steve tilston

Such and Such

• If you listen to this album for the first time, perhaps the strongest point of reference you can make is the great Richard Thompson. You may be surprised that Steve Tilston’s pedigree goes back almost as long, a much-respected folk singer-songwriter guitarist who has also been compared to that other folk master, Nick Drake, and who supplied songs for Fairport Convention. He recorded for the legendary Transatlantic label in the seventies.

Steve’s latest album on Peter Muir’s eclectic Market Square label is an absolute gem. It takes the best of Tilston’s songwriting skills and melds his talent for storytelling with a superb contemporary acoustic band that includes ex-Fairporter/Tull Maart Alcock and ace saxophonist Andy Sheppard. The whole offering is beautifully measured and performed. It conveys the mood of a group of excellent musicians just sitting down after supper and having a blow. Steve Tilston has a distinctive, commanding, but not-too-folky vocal delivery and his acoustic playing is exemplary.

The opening track ‘Rare Thing’ has an exquisite orchestral arrangement and catchy chorus, and there are some real highlights elsewhere. Take a listen, for example, to the superb instrumental ‘Totterdown’ with its jazzy folk-fusion samba vibe, or ‘Mirror Dance’ with its story of fading looks in the advancing years. Tilston always wraps things up with some precision turn of phrase: ‘The Sniper’s Tale’ is just incredible. There’s also a couple of great “road” tunes , the bluesy ‘Need A Cup Of Coffee” (with Anna Ryder’s subtle keyboard interjections acting as counterpoint to Steve’s driving guitar and old mate Keith Warmington’s deft harp) and “Rolling Down This Roman Road” (infectious or what?).

I can’t help thinking that this is the album Steve Tilston should have made ten years ago. It may yet get him wider and much-deserved acclaim, maybe via exposure on BBC Radio 2? Indeed, this CD has the immediate appeal of the best Al Stewart can muster, another folkie-to-rocker with whom Tilston shares some common ground. This is an album to slip on for your guests during a civilised dinner party and watch for subtle acknowledgment. Check out, too, his other offering on Market Square, a reissue of 1987′s ‘Life By Misadventure’ bolstered by his epic instrumental ‘Rhapsody’.
(David Randall, getreadytorock.com)

• Although he’s never been as successful or received the same acclamation as erstwhile seventies stablemates on the legendary Transatlantic record label, Bert Jansch and Ralph McTell, Steve Tilston is a master craftsman who has built up a devoted following among those who take pleasure in consummate playing allied to poetic songwriting. Tilston is a composer and storyteller par excellence and a complete guitarist, whose decorative and technically superior fretboard and finger-picking work makes him as impressive solo as with accompaniment. Live Hemistry, his last album, was a solo tour de force; Such & Such is ensemble oriented, and quite possibly his finest studio recording to date. Musically it’s far and away his most eclectic work, offering a subtle kaleidoscope of styles and colourings, from traditional folk to cool jazz, from samba to singalong.

A small team of similarly sensitive musicians assists in giving Tilston’s latest batch of gems optimum polish and embellishment. The whole set is exquisitely arranged and performed; feels and fills lovingly tailored to suit each piece. Such & Such takes Tilston’s poetic songs and stories and fuses them seamlessly with a classy contemporary acoustic band. Saxophonist Andy Sheppard’s subtle jazz soloing and harmony work (on soprano and tenor) is a salient feature, particularly in the lovely instrumental Totterdown but that’s not to suggest that the contributions of Fairport Convention/JethroTull bass ace Maartin Alcock, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Anna Ryder, violin/viola player Richard Curran or percussionist Roy Dodds (ex Fairground Attraction) are any less valuable.

Rare Thing is a great curtain raiser, with its irresistible chorus and quizzical verses: “Is a crow’s heart as black as its wing? / This life is a rare thing / Is a lark as pure as the song that it sings? / This life is a shared thing.” Equally enchanting are the opening lines of the haunting Anthony Believes: “Life is but a firefly that glimmers in the darkest night / Weaves a trace before the eye that lingers though it’s gone from sight.” I Need a Cup of Coffee, which is a typical Tilston take on the blues (more Deepest Somerset than Deep South!), West End Samba (more Kirsty McColl than Antonio Carlos Jobim) and Rolling Down This Roman Road, which reflects the author’s ongoing absorption with history, are in a lighter vein. But there’s plenty of meat and mead sandwiched in between, with songs like Waterhole, which transports listeners to a desert landscape, Mirror Dance with its story of fading looks, and the superbly spun and suitably sinister Sniper’s Tale. The CD concludes beautifully with a trad. arr. folk song, a captivating reading of The Constant Lover, on which Tilston has stamped his inimitable seal.

