TECD504 - Talking Elephant - Release Date: March 2025
Available to order NOW from the ONLINE STORE
Tracklist:
01 Apple Tree Town 4:46
02 Biding Time 3:54
03 As Night Follows Day 3:00
04 One More Day 3:38
05 Never Could Have Asked For More 5:13
06 Time And Tide 4:28
07 Hard Cheese 3:37
08 Last Call 5:29
09 No Tears To Spare 4:22
10 Get Away From My Door 4:01
11 Sweet Primroses 3:34
Total Playing Time: 46:23
So, here, we have it: Steve Tilston’s last album, over half a century on from his first, Acoustic Confusion, and on a par with his finest. With the empathetic accompaniment of good friends and long-term musical collaborators, Steve looks both back and ahead as he traverses the musical spectrum from social and political comment to rustic reflection, from autobiography to eternal geographical history, across blues, traditional folk, poetry and even a hint of jazz. It’s a thing of audible joy and circumstantial sadness.
Like so much of Steve’s output in a long recording career, the music herein is of its time and still timeless, a section cut through the moment that combines content and context. For a final album, this gives a Tilston fan everything they could wish for – the majestic natural epic Time and Tide, the evanescent moving intimacy of No Tears to Spare, the endless fresh springtime stand-off of Sweet Primroses, in which Steve reminds us that he is not only a great writer of songs (just ask Fairport Convention), also a great song interpreter too, setting this most familiar sample of the folk repertoire against a baroque string quartet.
And so it goes...The title track, a song without words, Last Call allows us to marvel at the mastery of a guitar maestro, five and half minutes packed with acoustic allusion and self-reflection, a fitting fretwork farewell.
Nigel Schofield
01 Apple Tree Town 4:46
“As I was young and easy under the apple boughs”, did the mouldering fruits’ fermentation make my head spin?
Steve Tilston vocals, acoustic guitars. Richard Curran string quartet. Hugh Bradley flute.
02 Biding Time 3:54
A bluesy song with a glimpse of occasional optimistic overtones.
Steve Tilston vocals, acoustic guitar. Martin McGroarty electric guitar. Hugh Bradley double bass. Keith Warmington harmonica. Tony Orrell percussion. Steve & Richard Woodcock backing vocals.
03 As Night Follows Day 3:00
A worm of an idea born of insomnia and homesickness in a distant hotel room.
Steve Tilston vocals, acoustic guitars. Johnny Fewings banjo*. Alan Cook pedal steel guitar*(*courtesy of Saturday Sun).
04 One More Day 3:38
Nose to the grindstone, adrift in the‘big city’in a foreign land, he dreams of an escape route that always lies just beyond his reach.
Steve Tilston vocals, acoustic guitar. Hugh Bradley double bass. Richard Curran fiddle. Keith Warmington harmonica.
05 Never Could Have Asked For More 5:13
There are some locations on this earth that are so awe inspiring that though we search for words of description they mostly fall way short.
Steve Tilston vocals, acoustic guitar. Richard Curran string quartet. Steve Andrews piano. Hugh Bradley double bass. Richard Woodcock backing vocals.
06 Time And Tide 4:28
It’s in an empty shell held close to the ear, it’s a skimmed stone skipping lightly upon the surface.
Steve Tilston vocals, acoustic guitar. Alan Cook pedal steel guitar. Steve Andrews piano.
07 Hard Cheese 3:37
The playing fields of Eton have a lot to answer for.
Steve Tilston vocals, acoustic guitar. Martin McGroarty electric guitar. Keith Warmington harmonica. Hugh Bradley double bass. Steve & Richard Woodcock backing vocals.
08 Last Call 5:29
A solo guitar journey with a number of my musical influences percolating through.
09 No Tears To Spare 4:22
Taken almost verbatim from an overheard conversation. Some voices cut through and eavesdropping is not optional.
Steve Tilston vocals, Spanish & acoustic guitars. Hugh Bradley double bass. Alan Cook pedal steel guitar. Steve Andrews piano.
10 Get Away From My Door 4:01
A knock on the door and there stands a representative from the then party of misrule. He’s informing me how well things are going and how worse they’ll be under the other lot - and can he count on my vote? He can, but not for him.
Steve Tilston vocals, acoustic guitar. Steve Andrews piano.
11 Sweet Primroses 3:34
A traditional song, reputedly from the West Country, concerning an optically challenged attempt at serial seduction.
Steve Tilston vocals acoustic guitar. Richard Curran string quartet.
Total running time 46:23
All songs published by (c) First Original Music 2024
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Richard Woodcock at Slaw Moor Studio, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire.
Special thanks to Phil Simpson and Richard Woodcock.
Cover Image: Simon Manfield
Sleeve design and artwork Jerome Dineen