| Reviews -
'Everyday Lives' |
 Everyday Lives
TOPIC
RECORDS TSCD526
1 Everyday
Lives 2 Catch Him If You Can 3 Dance
With You 4 By The Light Of The Moon 5
Say Goodbye 6 Down Among The Hop
Poles 7 Wintertime Has Turned To Spring 8
And I Always Will 9 I Love The
Way You Sing 10 Pity The Counsellor 11
We'll Survive 12 Gog And Magog
13 The Spoils Of War 14 Over
There In Paradise
Steve
Ashley - vocals,
guitar, electric bouzouki, mouthorgan, whistle, Dik
Cadbury - bass guitar, electric guitar,
programming, Gerry Conway -
tabla, Moroccan drums, bells, Mick Dolan
- electric guitar, Al Fenn
- acoustic guitar, Chris Leslie
- fiddles, mandolins, Simon Nicol
- electric guitar, Dave Pegg
- bass guitar, Danny Thompson
- double bass, Robin Williamson
- harp, Lawrence Wright
- melodeon
PRODUCED BY STEVE
ASHLEY AND MARTIN MITCHELL. All songs by Steve Ashley
Published by Topic Records Ltd. 2001.
"Ashley
has clearly relished this opportunity to deliver at last,
the follow-up that Stroll On always demanded ... Welcome
back" MOJO - March
"If
British singer songwriterdom is to enjoy a renaissance -
and it's high time it did - then it's right and proper
Steve Ashley should be at the forefront ... he seems to
have lost none of his way with an alluring tune and a
deft lyric."fROOTS May
"Just
as his contemporary John Tams blind-sided fans last year,
Ashley does the same here ...lovely
...comforting..." Q **** June
"This
is praiseworthy modern folk music - accomplished,
engaging and more rewarding every time it is
played."GET RHYTHM May
"The
music of Steve Ashley exerts an ever-growing appeal to
those looking for a certain grace, texture and modesty in
their music ... Once "Everyday Lives" is on the
player, it's genuinely impossible to take off. FOLK ON TAP
April-June
"It is
reassuring to hear another side of England, one that we
can be proud of for its humanity."REVOLUTIONS ONLINE
March 17
"From
the nostalgia of Down Among The Hop
Poles to the social comment of Pity
The Counsellor there's fascination
aplenty in these new folk standards." HMV CHOICE
April/May
"Steve
Ashley marks return with album of quality"OXFORD HERALD, March
"Great
songs, great singing and a great supporting cast." NETRHYTHMS ONLINE
March
"The
inspired 'Everyday Lives' is worth your serious and
detailed attention."BE GLAD (ISB
Fanzine), May
"... a
uniquely intimate treat that once again presents him at
his best ..." EXPOSE March 2003
(USA)
|
... Review Round-up
...
EVERYDAY LIVES
MOJO
The recent remastering
of Ashley's seminal 1973 LP Stroll On
alongside the career retrospective The Test
of Time, has allowed an almost forgotten
hero of British folk-rock first time around, to be appraised
anew. Absent for years, Ashley has clearly relished this
opportunity to deliver at last, the follow-up that Stroll On - a
richly pastoral celebration of Englishness - always demanded. The
first signs of that gauntlet being taken up is the guestlist,
including four fifths of the current Fairport Convention, double
bass star Danny Thompson and Robin Williamson on harp. Ashley's
trademark lyrical preoccupation with the seasons provides another
link with the '70s, with Gog And Magog an unrecorded gem from
those days. But the immediate classic is Say Goodbye, a
quasi-mystical lament for the tradition of English apple growing.
Welcome back. Colin
Harper, MOJO, March 2001.
fROOTS
If British singer
songwriterdom is to enjoy a renaissance - and it's high time it
did - then it's right and proper Steve Ashley should be at the
forefront. Due to the vagaries of an industry too spaced out to
notice, Ashley never did receive due accreditation for his status
when he was a young lion of the scene, but nearly three decades
on he seems to have lost none of his way with an alluring tune
and a deft lyric.