Such & Such – soul food for those who appreciate quality words and music – should help expedite Steve Tilston’s return down under… The CD is available from Market Square Records. (Tony Hillier, Barfly Magazine – Queensland, Australia)

Solorubato

• Steve Tilston is an absurdly accomplished singer/songwriter and guitarist who, for years without number, has drawn from the tradition and replenished it with five-star classics like “Slip Jigs and Reels” and “Here’s to Tom Paine”. The centrepiece of this hour-long album is “The Turncoat”, a grand eleven minute epic about a man who is pressed into the British army to fight the Americans in the War of Independance and proudly swaps sides. Tom Paine would have sung along with it; George III wouldn’t. But this song is untypical. Most of this searingly introspective album is close to “Blood on the Tracks” territory, though there’s less anger and more stoicism than in Dylan’s blast. From the powerful opener “Living with the Blues” onwards, these songs will click with anyone who has tried to make sense of things after a shattered relationship or other personal crisis. A huge potential audience out there! The dominant imagery is of broken hearts and dreams, and a hard road to travel. Take “Rocky Road”, another Tilston classic, which nods to “The Prickly Bush” in tune and chorus: “Oh this rocky road, it makes the poor heart sore/If I ever get of this rocky road, I’ll ne’er get on it any more”. You don’t want a steel band following you on the kind of journey Steve is making. He is very much solo, though his warm voice & the daring skill of his classical-influenced acoustic guitar comfortably fill the corners; for variation he plays the arpeggione (bowed guitar) & mouth-organ … I think Steve has gone an extra mile to give us a challenging & rewarding album of the highest quality. And I hope it helps him as much as it could help others. (Tony Hendry, Living Tradition)

All Under The Sun

• Steve Tilston, singer-songwriter and exquisite guitarist of the English folk-baroque school, is hard on the heels of Richard Thompson in the perennially ‘underrated’ stakes. One of these days whoever needs to ‘rate’ him to stop such things being written will do so, but until then, this album – his second with Maggie Boyle – will be a treasured discovery for all who hear it. Featuring Tilston’s typically luscious arrangements – including Maggie on flute, together with cello, violin, and most of Fairport Convention making cameos – the selection of material and the decision to limit procedings to good old vinyl length make this a punchier and more consistent offering than the 1992′s sprawling “Of Moor And Mesa”. Boyle’s choice of traditional songs is another step up, with the epic “Fair Annie” a match for anything recorded by the great Anne Briggs. Elsewhere, Tilston the musical magpie weaves his influences – from Martin Carthy to Elvis Presley via Brazil – into a brilliantly balanced, superbly crafted collection. (Colin Harper, Q Magazine)

• Recorded at the Fairports’ own Woodworm Studios, All Under The Sun is a compelling album. Maggie Boyle, who sings like Mary Black before she went AOR, excels on the more traditional material. Her voice chills the air around some subtle drums and bass on “The Maid With The Bonny Brown Hair”, and backed by double bass and understated banjo on “Fair Annie”. Steve Tilston’s strength is his intricate guitar playing rather than his singing, but he more than does justice to his own “Here’s To Tom Paine”. A thoughtful celebration of an English radical, it is a reminder that the English too have genuine heroes if only we bothered to reclaim them. The album ends with a romp through the Elvis standard “A Fool Such As I”, in which Steve Tilston does a passable imitation of Scotty Moore meets Big Bill Broonzy in acoustic guitar heaven. (Tony Harcup, Folk Roots)

• With the Fairport Convention lads as a backup band, these two singers trade off on both trad and self penned songs in the Brit folk-pop vein. Tilston’s songs, like the sprightly “Man Gone Down”, resonate with social consciousness. And Boyle’s voice is just right for love-gone- wrong ballads like “Fair Annie”. There’s some inventive guitar interplay between Tilston and Fairport’s Maartin Allcock, and the instrumental “The Cage”, with Tilston on guitar accompanying Boyle on flute, is particularly nice. (Danny Carnahan, Acoustic Guitar Magazine) And So It Goes… • “His music has a flow and poignancy which makes it stand out from the plethora of singer / guitarists on the scene” (Guitar Magazine)

“Steve Tilston and Maggie Boyle’s first album together is quietly and utterly seductive…superbly crafted” (Folk Roots)

• “Of Moor And Mesa is a folk gem which grows in brilliance on subsequent plays, one which will tantalise for months to come…the combination of original and traditional material strikes a fine balance that pushes this LP towards deification as a classic record. It shines brighter than the majority of records currently vying for your attention” (Folk on Tap)

• “…a masterpiece – there’s no other word for this. Steve Tilston is the finest songwriter England has ever produced. Here is his talent at its peak. He has absorbed the best of the ballad tradition into his writing, & the results are staggering …Maggie Boyle has a voice the angels would kill for, & her vocal contributions are first class” (Rock’n'Reel)

• “Steve Tilston and Maggie Boyle are one of the most compelling acts in British and Irish folk music today…his guitar and arpeggione are as lovely here as they were on his solo record Swans at Coole, and that’s saying a great deal” (Dirty Linen)

• “Tilston is a powerful, sensitive songwriter and skilled guitarist. Boyle’s expressive vocals dominate the Patriot Games (Paramount Pictures, 1992) film soundtrack, and the couple’s new album, Of Moor and Mesa, is an example of a promise fulfilled”(Critic’s Choice, Weekend Telegraph)

• “If there’s such a thing as a perfect album, this is it !” (Barbary Post, Australia)

Swans At Coole

• “Steve Tilston is a singer-songwriter of rare talent…the polish of his performance and the technical proficiency of his lyric writing is staggering. He weaves classic, lingering melodies that are both warm and haunting, producing astringent, uncompromising music that thrives on a rare and demanding intimacy” (Folk On Tap)

• “Guitar virtuosity, sheer sweeping beauty, an album of haunting melody…He’s an unsung hero quietly going about the art of music making” (Zip Code)

• “Steve, in case events have conspired to conceal the fact from you thus far, is that very rare combination of singer, songwriter and guitarist who actually excels in all departments” (Folk Roots)

• “His musicianship is beyond question, while the arrangements set a standard against which other acoustic guitar albums ought to be measured” (Weekend Telegraph)

• “Without doubt a modern day masterwork…” (Rock’n'Reel)