Trees

cedars and oaks and birches and pines
u tell me your favorite
i’ll tell u mine
i like the short ones
tall ones
ones with great big roots
i like the ones that bend in the wind
and the ones that got fruit

whoa trees
nice enough to see
whoa trees
growin up around u and me
thank you, trees
for pickin up what we’re puttin out
for givin us air to laugh about
how lucky we
are to have trees

now the guitar i’m a pickin
isa made of wood
so i dont take much convincin
that a tree is good
but greed is a weed and it takes more than it needs
yea
wasting a tree
is like wastin a bug
if ya aint gotta reason
jus dig and be dug
they’re working log hours
turnin time
into rings

whoa trees
for birds and big raccoons
whoa trees
for monkeys
and bugs
and lost balloons
the trees all know
cause they go real slow
in everything they do
tree’s probably smarter than me and you

trees got squirrels
and little boys and girls
climbin up and down em on a vine
they’ll grow through the pavement
make a big statement
and stand the test of time
and a tree may not grow all that high
on the side of a hill so steep
but be rest assured
below the dirt
he’s diggin down real deep

whoa trees
nice enough to see
whoa trees
growin up around u and me
thank you, trees
for pickin up what we’re puttin out
for givin us air to laugh about
how lucky we
are to have trees

whoa trees
for birds and big raccoons
whoa trees
for monkeys
and bugs
and lost balloons
the trees all know
cause they go real slow
in everything they do
tree’s probably smarter than me and you

[susangirardi]

I bought a hunk of abused land, picked up all the garbage and planted pounds of clover and daikon radishes. Then I started planting trees and I only mow paths. I'm entering year five and it keeps getting better.

[kerry-chzi]

Somebody who plays as well as Croce makes a John Denver campfire song with the lyrical depth of Leonard Cohen. Too bad I won't be around to see the twilight of Jesse's career. This will be a legacy folks!

[opramolla]

Finally wrote a song for your biggest fans - been to every show

[r.f.hopkins]

Damn Jesse ain't seen talent like you in a long long long time. All the Best Bud

[Washougalite]

You remind me of me of our protest artists back in the day ❤ thank you, people need to started listening 😊

[Chez-kfcy]

I can listen to him sing and play all day long.

[jimrebr]

I am a tree hugger, I believe that we are all related, we are connected to everything in the universe. I left Southern California at age 20, so I could like in the Redwoods in Mendocino, I was so happy. At age 29, my husband and I relocated to his family’s hometown in the San Juan Islands, so we could be surrounded by trees and ocean and blue skies. I remember telling our first son that trees are part of God just as we are. He didn’t comprehend until I got some Alan Watts tapes, he and my two younger sons listened to Watts and it formed their early relationships with trees. I feel trees are holy. They are rooted deep in the earth, and they reach for the sun. This is my new favorite Welles song, right up there with Whales 🐋

[danaross]

I'm glad all those trees around you got to hear your song

[Washougalite]

I only heard you for the 1st time this morning. I believe this is song #6 for me today.

[yogibhadrapala]

0:10 my favorite song and bugs too, Jesse Welles your so deeply LOVED, you are a shrub becoming a mighty oak.

[nickb]

trees have got it all figured out. They don't take nothing but sunlight, they give us fruit. They stand in one place, firm and strong, for their whole lives. They reach for the sky. I wish I could be a tree.

[fuxan]

Im a native plant advocate and this song speaks to me.
GROW NATIVE YALL!!!

[kimdolly]

Well, you done gone and done it. My favorite was wheels, but you just made this old tree hugging hippy heart smile. Thank you. 💙🦋

[ottomatic]

Sing it brother! I do what I can not to harm nature; that goes for trees and bugs too. And possom love trees too. 😁

[MoonkaCake]

This guy is singing songs that play in my head all the time.

[watchwmn]

California Redwoods ❤️, the tall California eucalyptus -the giant weeping willow and apple trees on Grandmas' farm in Michigan...the olive, almond, persimmon, and walnut trees of Chico, CA, dropping their nuts on sidewalk and grass for me gather and enjoy, the "paper trees" in the MI forest, we would peel their bark as kids, write, draw, color, on the peelings...I even like the "gumball" trees of NC, hard on bare feet 😁, the squirrels would throw them at my barking GS, Rocko, and he'd bust them open, eat the meaty centers, ( the gumball, not the squirrels)😊... And I love trees, and the birds that flit, fly, from limb to limb, following me on my walks...and as always, love the whistling... 😁

[BlackGuardXIII]

We’re all lucky to hear you Jesse. Thank you good man. ❤️🙏

[OneAmongBillions]

I happily extend to you, Jesse Welles, one of the highest forms of praise that -- I think -- one human being can extend to another, aside from tributes to those who have sacrificed life, limb, or have deeply suffered to protect others (perhaps the latter applies): You, a great human being, offering others comfort, respite, poignancy, and connected experience, is becoming or are, through your gift of song, a JEN-YOU-WINE spokesperson of light, a once in a generation beacon for we generations present in these very strange times. In other words, thank you for your existence.

[MokaiMusic]

Thanks for this from an old treehugger. I'm glad I got to catch your set in SF, CA recently.

[Nothingmonkey]

“Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky, We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.”
― Kahlil Gibran