Following last year's The
Test Of Time compilation and the enhanced
reissue of his landmark '73 album Stroll On,
this is his first fresh studio album for over 20 years and Gog
and Magog, his song of the giants of myth
and legend, has taken that long to form into a recordable state.
Gone is the frentic bounce of Stroll On
and the instrumental joie de vivre which decorated his band
Ragged Robin, but he's acquired a distinctively English style
which draws pleasantly on traditional imagery and gentle humour
on songs like Down Among The Hop Poles
and Dance With You.
He's backed by the
likes of Simon Nicol, Dik Cadbury, Al Fenn, Chris Leslie, Dave
Pegg, Robin Williamson, Danny Thompson and Gerry Conway, although
this is an essentially low-key production which even features an
unaccompanied effort Wintertime Has Turned
To Spring, to emphasise a feel of rural
Englishness permeating the whole. More rocking cradles than rock
'n' roll, but a warm reassuring voice and diffidently persuasive
songs are Ashley's trademarks that are still instantly
recognisable. And there's precious few you can say that about
now. Colin Irwin,
fROOTS, May 2001
Q
Founder member of the
Albion Country Band ends nine year silence.
This is the latest
instalment in an on-off career which has seen Steve Ashley feted
by folkies, then briefly by Motown and - those were the days! -
even record a single with CND's Monsignor Bruce Kent. Just as his
contemporary John Tams blind-sided fans last year, Ashley does
the same here, marshalling assorted members of Fairport
Convention (especially Chris Leslie) Danny Thompson and, most
tellingly The Incredible String Band's Robin Williamson on the
album's stand-out song of good and evil, Gog
& Magog. Elsewhere, seasons turn
tunefully, dances are danced (notably Down Among The hop Poles)
there's a literal kitchen-sink blues in I
love The Way You Sing, melodic balladry (Dance
With You and its lovely, inspired chorus)
and a comforting, singalong finale, Over
There In Paradise. **** Rob Beattie, Q, June 2001
GET RHYTHM
My first review for GR
and I don't like it, not a good omen for my quest to find great
new music without maxxing out on the credit card again.
Admittedly 'Everyday Lives' is well made and completely
inoffensive, it just doesn't hit the spot.
So why do I keep
putting it on? Because this delicately enchanting album of
understated folk music is a 'grower'. Not initially impressive,
Ashley's well constructed tracks draw one gradually into a
tapestry-like world of warm and subtle sounds.
Ashley's voice is a
little unusual and takes a while to get used to; it possesses a
rich tonal quality that is difficult to describe. Almost strained
whilst simultaneously verging on being complacent, suffice to say
it compliments the music. Overall 'Everyday Lives' has an
enormous sense of well-being more akin to yoga than musicianship.
