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Steve Ashley >>> NEWS & REVIEWS >>> Welcome to Steve Ashley’s official website. Here you will find Steve’s definitive biography, his discography and a round-up of album reviews and news items. For the latest on his live appearances check Steve’s Myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/steveashleymusic Robert Kirby Steve’s long-time friend, producer and orchestral arranger, Robert Kirby passed away on October 3, 2009, and has left behind many sad friends. But he also leaves a remarkable body of work. In Steve’s case, his magnificent strings and recorder arrangements for Stroll On were a crucial element in the album’s success, as were the strings and brass on the follow-up, Speedy Return, which Robert also produced. In all, Robert wrote 13 orchestral arrangements for Steve and his work appears on five of his albums. Robert and Steve also performed live together in three separate orchestral concerts in Cheltenham. The last of these was at Cheltenham Town Hall in February 2009 in a headline concert at Cheltenham Folk Festival (see review below). Robert’s loss to the wider music scene is considerable, having worked with a wide variety of artists, including Nick Drake, Paul Weller, Elton John, Richard Thompson, Linda Thompson, Teddy Thompson, Sandy Denny, Elvis Costello, John Cale, The Magic Numbers, The Strawbs, Ralph McTell and Martin Carthy, among many others. Robert was one of the greats and will be sorely missed by his family, friends and fellow musicians throughout the world. Steve Ashley with Robert Kirby and orchestra At Cheltenham Folk Festival - live review Unusually for the Cheltenham Folk Festival, the opening concert was headlined not by one of the country's top traditional artists, but by a man who was once described by the Melody Maker as "one of the finest singer-songwriters in Britain - if not the entire English-speaking world". That was nearly forty year ago, a time when a whole new generation of musicians had eschewed the folk tradition to write their introspective and often self-indulgent songs for the lonely bed-sitter audience. Steve, however, set his horizons so much wider and by doing so has created a canon of timeless songs that observe the world around him with a gentle, thoughtful, clear-eyed wisdom. Taking us back forty years to when he first appeared on John Peel's radio show, Steve started with the beautiful Anne Briggs song Lowlands Away. With half the audience singing refrain on the very first song, it was clear that this was going to be a memorable night. Moving to his mid-70s folk-rock period, a rousing Fire & Wine conjured up images of roaring log fires on cold winter days, certainly music to "sing the frost away". A sequence of his more politically pointed songs followed, This Old English Town being the highlight with its celebration of modern England's now most rich cultural and ethnic diversity. Then came something that I've never seen or heard at a folk festival before. The Staccato Strings, an orchestra in miniature conducted by one Robert Kirby, world-renowned for his arrangements for Nick Drake, Richard Thompson and even Elton John, joined Ashley on stage to create a very pastoral soundscape behind his most poetic and tender songs. Finally, this warm and engaging man brought the evening to an end with the autumnal melancholy of Say Goodbye, lamenting the retreat of rural England in the face of global agribusiness, and a hypnotic Follow On. Maybe it was an unconventional start to this festival, but it will scarcely be bettered. Eric Worrall, Gloucestershire Echo, 14.02.09 See also You Tube: Click here Recent covers and compilations In Australia The Bushwackers’ Dobe Newton has included a new version of Steve’s setting of Henry Lawson’s Past Carin’ on his solo album, A Convict Can’t be Trusted and The Bushwackers have also re-recorded Faces in The Street for their new album The Australian Songbook II. Meanwhile, in the UK Topic Records have included Steve’s Ships of Shame on their historic seven CD Box Set, Three Score and Ten and Steve also contributed a live version of This Old English Town to the Hebden Bridge Trades Club’s charity release, Trades Roots Live.

TIME AND TIDE - LATEST REVIEWS

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

"Uniformly excellent" Netrhythms

"The pinnacle of Steve's career." **** Rock 'n' Reel

"It's a stunning little album - buy it! Taplas (Wales)

Click here for Robin Denselow's review in The Guardian: http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2125025,00.html An unedited version of The fROOTS review is available at http://www.netrhythms.co.uk/reviewsa.html#ashley and Michael Hunter's review for Green Man Review and Fiddlestix is available here: http://www.greenmanreview.com/cd/cd_ashley_timeandtide.html

Back on the Road Again

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.

Then in November 2000, Colin Harper reviewed the original album as one of MOJO's Buried Treasure series - "The Great Albums That Time Forgot". Describing the album as "a masterpiece of its kind", the article focused upon the circumstances that inspired the songs back in 1968. It also recalled how the original tapes were rejected by 30 labels before the album was released on Gull Records, to win rave reviews and Contemporary Album of The Year in Folk Review. In December 2004, Record Collector included Stroll On as one of '20 Collectable Folk-Rock Classics'.

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.

Everyday Lives

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.

(click here for reviews of Everyday Lives)

Speedy Return

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

Mini albums available on import from Japan

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

For Steve's full discography click here

Goldmine interview

The new releases also generated renewed interest in Steve's work in the USA, and in November 2003 the long-established Goldmine Magazine published "Steve Ashley Passes The Test of Time" - a two-part overview of Steve's career by rock writer, Dave Thompson.

Following this piece, further interviews led to a contribution from Steve on the Demo Tapes and his work with CND in Thompson's recent best-seller, 2 Tone, The Specials and a World In Flame. To read both parts of the Goldmine article Click here