Steve Ashley | Latest News

Forthcoming live dates are as follows...

Sunday February 17 The Cabbage Patch Twickenham...Tuesday March 4 The Great Knight The Old Black Lion, Northampton... Wednesday March 19 Eastbourne Folk Club at The Lamb... Tuesday April 15 St Neots Folk Club Cambridgeshire... Friday April 18 The Ram Folk Club, Claygate, Surrey (with Dik Cadbury)... Sunday April 20 Raven Folk Club, Cross Keys, Chester... Thursday April 24 Otterton Mill, Budleigh Salterton, South Devon... Thursday May 8 Trades Club, Hebden Bridge, West Yorks... Saturday May 17 Acousticity Headgate Theatre, Colchester (with Dik Cadbury)... Saturday June 7 Raglan Festival (with Dik Cadbury)... Sunday June 8 Topsham Folk Club, South Devon (with Dik Cadbury)... Wednesday July 2 Llantrisant Folk Club, Pontyclun, South Wales...

Steve's latest album, Time and Tide (Topic) is receiving widespread critical acclaim both here in the UK and in music magazines overseas. Recent articles in Rock 'n' Reel and Living Tradition, fROOTS and TAPLAS Magazine have all helped to promote the album and the list of good reviews continues to grow...

" ...[one] of the country's finest songwriters. Steve Ashley’s latest is a particular triumph, at once a modern-day masterpiece and a masterly throwback to his earlier glories and the English traditions with which it resonates. With a true understanding of human nature and how the processes of history and change affect the spirit of place, Steve’s songs represent an urgent clarion call to us to wake up before it’s too late." fRoots

" On his new set the gentle, sturdy melodies are matched with a rare blend of emotion and anger. Ashley may not be prolific but his songs are worth the wait." *** The Guardian

"Ashley is his own man and still brims with insightful visions of Britain after a career spanning four decades. Easily overlooked, but that would be your loss" *** Q Magazine

"The songs and delivery here, whilst bearing [Steve’s] hallmarks of deftness and élan, crackle with ingenuity. Honest music that calls for repeat-play." Living Tradition

"Steve Ashley still writes a great song. Recommended..." **** All Music Guide (USA)

“…splendid story songs … Time and Tide shows that Ashley has lost none of his creative muse over the years and can still marry his keen eye for the human condition to a tune to great effect.” Dirty Linen (USA)

"A collection of 15 new songs that ranks among his most powerful albums yet. A joy from start to finish" Goldmine (USA)

"... his lyrics remain clever and eloquent...Each new Steve Ashley album is like a reunion with an old friend and I hope there will be many more." Sing Out! (USA)

"Typical Steve Ashley, absolutely brilliant." A Celtic Heartbeat [BBC Wales]

"There's much to admire here for fans and newcomers alike." Penguin Eggs (Canada)

"With the quality of the music and its performers, it only took a couple of tracks for me to realise on first listen that this was potentially an equal to his classic early albums – Stroll On and Speedy Return – and, on repeated listening, I see no reason to change my mind now. His music was timeless all those years ago, and that is a knack he obviously hasn’t lost. This CD is a subtle work in many ways, but don’t confuse subtlety with lack of depth – that would be a major mistake." Green Man Review / Fiddlestix (Australia)

"Steve Ashley is simultaneously a blast from the past and a voice for current times...tackling social and political issues with a poetic eye and a gentle and melodious style..." Rhythms Magazine (Australia)

"With this excellent album Steve Ashley has put himself back in the International picture." 8/10 Folkforum (Holland)

"The last two tracks are enough reason to rush out and buy Time and Tide" **** Buscadero (Italy)

"Steve’s ability to empathize with and chronicle life in 21st century England in a literate intelligent style is second to none" Folk London

"Rare, precious and meaningful, a new Steve Ashley album is always worth waiting for. ... an exceptional CD... A mature and commanding work." Tykes News

"I can think of no other writer who can at the same time offer music which is deeply disturbing and deeply satisfying, truly frightening and genuinely optimistic, brutal and at the same time and most of all consistently positive. Time and Tide may wait for no man; Time and Tide has certainly been worth waiting for." Nigel Schofield - Living Tradition