There's not a lot more to say. This is praiseworthy modern folk
music - accomplished, engaging and more rewarding everytime it is
played. Zeb Shaw,
Get Rhythm, May 2001
www.revolutionsuk.com
As this veteran of the
Albion Band and more writes on the sleeve, this is a collection
of English songs by Steve Ashley. As one who was brought up in
England until 18 but who first discovered folk in Ireland and
Scotland, I missed out on the English folk scene until very
recently. Ashley's fine album makes me regret that very deeply,
but thankfully it's not too late. Beginning with a title track as
brief as it is thoughtful and acute, he sets the tone instantly,
and the following number - Catch Him If You
Can - shows his warm wit and an observant
eye in sharply phrased lyrics "Old specs hang from her neck/
On one of those chains that losers use". The instrumentation
is sparse but wonderfully effective, with Ashley's guitar and
Danny Thompson's double bass playing a simple tune over Gerry
Conway's tabla and a lovely cameo from Chris Leslie's fiddle. By
The Light Of The Moon is a poetic, suitably
graceful homage to his cat, while by contrast, Down
Among The Hop Poles is a nostalgic, joyous
celebration of singing, beer and camaraderie. Wintertime
Has Turned To Spring tackles what must be
one of the most enduring themes of music - and roots of religious
belief - from pre-historic times onwards, and the theme of
rebirth has rarely been put with such delicate beauty (on another
tack "the small birds on the wing" reminds me of one of
my favourite poems, Spike Milligan's Spring Has Sprung). The
Spoils Of War counts the cost of conflicts,
even those long but not forgotten, on people and the land alike,
with moving imagery set to a gentle melody. Equally moving but in
a much happier way is perhaps my favourite track on the album, I
Love The Way You Sing. It captures the way
in which it is the simple things that can enchant us about a
lover. Ashley on vocals, guitar and mouthorgan and Chris Leslie
on mandolin and fiddle, lay down a loving bed of sound on which
to lie an already warm lyric. As William Hague tries to create a
bigoted, xenophobic vision of England (at least John Major's
vision of the country was an inclusive One-Nation vision) it is
encouraging to hear another side of England, one that we can be
proud of for its humanity. (DM)
FOLK ON TAP
What is Folk Music? Why
does that question have to be asked? Part of the reason why it is
felt necessary is because of the commercial pop song. We
recognise that there is a distinction which separates the pop
songs from the folky songs. The path from folk to pop can be a
very tricky one. Get it right, commercially - like the Corrs -
and the folk suddenly seems to be playing second fiddle to your
eyeliner. Get it wrong, and you risk alienating your core
audience, who may shout "Judas!" at you. Of course all
folk records are commercial in that the artist wants as many
people to hear them as possible. It's not an elitist thing, but a
recognition of the importance that everyday life is celebrated
and discussed in song. It may seem obvious that songs are about
everyday lives, but it's often overlooked and taken for granted.
The folk-scene and the folk-song writer are carrying on that
tradition.
For the best part of
some thirty years, Steve Ashley has been recognised as being at
the pinnacle of English song writing. True, he dips in and out of
our folk world at irregular intervals, but each successive
release remains a benchmark. Not for him, the Paul Simon personal
poetry that isn't easy for people to fathom. Steve writes songs
about everyday lives and within them we can recognise our
humanity. Like every relationship, to fully appreciate this, you
have to live with his songs for a while. Slowly you realise that
songs such as Say Goodbye,
which at first appears be about an orchard, is also a metaphor
for the way people live their lives, the jobs they do, the way
that the world is changing and life styles are being
marginalised, then things fall into place.
It's Steve's wordplay
that elevates Everyday Lives
onto another artistic plateau. Dance With
You raises a smile in that it perfectly
expresses the frustrations felt by ceilidh dancers who begrudge
sharing their partner when they "Only want to dance
with you". It contains the delightful couplet "You
know I hate these ceilidhs/and the stuff they do/Stuff all that
do si do/let's have some doo be doo." That's
certainly a sentiment which I've shared! Down
Among The Hop Poles is a travelogue down
Steve's personal memory lane with references to his friend, the
great Peter Bellamy, and to his lost youth. To Steve's credit
it's neither morbid nor melancholy, especially with the lovely
reference to "clean as a new Cortina". Like a much
loved old family photograph, "They're still in tune
and still in rhyme/And when I sing that Fire and Wine/It all
comes back so clearly" reminds us that memories do
not fade with age, they grow more vivid. It's fitting that his
paean to that much-abused and under-valued Counselling
occupation, should be an acoustic blue and having witnessed the
positive audience reaction to Pity the
Counsellor during a recent gig, attests to
Steve's razor-sharp observations on life. There's no doubt in my
mind that Gog and Magog
will become a classic song to rank alongside the aforementioned
'Fire And Wine'. It's a perfect example of the wonderful lyrical
imagery which permeates every song in this collection.
