The Reckoning [CD]

OK, I'll be honest, I've had this for a month, because I bought it from Steve's website where it was available well before the official release. So perhaps you shouldn't expect a completely unbiased review - on the other hand, I only gave his novel 3 stars, so I'm not totally besotted.

If I've got my dates right, Steve turned 60 while writing the material for this album. Birthdays ending in 0 do tend to induce a reflective mood, and I don't think it's too much of a stretch to see that in some of the songs here. We get songs that express concern over the future (The Reckoning), muse about the attractions of the past and the fallibility of memory (Memory Lane), worry about religious faith or lack thereof (Doubting Thomas - apparently Thomas really is his middle name, as the refrain claims; a gift of a title, and it's amazing he's resisted using it for 40 years!), and reflect the landscape of his adopted home (Pennine Spring). Unusually, there are no traditional songs here: "Nottamun Town Return" is a rewrite of a traditional piece, but as it has completely new lyrics (a couple of lines may have survived from the original) I don't think it counts! There is the obligatory history lesson - Rio de la Miel, a story from the Spanish Civil War - and a couple of instrumental pieces, a dance set and a tribute to the late Davey Graham, called "Ijna" on account of its being, in terms of its musical construction, "Anji backwards".

Steve has two strengths as a performer: he's a fantastic songwriter, and he's a technically accomplished guitarist. The latter is more to the fore in this album than in its predecessor, Ziggurat - the intricate, classical-influenced introduction to the opening track lays its cards on the table in that respect, and the same atmosphere is maintained throughout. It's not a solo record overall (though some of the tracks are), but the emphasis is definitely on Steve's words and guitar, with the additional accompaniment mostly quite understated. The instrumental tracks - a dance set and "Ijna" - are solo guitar showpieces.

This sort of music stands or falls by the quality of the songs, and these are very, very good songs: intelligent, literate lyrics complemented by catchy tunes. I don't think "Nottamun Town Return" has staying power - I can't see it being part of his live set in five years' time - but that's not a criticism of the song, just a feature of topical satire: once the episodes it's based on have faded from memory, it won't work. I will argue, gently, with the title - I guess it's supposed both to reflect the fact that this is a modern reworking of the traditional ballad "Nottamun Town" and to echo the last verse, which is about problems with trains ("the right kind of snow/but the wrong kind of track"), but it doesn't quite work, as the lyric of that last verse explicitly states "I bought a one-way ticket/there was no turning back". More of a "Nottamun Town Single", then. The only song I'm still not sure about is "Sovereign of Tides", which is a words-and-music picture of the Moon reflected on the ocean - it's intended to evoke atmosphere, but I'm not entirely convinced by it, partly because of a rare lyrical misstep: it refers to "the restless, yawning waves", which I'm afraid produced a train of thought along the lines of "Do waves yawn? Chasms yawn - but waves? Especially restless waves? Aren't they opposed senses? Does anything restless yawn? Maybe a bored theatre audience? Is that an image you want to introduce in the middle of a very slow song??" Which is a bit unkind, given that it's one line in one song - and quite likely says more about me than it does about the song: I will admit to being a bit of a purist where words are concerned.

Overall, this album is well up to Steve's high standards - a masterclass in intelligent songwriting (I'll forgive him one dodgy line!) set off by some fine guitar-playing. A beautiful collection which will stand up to repeated listening.

Despite being a gigging guitarist and acoustic music fan myself for many years, every now and again I seem to find a fellow musician who not only knocks my socks off but also has been around for a long while and I've totally missed their work.
I first saw that Steve was appearing at my local Folk Club in December so decided to visit his web-site and find out a bit more about him. I was hugely impressed by the samples I was able to listen to on the site and decided to download this, his new album. It is a very good album that for me only just misses five star rating. For me to give any album 5 stars then pretty much every single track has to be standout. There are what seem to be just a couple of filler tracks, but the songs This is the Dawn, Memory Lane, Rio De La Miel and Nottamun Town Return all fit for me into the category of outstanding songs of the genre. The one curiosity for me was the final track, Inja, which is a sort of musical parody of Davey Graham's Anji. If he wanted to make a tribute then personally I would have much preferred to hear Steve's own interpretation of the original than this.
If you, like me, have not been familiar with this man's work then this is a good place to start. He is a fine craftsman at contemporary songwriting, being able to write with both grittiness and sensitivity and is also a highly accomplished guitar player. I'll certainly be seeing him live in December!

After 40 years of making music, Steve Tilston seems to be on a great run at the moment. The excellent "Ziggurat" in 2008 has been followed by "The Reckoning" and to my ears at any rate it's one of his best albums, with an integrality and quality throughout that would put it up with Solorubato and Swans at Coole in terms of albums by Steve where each track is as good as the track that precedes or follows it. I've had it on non-stop this summer since getting a preview copy and it gets more satisfying with every play. Where for me Steve has the edge on his contemporaries and on some of the newcomers to the folk/singer-songwriter milieu is that he does everything well- superlative guitar playing, a mature and mellowed voice that has changed a bit since the early days, and really classy songs. "The Reckoning" covers all kinds of subjects and must be the first Steve Tilston album not to feature a love song. Two songs about the beauty of living in the Pennines- "This is the Dawn" and "Pennine Spring", two superb guitar instrumentals, including a mind-boggling reworking of Anji by Davy Graham, a song about the moon with a guitar raga accompaniment, "Sovereign of Tides" , a classic ST political/historical song about the Spanish Civil War, "Rio de la Miel", a really good update of Weeping Willow Blues, a song about scepticism and faith, "Doubting Thomas" are all really good, but for me four songs that I play again and again are : "The Reckoning" a- song probably about ecological damage, but one that could equally fit the financial crisis or stretching it a bit in recent days the Murdoch empire's day of reckoning ! It's not a question of we reap what we sow, but our children and grandchildren reap the ecological, financial or moral wreck of a harvest that we've sown. "Oil and Water" a glorious road song. Nottamun Town Return, a great satire of England's and particularly London's political establishment with all the usual suspects (mayor, prime-minister, press, royals and police- all of whom have been swept into the phone-hacking scandal) in a reworking of the traditional song Nottamun Town with a London twist. "Memory Lane" is the centrepiece of the album with rippling guitar, some superb strings and meditations on getting pulled back into the past. It's an 8 minute something track and just flies by, for me a sign of a quality piece of music. As someone who got into Steve's music via his second album in 1972 and really through a great song of his called "Reaching Out" "Memory Lane" is a perfect complement to the earlier song and in the words of Gene Clark- "Funny how the circle turns around"!