BATH: Chapel Arts Centre

Thursday 10th April, 2025

7:30pm

Event information

As seen on Later with Jools Holland and BBC Four Songwriters’ Circle BBC Radio 2 Folk Award Winner, Best Original Song for The Reckoning Inspiration for Hollywood movie Danny Collins starring Al Pacino One of the UKs finest singer/songwriter/guitarists on fine form

Perhaps best known for his song-writing prowess, Steve Tilston is also a dazzling guitarist drawing from folk, blues, jazz and classical to create a sound that is recognisably Tilston.

Flesh all that out with Bristol music scene stalwart and harmonica maestro Keith Warmington, regular Yorkshire sideman Hugh Bradley on double bass and ace jazz drummer Tony Orrell on percussion and you can expect something very special indeed.

Celebrating the new album release ‘Last Call’

So, here, we have it: Steve Tilston’s last album, over half a century on from his first, Acoustic Confusion, and on a par with his finest. With the empathetic accompaniment of good friends and long-term musical collaborators, Steve looks both back and ahead as he traverses the musical spectrum from social and political comment to rustic reflection, from autobiography to eternal geographical history, across blues, traditional folk, poetry and even a hint of jazz. It’s a thing of audible joy and circumstantial sadness.

Like so much of Steve’s output in a long recording career, the music herein is of its time and still timeless, a section cut through the moment that combines content and context. For a final album, this gives a Tilston fan everything they could wish for – the majestic natural epic Time and Tide, the evanescent moving intimacy of No Tears to Spare, the endless fresh springtime stand-off of Sweet Primroses, in which Steve reminds us that he is not only a great writer of songs (just ask Fairport Convention), also a great song interpreter too, setting this most familiar sample of the folk repertoire against a baroque string quartet.

And so it goes…The title track, a song without words, Last Call allows us to marvel at the mastery of a guitar maestro, five and half minutes packed with acoustic allusion and self-reflection, a fitting fretwork farewell. (words by Nigel Schofield)

A note from Steve…

As the title suggests, I’m thinking Last Call will be my last album of original compositions; with any future releases likely comprising of new and old material including covers of favourite songs by others and traditional selections. But no doubt occasional songs will percolate through and make themselves known!

On Last Call the songs cover the full gamut of topics; love, friendship, death, childhood, landscape, history and of course, political finger-pointing. Plus, a tour-de-force instrumental piece that demonstrates and stretches my guitar technique.

Last Call is an album I’m very proud of and, in my opinion, contains some of my best work.

Reviews and Quotes

“The new album is equal to any in his 54-year career. The songs, singing, arrangements and guitar craftsmanship are incontrovertibly top-drawer, decorated with Tilston’s immaculate intros and outros and finely fingerpicked lead solos and melodies.” Rhythms Tony Hillier

“50 years plus on from his debut his final album is as good as anything from his extensive back catalogue and is a fitting way to bow out.” Folking.com

“…great stuff…great fun, wonderful playing and top songs, what more do you want from an evening.” Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2

“A great narrator on top form.” The Observer ****

“…dominated by Tilston’s exquisite guitar work…” The Guardian ****

“…songs of great heart, delivered with authority and instrumental panache.” The Scotsman ****

“The more you listen, the more there is to discover.” Bob Harris

www.stevetilston.com

Photo – ktbruce