Umbrella Tree

Umbrella Tree is a trio (now a quartet!) from Nashville, TN who banded together in the summer of 2005. (From left to right in photo) Derek Pearson plays drums, Jillian Leigh sings and tickles the keys, Zachary Gresham sings and plays guitar and Ryan LaFave slaps the bass. They have released three full-length albums along with a digital download of acoustic songs. Their music has been described as progressive rock, gothic musical theatre and bohemian bookworm pop. Scattered as those depictions may be, one adjective representing their music remains consistent: indescribable. On August 2005, the spry trio played their very first show at The Basement on New Faces night. The tiny club underneath Grimey's Record Store filled to the brim with many supporting friends eager to hear what the three had been up to all summer. With the crowd's approval, Umbrella Tree felt motivated to play more shows and record, record, record. Their debut-album, What Kind of Books Do You Read?, was released in Spring of 2006 not even a full year after the three members had connected. Zachary recorded the project in an attic in East Nashville with his half-inch 8-track tape machine. With only 8 tracks, the band was very limited with their arrangements. Nevertheless, they remained ambitious, recording sometimes with two to three instruments on one track. The album was then mixed by Loney Hutchins and mastered by Al Willis. What Kind of Books Do You Read? was received well by listeners hitting the top of the best sellers list at Grimey's several times during the year. The lyrical content of the album, written by Zachary and Jillian, circles around themes such as animals, ghosts, fistfights and westerns. Whimsical and fun, this album showcases the band's musical abilities in the very simpliest form. Not long after their first release, Umbrella Tree was knee-deep in another project.The Church and The Hospital was released in February of 2008 with an In-Store at Grimey's and a long awaited release show at Mercy Lounge. Donning all white garbs to promote the album's conceptual themes, Umbrella Tree cranked-up the theatrics by including strange performances such as a sign-language translator, a puppet-show and a tea party complete with tea-sipping grandmothers. This album was recorded and mixed by Jeremy Ferguson at Battle Tapes Recording in East Nashville and mastered by Jim Demain at Yes Master Studios. This time Umbrella Tree decided to incorporate a myriad of other musicians besides themselves. A culmination of string and brass instruments such as harp, violin, cello, trumpet, tuba and saxophone permeated the album to create more musical depth than their last installment. And since working digitally allowed for limitless track possibilities, each song was seasoned with layers and layers of dramatic instrumentation. The Church and The Hospital was not intended to be conceptual at the beginning. A theme magically presented itself once most of the lyrics were completed. Zachary was focused on his experience with Orthodoxy and so naturally his lyrics gravitated toward the Church while Jillian's lyrics skirted around her own experiences with hospitals. Suddenly parallels appeared between the two different settings: priests and doctors, the crucifix and the red cross, the need for healing both spiritually and physically. Thus, a concept was born. Thus, a record was born! After the fires of The Church and The Hospital cooled down, the group decided to record a few acoustic tracks at the Prizefighter Compound. This album includes remakes of songs from previous records such as "Whitesox" which is really "Wisemen" with lyrics concerning baseball instead of war. Also a brand-spanking new song called, "Souls are Warm Like Eskimos" found itself positioned happily alongside classics such as "Donnybrook Fair" and "Nursing the Patience". Recorded and mixed by Justin Herlocker and mastered by Steve Mabee, Acoustic at the Prizefighter Compound is available free for download on Noisetrade. In July of 2009, Umbrella Tree released The Letter C and hosted a music video showcase at Mercy Lounge which included the premiere of their own epic 16 video DVD. The album was recorded at the Scoliosis the Studio by none other than Zachary Gresham, who had increased his engineering capabilities significantly since 2005. Also, Derek Pearson got his hands dirty with this one by filming, editing and directing each song's original music videos. Mixed by Jeremy Ferguson and mastered by Jim Demain, The Letter C was destined to be a great sounding record.

Nashville, TN