Steve Tilston Trio
Album: Happenstance
Label: Hubris
Tracks: 13
Website: http://www.stevetilston.com

A new album by Steve Tilston is always a cause for celebration and this is no exception. However, this is not a Steve solo album but a trio album with two old friends [and virtuoso musicians], namely Stuart Gordon [ violin, vocals and lots of additional instruments] and Keith Warmington [harmonica and vocals].

Steve is, unquestionably, one of our finest singer-songwriters and guitarists and his music has maintained a consistently high standard throughout his career. It's hard to believe that his first album "An Acoustic Confusion" was released forty two years ago [and Keith Warmington played on that one , too]. Steve's most recent album "The Reckoning", released in 2011, is one of my favourites of that or any other year.

With such a talented line-up of players as Steve, Stuart and Keith, this Trio could not fail to make great music. Add to the mix a selection of Steve's songs old and new, a pair of traditional songs, a couple of select covers and one composition each by Stuart and Keith, and you have a cracking album.

The album gets off to a rollicking start with Steve's "Beulah Road", a motorvating song about a journey through the centre of rural Wales from "Mumbles to Merseyside" as Steve forsakes the usual motorway to follow his " fancy and his nose". The song is a joyous celebration of freedom as Steve is "content to be a wayfaring pilgrim".

Steve's uncanny ability to convey a sense of place is also evident on the following "Blues For The North Wind", which conjures up images of winter in the wilds of the Yorkshire Pennines ["Skies full of thunder, my head full of storms"]. The Trio blend guitar, harmonica and violin to create a fitting backdrop to the evocative lyrics.

"Courting Is A Pleasure" is a lovely traditional Irish ballad, which Steve sings beautifully in his customary warm vocal style with more great instrumental support from Keith and Stuart.

"Song Of The Wandering Aengus" provides a musical setting of W.B.Yeats's famous poem [ you know the one - "Silver apples of the moon, Golden apples of the sun"] and the Trio do full justice to Yeats's beautiful words.

Steve goes right back to the 1970's to revisit his excellent song "Sometimes In This Life Are Beautiful", which is one of my personal favourites. The song has gained added resonance with the soaring violin and empathetic harmonica accompaniment provided by Stuart and Keith respectively. "Rocky Road" is not a homage to a type of biscuit but a stirring song about the life a travelling musician. It will be very familiar to followers of Fairport Convention, for whom Steve wrote the song. It was perfect song for Fairport to cover and now Steve has borrowed it back and the Trio do a great version, every bit as good as Fairport's.

"Martin Said To His Man" is a very interesting song which dates back to 1580 [or even earlier]. It was published in Thomas Ravenscroft's Deuteromelia in 1609 and deals with the perils of alcohol- "Thou hast well drunken man, who's the fool now" but it also contains political satire concerning Henry VIII and his relationship with the Pope. The song wittily segues into "Elizabethan Serenade" by Ronald Binge [which I take to be a pun -a song about drinking, followed by a tune by Binge !].

"Jimmy's Train" is superb instrumental featuring two pieces by saxophonist Jimmy Guiffre, with link passages by Steve. The playing by all three members of the Trio is sublime- I would love to hear a whole album of this stuff.

"Jam Tomorrow" is Steve's song about how the Establishment has let down the youth of this country by "talk of jam tomorrow but you leave nothing left to spread it on". With his customary wit, he inserts an instrumental passage from "The Eton Boating Song" [ no prizes for guessing to whom this is referring].

Steve recounts the story of how his daughter Sophie asked him to play a song at her wedding. The song that he chose was "Let's Face The Music And Dance" which, of course, begins "there may be trouble ahead". How Sophie reacted to that is not reported but the song appears here in all of its glory. Incidentally, Sophie painted the attractive cover painting for this album.

"Sentimental" was written by Keith and is a poignant song about the sad end of a relationship ["you took the light right out of my life"].

The album closes with a short but lively instrumental by Stuart called "Little Norris", which has the feel of a traditional dance tune.

And so ends a wonderfully warm, witty and winsome album by a great songwriter and three superb musicians, which I highly recommend [I bet they are great live too].

Peter Cowley