(2021) Steve Ashley - Family Album Revisited


Review:
An album released into a musical landscape dominated by new romantics and pop electronica – Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Yazoo and ABC – Steve Ashley’s Family Album must have seemed something of a curio in 1982. Upon its later re-release on CD in 1992, Lawrence Heath in fRoots asked, “Does it sound dated?” Now, nearly forty years on a ‘revisited’ version with a bonus track and a new additional song, the answer is that it has definitely not dated. It’s matured. Steve Ashley is a wise and thoughtful songwriter, singer and guitarist, ostensibly working in a ‘folk’ medium and certainly appreciated by the folky fraternity, but he is so much more than that. Elsewhere he is a passionate campaigner and activist or a spinner of myths and legends in song. But his recordings in this collection capture the nuance and intricacies of everyday family life. While it’s thematically focussed, the songs are stylistically varied from the jaunty, whimsical opener, Family Love, through the barmy, borderline deranged Lost and Found to the heartbreaking Once in a While. And it’s that song which is the beating heart and soul of the album, becoming something of an anthem for Ashley and covered by a myriad of folk’s brightest and best, including Token Women, Maggie Boyle and Narthen. It’s a truly beautiful song that showcases not only Steve Ashley’s songwriting and singing but also the brilliance of his assembled backing band. There’s a distinctly analogue immediacy to the recording, and it’s no trick; it was recorded at Dave Pegg’s early home recording setup that grew up to become Woodworm Studios. The recordings were supposed to be demos, but the calibre of the musicians meant it ended up much more than that. The band’s core was a chunk of the then most recent Fairport Convention, the aforementioned Pegg on the bass, Simon Nicol on guitar and banjo and Bruce Rowland adding drums and percussion. Future longstanding Fairporter Chris Leslie, who was in a duo with Steve at the time, contributes backing vocals, mandolin and fiddle (a little more earthy than his current smoother style). In fact, this album sparked the musical connection that led to him joining Fairport 14 years later. Completing the ensemble are Martin Brinsford on melodeon and mouth organ, Mark Powell on keyboard, Trevor Foster drumming on two tracks and vocal harmony group Capers also on two songs. Not the usual stuff that demos are made of… While it must have been a disappointment at the time, the lack of major record label interest means we have these rich and timeless recordings instead. Alongside Once in a While, a poignant reflection on the loneliness of a grandmother’s twilight years, there are more essential songs, including The Rough With The Smooth, another reflection on age, this time from a grandfather’s perspective.Along with an extra track, Somewhere in a Song, that for timing reasons couldn’t be squeezed onto the original LP, there is a newly-recorded song. Steve’s 2018 album One More Thing is intended to be his final album. So it’s doubly welcome that he has chosen to record and release an extra song for this reissue. It’s a risk to tack on a track to a much-loved album, 40-years after the initial recordings. But the song, For Bruce, makes this extra-special, an expert coda to this fine album. As the title suggests, it’s a eulogy for Bruce Rowland, drummer of renown with Fairport and Joe Cocker’s Grease Band, Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance, and many sessions. It’s fitting that a family album closes by celebrating the life of a dear and much-missed friend: "So sadly in the summertime/ When the leaves were all so green/ We lost the kindest drummer/ These eyes have ever seen."





Track Listing:
01 - Family Love
02 - Born to Rule
03 - Pancake Day
04 - Lost and Found
05 - Once in a While
06 - Feeling Lazy
07 - I'm a Radio
08 - Days Like Today
09 - Love Is All We Live For
10 - Little Bit of Love
11 - Somewhere in a Song
12 - The Rough with the Smooth
13 - For Bruce


Media Report:
Genre: folk
Country: UK
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits