Songs from the Wood

The album was recorded immediately following the tour of the previous album, Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die! (1976). It demonstrated the desire of Anderson to change the musical style of the band, encountering, as he was, music from the folk rock scene, and producing albums such as Steeleye Span's Now We Are Six (1974). Also, as Anderson said: "After Too Old to Rock and Roll, we returned to England, and I settled down, got married and bought a home. It gave me an opportunity to evaluate and reflect upon the cultural and historical significance of making that commitment to English residency."[3]

Being the first Jethro Tull album to feature keyboardist Dee Palmer as an official band member, their music gained complexity and variety, with more instruments being played and a sound that derives from Palmer's classical leanings and the strong presence of Martin Barre's electric guitar. Both Palmer and Barre are credited for contributing material to the album. The album highlights the band at its most playful and due to its lush production and more noticeable use of keyboards is perhaps one of the band's most obviously progressive rock-oriented releases.

The song "Jack-in-the-Green" features Ian Anderson on all the instruments.

Filled with imagery from medieval Britain (especially in the "Jack-in-the-Green", "Cup of Wonder", and "Ring Out Solstice Bells" lyrics), and ornamental folk arrangement (as in "Velvet Green" and "Fire at Midnight"), or the experimentalism of "Pibroch (Cap in Hand)" where Martin Barre's guitar simulates bagpipes,[2] the album was a departure from the hard rock of earlier Jethro Tull material, though it still retained some of the band's older sound. Anderson was partly inspired by the book Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain which was given to him by Jethro Tull's then manager Jo Lustig in 1976. According to Anderson, the book "certainly gave me thoughts about the elements of characters and stories that played out in my songwriting on the Songs From the Wood album, which then carried on over to the Heavy Horses album and even beyond that into the Stormwatch album."[4]

The descriptive term "folk music" has been dismissed by Anderson and Barre as not relevant to the album. Folk has a strong connotation of American singer-songwriters performing activist songs in coffeehouses, whereas Songs from the Wood was composed and performed as a tribute to the UK.[5] Anderson said that the album was "for all the band members... a reaffirmation of our Britishness."[3]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
NME	(Very favourable)[6]
SputnikMusic	[7]
Sea of Tranquility	[8]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[9]

Songs from the Wood was the first Tull album to receive unambiguously positive reviews since the time of Living in the Past (1972). AllMusic called the album: "the prettiest record Jethro Tull released at least since Thick as a Brick".[1]

In the Heavy Horses (1978) review by the Rolling Stone magazine, it is recalled that Songs from the Wood "may well have been the group's best record ever."[10]

Songs from the Wood was included in the list The 100 Greatest Prog Albums of All Time by Prog magazine at number 76.[11]

In 2000 it was voted number 520 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.[12]

Decades after its release as a single, "Ring Out Solstice Bells" is played as a Christmas song in the United Kingdom.[13] It has been featured in lists of classic and favorite Christmas songs.[14]

Although the front cover carries no credit to the effect, the back cover features the credit "front cover painting by Jay L. Lee". In fact, it is a photo on which outlines, lines and contours have simply been drawn with a pen (see tree branches, the dog's snout and Anderson's boots), with paint only occasionally added over the photo (as in the fire). The fact that this is a photo and not a painting is backed up by several other similar photos from the same photo session, some of which were used in the programme for the British tour in 1977, as well as on the concert poster. The credit "painting by ..." is probably based on a typical trick by Ian Anderson, who likes to joke with his fans. "Painting by" could also only refer to the post-processing of the photo. The LP cover depicts Ian Anderson sitting on a campfire after a successful hunt with a dog and prey. Under the band name is the line with kitchen prose, gutter rhymes and divers, 'including the album title (ie: "Jethro Tull // with kitchen prose, gutter rhymes and divers // songs from the wood").

All tracks are written by Ian Anderson with additional material by Martin Barre and Dee Palmer.

On 17 May 2017 Jethro Tull released a five disc ‘bookset’ version of Songs from the Wood with a 96-page booklet that includes a track-by-track annotation of the album and its associated recordings by Ian Anderson. It is similar to the band's other 40th Anniversary reissues, with the first disc containing another Steven Wilson stereo remix followed by ‘associated recordings’ including the previously unreleased "Old Aces Die Hard" and "Working John, Working Joe." The second and third discs contain 22 previously unreleased live tracks, recorded on the American leg of their 1977 Songs From The Wood Tour, from 21 November (Landover, Maryland) and 6 December (Boston), remixed to stereo by Jakko Jakszyk. The set also includes DVDs.[19]

Jethro Tull

• Ian Anderson – lead vocals, flute, acoustic guitar, mandolin, cymbals, whistles; all instruments (on track 2).[20]
• Martin Barre – electric guitar, lute
• John Glascock – backing vocals, bass guitar
• John Evan – piano, organ, synthesizers
• Dee Palmer – piano, portative pipe organ, synthesizers
• Barriemore Barlow – drums, percussion, marimba, glockenspiel, bells, nakers, tabor

Additional personnel

• Robin Black – sound engineering
• Thing Moss and Trevor White – assistant engineers
• Keith Howard – wood-cutter
• Jay L. Lee – front cover painting
• Shirt Sleeve Studio – back cover

• Jethro Tull – Songs from the Wood (1977) album review by Bruce Eder, credits & releases at AllMusic
• Jethro Tull – Songs from the Wood (1977) lyrics at CupOfWonder.com
• Jethro Tull – Songs from the Wood (1977) album releases & credits at Discogs.com
• Jethro Tull – Songs from the Wood (1977) album review at Ground and Sky [Dead Link]
• Jethro Tull – Songs from the Wood (1977) album credits & user reviews at ProgArchives.com
• Jethro Tull – Songs from the Wood (1977) album review by vanderb0b at Sputnikmusic.com
• Jethro Tull – Songs from the Wood (1977/2003 Remaster) album to be listened as stream at Play.Spotify.com