|
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Astonishingly assured debut from a rediscovered master, 21 Oct 2000
By A Customer
That Steve Ashley is back making new albums (he has a release in 2001 with Britain's Topic Records)is thanks to this record - one that deserves the tag 'lost classic'. Market Square's release of Ashley's 1974 debut Stroll On went to the vaults and to the 1971 sessions' master tapes and returned with two extra tracks from the sessions plus a rare single from the period featuring Steve with members of the contemporary Fairport Convention line-up. Stroll On Revisited is said to be the record Ashley wanted to make if he had his way at the time and the result is an extraordinary assembly of classic 70s folk rock with an accompanying line-up of who-was-who in the genre of the time. It was if Steve (a former founder of the Albion Band) had bidden his time, writing song after song, discarding perfectly good material (to emerge on some of his later albums) in favour of delivering a debut to be reckoned with. He achieves it not only on the strength of the song-writing but in the musicianship, the shimmying arrangements by Nick Drake's collaborator Robert Kirby, and, in this release, the extensive booklet notes with rare pictures and every last verse of Ashley's sublime lyric. It is here also that these songs are made more of through the writer's words: Steve Ashley is a born story-teller and in this album's song-cycle based loosely on a year's seasons in England of the time, he evokes gently and humourously on his experiences and on those of others about him, fictional or otherwise. The result is a akin to being transported to a lost country of happy and perhaps gentler times. From its opener, Ashley's anthemic Fire And Wine with its roaring assent to a 'damn good time', to the closing wistfulness of Follow On, Stroll On Revisited draws itself up to the listener, so closely and assuredly that it is impossible not to take notice and be moved by it. This record is not solely for devotees of the English folk rock tradition: it is a must-have for anybody who loves innovative well-written and performed music.
|
~ Steve Ashley
~ Steve Ashley
~ Fotheringay
~ Bridget St. John
~ Dennis Wilson
See all Product Description
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). 
Amazon Home