Search - Mother Earth :: The People Tree

In 1994 Mother Earth released their second album "The People Tree", a masterful mix of soul, funk and rock. It made the UK Top 50 and looked to be a stepping-stone on their way to becoming genuine stars. Despite selling more than 100,000 copies world-wide it never broke really big in any one place, and the band's progress was halted by the juggernaut that was Britpop. The original album was 13 tracks long, each beautifully recorded in analogue, and topped by incredibly soulful Matt Deighton vocals, which are pitched somewhere between Curtis Mayfield and Stevie Winwood. Tracks such as 'Apple Green', 'Jesse' and 'Find It' became great favourites of the group's fans. Guest vocalists on the record include Paul Weller and Dee C. Lee. This deluxe edition comes with an additional 13 tracks which bring together the contemporaneous singles, B-sides and two previously unreleased songs. This round up allows you to hear the wonderful acoustic version of 'Jesse', an unreleased Brendan Lynch 7-inch mix of the same song, the unissued 7-inch mix of 'Take A Trip Down Brian Lane' and the unreleased psych weirdness of 'Slide Sweet Baby'. If you really want to you can also check out Paul Weller playing harmonica on the band's version of the Small Faces' 'Almost Grown'. The booklet comes with out-takes from Gered Mankowitz's sleeve session, and notes taken from long interviews with Mother Earth lead singer (and later Weller and Oasis guitarist) Matt Deighton, organist Bryn Barklam and album producer and Acid Jazz founder Ed Piller. The album has been remastered from the original half-inch analogue masters and is in exceptional sound quality.