Album Notes

DIGITAL DOWNLOAD ONLY! ACOUSTIC VERSIONS OF SONGS FROM 'WHAT KIND OF BOOKS DO YOU READ?' AND 'THE CHURCH & THE HOSPITAL'. A GEM!

Where did Umbrella Tree come from? I know it says Nashville on their MySpace page, and the band said they came from Nashville into the microphone, and that information entered my ear and it didn't process at all. They take three instruments (keyboard, guitar, drums), play them ridiculously tightly and then sing better than you or I, sometimes at a pretty big distance from the microphone. Zachary, the guitarist/bassist and one of two singers, said he has the same name as Zachary Gresham of local band Summer Hymns. He also has a voice that's a dead ringer for Rufus Wainwright's, can do some nasty harmonic fretting and had a fun time saying the name to the bands song titles, including "Bats in the Belfry." Combine those with Jillian's shy, reserved singing and punchy keyboard playing, and you have minor key romps that brought the house down.

"Everything you heard can be bought," Gresham said. "It's a miracle."

Indeed.

by Alexander Dimitropoulos
08/16/2008


Umbrella Tree brought a sizable cross-river contingent to the cozy pub. Umbrella Tree were doing the first of two gigs over three days—this one was of an acoustic rendering of their first album How Many Books Do You Read? The trio have quite a varied fan base—young people mouthing along to the words, parents with kids in tow (quite the progressive bedtime in our estimation—we remember begging to stay up till 9 p.m. for 90210) and indie-rock club rats. The show was tight, mellow and pretty—and it was actually a nice twist to know which song was coming next. Co-singer Jillian Leigh might just have the prettiest voice in town outside of the whole girl-with-a-guitar-and-a-whole-lot-of-feelings thing. Its sweetness is casually subversive, especially paired with her coy grin.

-Nashville Scene
26 July 2007