Jethro Tull: Songs From The Wood (LP)

The crowd-pleaser Songs From The Wood was seen as the first part of the band's folk-rock trilogy (Heavy Horses and Stormwatch followed). The album was recorded right after the tour of the previous album Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die! (1976) and showed Anderson's desire to change the band's musical style, as he was exposed to and even produced music from the folk-rock scene - in 1974 Anderson produced 'Now We Are Six' for Steeleye Span. The album heralded a new direction for the band, which turned to celebrating British pagan folklore and country life in a broad folk-rock style that combined traditional instruments and melodies with hard-rock drumming and electric guitars. The album is considered the first of a trio of folk-rock albums: Songs from the Wood, Heavy Horses (1978) and Stormwatch (1979). An extended headline appears on the album cover: "Jethro Tull - with kitchen prose, gutter rhymes and divers - Songs from the Wood." The title track of the album contains two of these phrases in its lyrics. The ads in the British music papers read, "Jethro Tull present 'Songs From The Wood'. A new album from Old Magic. Songs From The Wood. It's inspired by the idea that maybe nature isn't as gentle as we'd like to think. And it takes as its theme the natural and supernatural inhabitants of the woods in old England. Warm and friendly, by turns raw and bitter, it includes 'Ring Out Solstice Bells' as well as Tull's new single 'The Whistler' and seven other songs. Find a quiet spot and listen to it soon." The remastered 2003 edition contains two bonus tracks, including a live interpretation of "Velvet Green."