It was so nice to hear from musician Simon Felton (Pink Hedgehog Records) after all this time, and I am grateful to him for sending me this wonderful CD recorded literally, in Steve Wilson’s summerhouse! I have heard some of Steve’s music from the past and have always enjoyed it, but this, in my opinion, surpasses everything he has done so far. I had already heard the single ‘Will We Ever Learn?’, a potential chart hit back in the day, and was entranced by the unexpected filmic nature of opener ‘Daybreak on the Fleet’, paired with ‘Circle the Wagons’ (A message well worth hearing). This is deeply personal music with a reference to ‘Ringo’s’ (presumably a pub) in the nostalgic song of the same name (THE BEATLES anybody?), a nice arrangement with some electric piano segueing into ‘the Girl from Donegal’. It’s not just the skiffle beat of ‘Backwell Farm’ that is pleasing on the ear but the astute lyrics about perennial questions: “what’s it all about?”, “who am I?” and the call to get back to the basics of “endless summers” (You are kidding, Steve!) and the observation that “we had nothing but we had it all” are well said. This compelling album was made with (more than) a little help from his friends, too many to name, but a special mention to Steve Garden for his nylon acoustic guitar solo on ‘The Things I Always Hide’ and to Simon Felton’s singing on four of the tracks, Steve Wilson has made an album of quality and relevance from start to finish (‘Reach for the One’, a well-constructed six-minute instrumental with nice bass work) that comes highly recommended.
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