Following the moderate success of 1971's "Future Games" set which introduced American bred guitarist/songwriter/singer Bob Welch, Fleetwood Mac's 6th studio album, "Bare Trees" contains a strong and prolific set of great material, particularly from guitarist/singer Danny Kirwan, whom continued forward with significant numbers like the album's opening cut, the rocking steady "Child of Mine", a melodically touching instrumental in "Sunny Side of Heaven", the rollicking title track and the psychedelic-blues infused "Danny's Chant". Christine McVie offers two numbers with the road-ridden R&B/rock flavored "Homeward Bound" and a wonderful soul ballad in the form of "Spare Me A Little Of Your Love", which is one of the album's gems, in my opinion. Bob Welch also offers two cuts that expand on his contribution of the title cut from the former "Future Games' set with the breezy, jazz/pop flavored "The Ghost" and a stately ballad of sorts in "Sentimental Lady", which would later be redone by Bob himself, when he launched his solo career in the late 1970's. The performance of "Lady" on this recording is rendered well by the group, and its ironic that when this cut was redone again for his "French Kiss" album in 1977, his replacement in the band, Lindsey Buckingham, sat in on the track, playing guitar and singing backing vocals.

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Another Kirwan composition, "Dust" begins to wind down the record that compliments the contributions of Welch's songwriting style and approach, featuring an easy and cool melody with airy backing vocals and stately acoustic guitar and piano accompaniment. "Thoughts on a Grey Day" features the voice of an elderly woman whom recites some poetic verse and it makes for an ironic, but interesting end to the record. Its unfortunate that like Peter Green before him, Danny Kirwan would soon crack under pressure in support of this album and his time in the group ended rather abruptly and sadly; but, as the material on this record attests, "Bare Trees" is something of an underrated classic among the releases before the Buckingham/Nicks era. Next to "Mystery to Me", which followed a year and a half later, this is equally on par with that album and it shows growth and progression from the Blues roots to which they had begun just 5 years prior. It also would point towards the eventual blockbuster success they became once Buckingham & Nicks joined the fold and within this light, "Bare Trees" becomes of particular interest within this factor.

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Rating Grade- A-