Now, I'm going to say
something that I hope Steve the lyricist won't take exception to
- his melodies are so irritatingly catchy. Nowhere more so than
on the beautifully sung unaccompanied ballad, Wintertime
Has Turned To Spring. Once Everyday
Lives is on the player, it's genuinely
impossible to take off.
It may have taken some
ten years for this record to finally arrive, but the over-long
gestation has been well worth the wait. Although I've valiantly
tried, it's genuinely impossible to select individual highlights
as all provide marvellous atmospheric moments. The music of Steve
Ashley exerts an ever-growing appeal to those looking for a
certain grace, texture and modesty in their music. We've always
come to expect a rich production from Steve and this is album no
exception to that rule, so it's hats off to Martin Mitchell for
his beautifully warm production that retains both the delicacy
and bite of the acoustic instruments. He also ensures that
Steve's voice (and lyrics) are not swamped by musically
over-egging the pudding.
All of which makes the
prospect of seeing Steve Ashley on stage with a band at this
year's Cropredy Festival, essential! Geoff Wall, FOLK ON TAP April 2001.
HMV CHOICE
An attic studio in
Cheltenham saw members of Fairport Convention, Incredible String
band, Decameron and Pentangle come together to back Steve Ashley
on what he calls "songs of everyday life and love in the
country of my birth". From the nostalgia of Down
Among The Hop Poles to the social comment
of "Pity The Counsellor",
there's fascination aplenty in these new folk standards. Pass the
loft ladder. MDH
OXFORD HERALD
Steve Ashley marks
return with album of quality
Steve Ashley is yet
another folk singer to return to the scene with the release of
his first album in almost a decade. Those of you who were at last
year's Cropredy Festival will recall seeing Steve come on as
Fairport Convention's guest on the Saturday night to sing one of
his well known songs, Fire and Wine,
from his successful album Stroll On.
Steve made a name for
himself as one of the leading lights of the folk-rock era in the
seventies. He helped found the Albion Country Band, worked with
Fairport Convention, as well as having his own bands. He even
made his mark in the US with two albums released on that most
unlikely of labels, Motown.
His writing style can
be compared with the best - John Tams and Steve Tilston come to
mind - and a compilation of his work, The Test of Time (Market
Square), was released in 1999 to remind everyone of that talent.
Now Topic have issued Everyday lives, 14 new songs recorded with
many old friends - Dave Pegg, Gerry Conway, Simon Nicol, Danny
Thompson, Robin Williamson, plus Fairporter Chris Leslie, Dik
Cadbury and Al Fenn, who were members of the original Steve
Ashley Band.
Everyday Lives is a
very reflective, almost elegaic album, looking back on a time
brimming with optimism. In Down Among The Hop Poles he sings: "I
wish those times would come again ... And when I sing that Fire
And Wine, it all comes back so clearly." And We'll
survive sums up his views on the dark days of the 1980s -
"But we'll survive, we'll survive, we'll find another way to
organise."
His fans will rush out
to buy this album, but hopefully, a new legion will be drawn to a
singer whose songwriting abilities remain undiminished. Peter Cann, Oxford Herald, March 2001.
www.netrhythms.co.uk
Completing a recent
comeback - starting with the retrospective Test
of Time and continuing with an excellent
reissue of the classic Stroll On
and a guest spot at Fairport Convention's Cropredy Festival -
this is Steve's first new album in over ten years. Ashley's
recorded output has always been sporadic but the long gestation
periods have always meant that the quality of the songs is
consistently high. Everyday Lives underlines
this point perfectly and brings together fourteen excellent songs
which look at the many aspects of everyday life and love.
