"Up My Family Tree, there hangs my curious pedigree, my long and lurid ancestry, the prancing phantoms and ghosts of my rude forefathers, nevertheless despite their sins, bless my kids and bless my kins, there they perch for all to see, up my, up my family tree."

I found the lp that contained that song and lots of other classics in the $1. bin at Al Lawrence's Hi Fi Shop in Birmingham, AL about 1969 or 1970 and played it over and over for years. I never met anyone who had ever heard of Jake Thackery until recently but recognize his strong influence on my musical tastes. I paid attention to Jake before I really realized what Gilbert and Sullivan had written generations before. Jake's songs are like no others. He was a man who could touch serious social issues with great fun: Caroline Diggiby Pratt, for instance. Finger In A Hole, is another. He has some fraternal connection to Flanders and Swann and Tom Lehrer, at least in his sophisticated use of language, sound and humor, but there was none like this British JT!