Bare Trees

Bare Trees is the sixth studio album by British rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 1972. This is their last album to feature Danny Kirwan, who was fired during the album's supporting tour. In the wake of the band's success in the mid-70s, Bare Trees peaked at No. 70 and achieved Gold status in 1976 and was later certified platinum for selling a million copies. The album features the original version of “Sentimental Lady”, which was later re-recorded by its composer Bob Welch (with Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, and Lindsey Buckingham backing him) for his solo album French Kiss. “Spare Me a Little of Your Love” became a staple of the band's live act from 1972–77. “Trinity”, a Danny Kirwan song, was an outtake from the album that was subsequently released in 1992 on the 25 Years – The Chain box set. His “Sunny Side of Heaven” was a popular Ventures-style instrumental. At the time, the track was mixed in with some radio station sign-offs. The lyrics for Kirwan's compo­sition “Dust” were taken from a poem by Rupert Brooke. 140 gram Vinyl Single sleeve Review Arguably the first consistently strong album Fleetwood Mac ever recorded – all the way back into the Peter Green/Jeremy Spencer era, the Mac's albums had previously consisted of individual moments of brilliance in a sea of uninspired filler – 1972's Bare Trees is also the album where the band finally defines its post-blues musical personality. Low-key but less narcoleptically mellow than 1971's sleepy Future Games, Bare Trees is a singer/songwriter album in the traditional early-'70s style, backed up with just enough musical muscle to keep from sounding like weedy soft rock in the manner of Bread or Cat Stevens. This is the one Fleetwood Mac album on which singer/guitarist Danny Kirwan is the dominant figure, writing five songs to Christine McVie and Bob Welch's two apiece. Impressively, all three writers get off a small masterpiece on side two; McVie's “Spare Me a Little of Your Love” sounds like a dry run for the string of hits she would start writing with 1975's Fleetwood Mac, and it's her first really good pop song… S Mason – Allmusic.com