I've been looking
forward to this release for a long time, a taster appeared on Test
of Time in the Autumn of 1998 and the
quality was so immediately apparent that the anticipation level
was high right from the start. I'm pleased to say that it is
every bit as good as I was expecting. Great songs, great singing
and a great supporting cast (including Chris Leslie, Danny
Thompson, Robin Williamson, Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg and Gerry
Conway, alongside long-time collaborators Dik Cadbury, Mick
Dolan, Al Fenn and Lawrence Wright). It is however the trio of
Leslie, Fenn and Thompson who give the album much of it's
instrumental texture. Leslie's fiddle and mandolin colour many of
the songs, Fenn's lead acoustic guitar comes to the fore on
several, while Thompson's inventive double bass work weaves the
whole tapestry together. Ashley's vocals are as strong as ever -
as true a voice as you'll hear, but his instrumental ability is
also evident - a wonderfully rhythmic guitar technique, always
underpinning the lyrics, sometimes drifting into the lead; an
ensemble of electric bouzoukis; and his trademark mouth organs
and whistles.
The general theme is
everyday life and all that goes with it (like much of Steve's
previous work) and the folk tradition echoes throughout the
album. Topics range from the village Ceilidh, the changing
seasons and the various faces of love, as well as the passing of
traditional English apple orchards and the perennial survival of
folk songs. Among the immediate favourites are Say
Goodbye, Down Among
the Hop Poles and Gog
and Magog but new songs come to the top of
the list with every listen. The album closes with one of Steve's
finest songs to date - Over There in
Paradise. Dedicated to departed friends
Peter Bellamy, Trevor Lucas and Royston Wood, it is a touching,
beautiful and yet thought-provoking song.
All in all, this is
probably Steve's finest album since Stroll
On in terms of consistently good songs.
It's a long time since I've heard an album and been so
hard-pressed to pick out highlights (without resorting to quoting
the entire track-listing) and that can only be a testament to the
rare quality of Everyday Lives.
It's been a long time in coming but, believe me, it's been more
than worth the wait. Alex Lyons, www.netrhythms.co.uk, March 2001
BE
GLAD
Back in the wildly
unpredictable 70s, everywhere you turned there were
singer-songwriters (some unbelievably bad), so sheer weight of
numbers meant that not all could achieve an appropriate measure
of appreciative recognition. In Steve's case, although his talent
was feted fairly widely around mid-decade, he later spent quite a
time without a record deal. Even diehard String devotees might
not recall Steve's name buried in the chorus credits for Shirley
& Dolly Collins' 1969 album 'Anthems In Eden' (which happened
to include what was until the release of 'Chelsea Sessions' the
only available recording of that 'lost' Williamson song 'God
Dog'). Steve went on to build up a healthy folk-rock pedigree,
first as a founder member of Ashley Hutchings' influential Albion
Country Band and then with his own band Ragged Robin (which among
other things backed Anne Briggs). He went solo (ostensibly,
albeit backed by the Fairport Nine band) for the rightly
acclaimed 'Stroll On' album (1974), which convincingly
demonstrated his credentials within the context of the
still-evolving folk-rock scene ('Fire And Wine' still raises the
hairs on the back of the neck). There was a follow-up album
'Speedy Return', then the inevitable years of hectic touring in
the manner of the times, but despite continuing to write
prolifically it was not until 1982 that Steve was able to release
the fine 'Family Album', a concept work in all but title.
Thereafter, though given moral and practical support from the
Fairport/Woodworm crowd, Steve struggled through the 80s,
producing two 'Demo Tapes' for the peace movement and another
album 'Mysterious Ways' before calling it a day in 1992 and
taking a break from music. The release of a retrospective
compilation 'The Test Of Time', then an expanded CD reissue of
'Stroll On', by the Market Square label back in 1999, together
with a well-received cameo appearance with Fairport at that
year's Cropredy, seems to have acted as catalyst for Steve to get
a new album together. And pretty excellent it is too; sadly I
don't have space for a track-by-track breakdown, however ...