There is now an active site for Steve in the MUSIC section of MYSPACE. The site which was set up last year has recently been edited and updated to coincide with the release of Time and Tide. Sample tracks from the new album are available at www.myspace.com/steveashleymusic

TWO TRACKS IN A BOX OF PEGG'S

Dave Pegg's box set, A Box of Pegg's (Matty Grooves) also includes two tracks from Steve: Family Love and Once in a While. The first is from Steve's Live in Concert album and the second is from The Family Album which was recorded and produced by Dave at his home studio in Cropredy back in 1979. The booklet which accompanies the four CD set includes an Ashley/Pegg discography and the 'family photograph' which appeared on the cover of the original Family Album (the second LP to be released on Woodworm Records).

Dave's cover version of Steve's Lonely Are The Journeymen is also included.

LIVE IN CONCERT reviews...

"If this album means that just a few more people find out what they've been missing in his exquisitely-scored, literate, pastoral and often fun-loving music, then so much the better. Not just indefatigable, but brilliant too." Colin Harper, Record Collector

"...the remarkable finale of Say Goodbye, given a gorgeous, lush arrangement by Robert Kirby as a birthday present, ends it all on a big emotional high and reminds us of Ashley's enduring quality as a songwriter. " Colin Irwin, fROOTS

"This CD is a great souvenir for everyone who actually attended the concert and is recommended for anyone already a Steve Ashley fan or a devotee of English folk/folk-rock." Ken Roseman, Sing Out!

OTHER REVIEWS: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:kraqoaua5ijd All Music Guide http://www.folkmusic.net/htmfiles/webrevs/duskcd102.htm Living Tradition http://www.greenmanreview.com/cd/cd_ashley_live.html Green Man Review http://www.netrhythms.co.uk/reviews.html#ashley Netrhythms

Stroll On 'masterpiece' recognised in Mojo

Mojo recently included Steve's debut album Stroll On in its list of 50 'Beyond Folk' genre-bending classics. The album received the following review:

The Wordsworth to Nick Drake's Coleridge, Steve Ashley - already a veteran of Ashley Hutchings' legendary Albion Band line-up that imploded before recording a note, and Ragged Robin, who backed Anne Briggs on what became her then-unissued final album in 1973 - laboured for years to get this, his own-name debut, released. Pastoral, epic, musically luxuriant and lyrically brilliant, with Robert Kirby's strings a perfect foil, it's an under-appreciated masterpiece.

Steve's return to live performance was prompted by Market Square's 17-track anthology, The Test Of Time (MSMCD102) in 1999. This was immediately followed by a reissue of his debut album, entitled Stroll On Revisited (MSMCD104). With extra tracks from the original sessions and a re-appraisal by Karl Dallas, this new version of Stroll On was well-received in the press with excellent reviews in MOJO, fROOTS, Record Collector, Living Tradition and Dirty Linen.

To promote the reissue, Steve joined Fairport on stage at Cropredy to perform Fire and Wine, and this was followed by a series of dates with guitarist, Al Fenn. Then in 2001, a special line-up of Steve, Chris Leslie, Maartin Allcock and Al Fenn was formed for Cropredy and a one-off show at Cheltenham Town Hall to promote a new album for Topic Records.

With fourteen new songs, Everyday Lives (TSCD526) was Steve's first studio album since 1990's Mysterious Ways on Line Records. The mainly acoustic collection features sessions from many of Steve's friends and musical heroes, including: Danny Thompson, Robin Williamson, Dave Pegg, Simon Nicol, Chris Leslie, Gerry Conway, Al Fenn, Mick Dolan and Dik Cadbury.

The latest from Market Square is a remastered Speedy Return. Session players include Richard Byers, Dave Pegg, Dave Mattacks, Maddy Prior, Simon Phillips, DeLisle Harper, Lea Nicholson, Royston Mitchell and Dennis Lopez. Robert Kirby produced the album and also wrote the orchestration. The Market Square release (MSMCD 118) is the first CD version in the UK and contains a 12-page booklet with lyrics, photographs and a reappraisal by Karl Dallas. "A gem." BBC Website "True English roots rock" fROOTS "a sparkle forever young" Mojo "Speedy Return still sounds majestic all these years later" Irish Music

Gull Records have also licensed Steve's first two albums to Airmail Recordings in Japan.