Treebeard - Reel Ale

Back in 2002 Treebeard released their debut album ‘Heavy Wood’, and this acoustic folky venture was a side project for Chris McMahon, Paul McMahon and Paul Chisnell (all Haze) and they brought in Gordon Walker and Chris Jellis to join in the fun. By the time the follow-up ‘reel Ale’ was released some ten years later there had been a slight change in that Chris Jellis is now only a guest while Ceri Ashton had joined on flute/whistles etc. What really makes this interesting is that Ceri was/is a full member of Haze now, and that some of these numbers have also been recorded by Haze (such as “Train” which opens the album but appears in a different form on the new Haze album). There are some traditional numbers such as “Tam Lin”, while there are some interesting covers such as “Driftwood”. The one number I didn’t really get along with is “Dun Ringill”, but that is probably just because I have played the original so often that hearing something that is similar but not quite just jars. But, a very special mention must be made of “Ace of Spades’ as I can guarantee that you have never heard it played like this. It works really well with fiddle, accordion and banjo, honest!! I’m sure Lemmy would agree.