{"id":41110,"date":"2008-09-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/jeffersons-tree-of-liberty\/"},"modified":"2008-09-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-20T00:00:00","slug":"jeffersons-tree-of-liberty","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/jeffersons-tree-of-liberty\/","title":{"rendered":"Jefferson’s Tree Of Liberty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life is good — founding member Paul Kantner remains in control of the Jefferson Starship. Longtime cohort David Freiberg is still around, as is guitarist Mark Aguilar. Cathy Richardson is now the lead female vocalist after starring in the off-Broadway production about Janis Joplin\u2019s life. Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s voice is powerful and pure but is closer to a Grace Slick sound than Joplin<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s, which should come as no surprise. Even Marty Balin joins the Starship for a couple of tunes. <\/p>\n

Jefferson\u2019s Tree Of Liberty <\/i>finds the Starship traveling in a new and unique musical direction. Succinctly put, this is a folk album. Songs such as \u201cPastures Of Plenty\u201d by Woody Guthrie, \u201cChimes Of Freedom\u201d by Bob Dylan, and \u201cI Ain\u2019t Marching Anymore\u201d by Phil Ochs are all presented in classic vocal form. Kantner and The Jefferson Starship can\u2019t quite escape their rock \u2018n\u2019 roll roots as the instrumental background veers from the classic folk formula. Think the Weavers in rock mode. <\/p>\n

The first track sets the tone for most of the album. The old Weavers tune, \u201cWasn\u2019t That A Time,\u201d features the voices of Kantner, Freiberg<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, and Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> also provides a wonderful balance on most of the harmonies contained on the album. This old historical folk song is enhanced by the violin of San Francisco<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> music scene veteran David LaFlamme. <\/p>\n

Jefferson\u2019s Tree Of Liberty <\/i>is a virtual journey through folk history. The traditional \u201cFollow The Drinking Gourd\u201d is a metaphorical song of the underground railroad and features more harmonies by Kantner, Freiberg<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, and Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. The Phil Ochs protest song, \u201cI Ain\u2019t Marching Anymore,\u201d features just Cathy Richardson\u2019s voice accompanied by an acoustic guitar. It is interesting to hear a female sing this traditional male song. \u201cChimes Of Freedom\u201d is the first Dylan song that the Jefferson Starship or Jefferson Airplane ever recorded. \u201cKisses Sweeter Than Wine\u201d is the Weavers\u2019 poignant love song. \u201cRoyal<\/st1:placename> Canal<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>\u201d is an old Ian & Tyson tune about prison. Kantner strips the song to its basics and duets with Diana Mangano. Meanwhile, Woody Guthrie\u2019s \u201cPastures Of Plenty\u201d is presented here in a version loyal to the original (with the line \u201cCome with the dust and gone with the wind\u201d). <\/p>\n

There are some other pleasant surprises contained on Jefferson<\/i><\/st1:place>\u2019s Tree Of <\/i>Liberty<\/i><\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. <\/i>David Freiberg shines on the old Dino Valenti\/Quicksilver song, \u201cCowboy On The Run.\u201d This gentle song of protest is resurrected with a modern sound. It\u2019s nice to have Marty Balin back; he brings his clear voice to the only pure pop song on the album, \u201cMaybe For You.\u201d Richard Farina wrote \u201cThe Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood\u201d shortly before his death, and here Darby Gould sings the song a capella.<\/p>\n

Jefferson\u2019s Tree Of Liberty <\/i>is not only an excellent album, it was also unexpected. Maybe that is the best part of Paul Kantner and the Jefferson Starship\u2019s latest release. The twists and the turns take the listener on a wonderful journey through a history of American folk music, and it is a journey well worth taking. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":29523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6110],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-41110","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jefferson-starship","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41110"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41110"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}