Fire and Wine - An Armchair Guide to Steve Ashley

That could go on to be something performed for The following gigs have been booked in for Steve in with more to follow Among the myriad artists about whom Dave Thompson has written books are: Click here for the UK paperback edition: Ashley will be 70 in but In Your Heart shows he still has the power to move For insights into Steve's early inspirations and his influence upon younger artists click here. Elsewhere, Steve was asked to supply his favourite top five rock songs with his reasons why and these are listed in the chapter Steve Ashley's Top Five.

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Steve's previous album, Time and Tide Topic has received widespread critical acclaim both here in the UK and in music magazines overseas Ashley may not be prolific but his songs are worth the wait. Honest music that calls for repeat-play. A joy from start to finish" Goldmine USA. I also had the chance to sing with Royston Wood. We knew each other from before the Young Tradition, when he and Pete Bellamy were singing as a duo.

New Book: Fire & Wine – An Armchair Guide to Steve Ashley

Royston and I were destined to work together again later, in the Albion Country Band. No vocal overdubs, just straight. Shirley outlines the songs to which Steve contributed. Like many of their tunes, it sounds like an anthem. At that time it was a much smaller scene with fewer records, so if you saw somebody mentioned or someone who sang and played on a big release like Anthems In Eden , you were alerted to another artist who would for sure be worth checking out.

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View all posts by davethompsonbooks. You are commenting using your WordPress. In , now as a folk songwriter, Ashley formed a duo with guitar player Dave Menday called "The Tinderbox". The A side, "Farewell Britannia" was about the planned removal of the image of Britannia from the British penny. Just before the release of the record the image was saved on the 50 pence piece and the single was scrapped. Shortly after, The Tinderbox disbanded.

In , Marshall landed a production and publishing deal for Ashley with Harbrook Music which gave Ashley free access to recording time at London's Olympic Studios , to record his first album. At this time Marshall also played the early demo tapes to the folk critic Karl Dallas , who interviewed Ashley for Melody Maker. Acting as producer for Harbrook Productions, Marshall hired Robert Kirby to create string arrangements for many of Ashley's songs.

He also hired a number of musicians to back Ashley, including members of Fairport Convention and Pentangle , plus a section of the London Symphony Orchestra , directed by Kirby. By the late summer of , the first version of Ashley's debut album was completed and offered to a number of major and independent labels. By the spring of however, the album was still unplaced with a label, and then Ashley was invited by Ashley Hutchings to join the first touring ensemble of The Albion Country Band.

Sharing the lead vocal role with Wood, Ashley performed a few of his own songs plus a number of folk songs, including a verse ballad , " Lord Bateman ". The Albion Country Band was signed to Island Records but the band broke up before recording, after just nine months together. Writing in Melody Maker in , Dallas described Ashley as "one of the finest singer-songwriters in Britain, if not the entire English-speaking world".

New Book: Fire & Wine - An Armchair Guide to Steve Ashley | Folk Radio

In November, Ashley signed a solo recording deal with Gull Records, and with a few track changes, his long-delayed first album was finally released in April entitled Stroll On. After a three-year wait to find a deal, Stroll On was met with widespread critical acclaim in the UK. By the year's end it was awarded "Contemporary Folk album of the Year" in the leading monthly folk magazine, Folk Review.

In , Gull Records licensed the album to Motown in the United States and Ashley's first American tour was underwritten by that company.

The performer not only sings his originals well, but has one of the funniest of dry stage raps. His voice is good. His originals are sensitive, ex-of the Albion Country Band, Ashley can hold an audience. Back in the UK he recorded the follow-up, Speedy Return , and undertook a series of solo tour supports for a variety of headline bands, including Supertramp , Planxty , Isotope, Gong and Fruup. However, by the end of , Gull's deal with Motown fell through and Ashley was without a record company.

His planned third album, Rare Old Men , was never released and it was not until that Fairport's Dave Pegg recorded, produced and eventually released what was his third album, Steve Ashley's Family Album , on his own Woodworm label.

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In , Ashley formed the electric folk "Steve Ashley Band" and this band performed sporadically for 12 years, including appearances at Rotterdam Folk Festival , Glastonbury Festival and Cambridge Folk Festival In , at the Rotterdam Folk Festival, Ashley met the Australian folk-rock band, The Bushwackers , whose leader, Dobe Newton, asked Ashley to write some musical settings of poems by the deceased bush poet, Henry Lawson. Around this time he began a part-time involvement in Oxfam 's publicity and campaigning work as a graphic designer and copywriter.

Later, he took part in the blockade of the nuclear weapons factory at Burghfield and was eventually arrested for obstruction in the mass sit-in at the USAF base at Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire.