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The Witness Tree

The Witness Tree
TheWitnessTree.jpg
Studio album by Wendy Matthews
Released 14 November 1994
Recorded 1994 at The Plant in Sausalito, California
Genre Pop
Length 53:42
Label rooArt
Producer Booker T. Jones
Wendy Matthews chronology
Lily
(1992)
The Witness Tree
(1994)
Ghosts
(1997)
Singles from The Witness Tree
  1. "Standing Strong"
    Released: 19 September 1994
  2. "Love Will Keep Me Alive"
    Released: 30 January 1995
  3. "Say a Prayer"

The Witness Tree is the third solo studio album by Australian singer Wendy Matthews released in Australia by rooArt on 14 November 1994. It is a non-traditional gospel album, Matthews stating "the spirit of gospel is so uplifting, I have a lot of faith, but for me it's more nature and the elements." The Witness Tree debuted inside the Australian ARIA Albums Chart top twenty, but sales fell considerably short of those of Matthews's previous album Lily (1992). The album was nominated for an ARIA Award in 1995 for "Best Adult Contemporary Album" and yielded three singles; "Standing Strong", "Love Will Keep Me Alive" and "Say a Prayer".

The Witness Tree had minor commercial success in Australia. In mid November 1994, it debuted at number sixteen on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart, becoming Matthews fourth top twenty album. The album dropped out of the top fifty after two months, spending a total of twenty-one weeks in the top one hundred. The Australian Recording Industry Association awarded the album a platinum certification for shipping 70,000 copies. At the 1995 ARIA Awards, the album was nominated for "Best Adult Contemporary Album" but lost the award to "I've Got a Plan" by My Friend The Chocolate Cake.

"The tree is an ancient symbol that pervades most cultures and North American Indians have the Witness Tree. As a child my mother told me that the beautiful upright pines in our area were Holy People who had come back as a tree to stand in witness for hundreds of years".

The Witness Tree was recorded in 1994 at The Plant in Sausalito, California and produced by Booker T. Jones. Matthews states she chose Jones for the producer because "we got along very, very well and he's just steeped in music and rhythm and soul. He was the first person I thought of with this slight gospel, for want of a better word, flavoured album, and he was really into it." The idea for the album came about as Matthews found her interests and motivations "have a connection to the things that I'm feeling are very important as I get older, which are family, the seasons and our connections to the earth."


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