Before you're driven to
despair by the relative tenuousness of the String connection so
far (after all, Steve didn't even sing on God Dog!) - and there's
an even more tenuous thread in that Steve's producer for 'Stroll
On', Austin John Marshall, was avowedly an ISB fan too - note
that Steve himself explained (in the compilation's liner notes)
that his early songs had reflected "two strong influences -
the style and strength of composition which I found in
traditional English songs and the freedom of expression which I
heard in the early albums of the Incredible String Band" .
The circle is indeed unbroken, for on his new album Steve has
enlisted Robin to play harp on one track (the episodic 'Gog And
Magog'). Sure, he's also brought in Simon Nicol, Danny Thompson,
Chris Leslie, Dave Pegg and Gerry Conway (among others), but not
to generate a full-steam-ahead folk-and-roll sound. Instead the
impact is more folk than rock, with a wonderfully light touch,
the musicians carefully selected on each individual track to
provide a gently complex backdrop for Steve's thoughtful songs;
these confirm his status as an acutely observant (albeit oft
deceptively laid-back) commentator on English life, in which
respect some critics (justifiably) view Steve's songwriting as on
a par with that of Richard Thompson and John Tams. Like these
songwriters, Steve uses his hard-won freedom of expression to
present a distinctive and not always comfortable view of English
life that doesn't shy away from political comment yet steers
clear of empty polemic. An integral and recurring element in
Steve's worldview is his ritualistic interpretation of the
changing seasons, whereby love, death and resurrection form part
of a larger pattern. Steve expresses this through his mature and
canny cognisance of English tradition in the widest sense, allied
to a true respect for traditional values. Having said that,
there's also a distinctly childlike playfulness in the way he
knowingly introduces and manipulates familiar references and
peoples his creations with characters from myth and song; the
method is simultaneously obvious and oblique, yet the result is
delightful and irresistible. 'Down Among The Hop Poles', in
transcending affectionate nostalgia (and, like 'Over There In
Paradise', paying tribute to Peter Bellamy), manages to be both
moving and uplifting. Steve's vocal style is most attractive too,
embodying an appealing fragility in its gently telling delivery;
for example, 'Dance With You' has an almost tearful tenderness
offsetting the frustration and depth of feeling in the words.
Occasionally I hear uncanny shades of Bert Jansch in Steve's
vocal phrasing (perhaps most evident on 'Catch Him If You Can',
but it's impossible to mistake Steve's singing for anyone else
and, as I've already hinted, his songs have a combination of
forthrightness and delicacy that's highly individual. We should
indeed be grateful that Steve has survived, and the inspired
'Everyday Lives' is worth your serious and detailed attention. BE GLAD (Incredible
String Band Magazine), David Kidman May 2001
EXPOSE
Ashley
isn't prolific and he may not have lived up to the potential
displayed on his debut Stroll On.
However, Everyday Lives
is a uniquely intimate treat that once again presents him at his
best: an incomparable and unmistakably English voice weaving
beautifully poetic tales of everyday lives from his homeland. The
majority of the instruments are acoustic, featuring guitars,
fiddle, harmonica, melodeon, double bass, and also drums and
electric guitar. Familar names appear of course like Simon Nicol,
Chris Leslie, Danny Thompson and Dave Pegg. He writes: "Most
of the recordings were made in the loft of Martin Mitchell's
house in Cheltenham ... all the instruments were carried up the
narrow stairs and squeezed into the tiny studio space
above." No doubt this cozy setting was an inspiration which
enhanced the performances. Part of the beauty is this could have
been recorded in 2000 or 1970. He notes that the songs have come
from a long period of reflection, and this comes through both in
familiar and metaphorical references. You'll certainly want to
follow along with the lyrics as his voice and words make a rare
connection to the heart. Within the endearing minutiae of their
everyday lives we can sense the tumultuous history of this tiny
island country, and perhaps learn the lessons of people who've
lived through the perils and parallels and learn their simple
wisdom: "And war will come from war/and grant no release/
Till every heart implores/ peace comes from peace" - EXPOSE (US Alternative Rock Magazine),
Mike Grimes March 2003
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