little attention -- and no hearing on FMU. This seems to me to likely be for two reasons: the second album --
Human Voices , from 1984 -- originally appeared only as a limited-edition cassette, and thus made no impact whatever outside of Eugene; while the third album,
It's My Story , came out just this year, after a 26-year gap. Frankly, many fans of the early material would probably assume that the group couldn't possibly be as good as it used to be -- but it is ... and the proof is below.
Sadly, the Tree People broke up almost as soon as their new album was released -- Jeff Stier has decided to retire from performance. Stephen Cohen, always the principal songwriter, and bassist Rich Hinrichsen do plan to continue with new collaborators under a new name, however (you can keep abreast of developments
here ). For my part, I'm just glad I was able to catch the group's final U.S. concert -- which, oddly, doubled as a CD-release event. Wish you could have been there.
The Tree People:
Human Voices (1984/ RE: Guerssen, 2009) cassette, vinyl, CD
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The Tree People: It's My Story (Guerssen, 2010) LP, CD
1 comment:
Jeff Stier replies:
I don't plan to retire from performing music - entirely. It's just that I feel like this iteration of the Tree People did what it was meant to do with the release of the new album and the few concerts that followed. We're done for now (at least, I'm done) and we'll see what awaits. My musical interests have always tended more towards jazz and classical, so I may find some fun down those paths.
We shall see, said the Blind Man.
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