Steve Frank Ashley (born 9 March 1946) is an English singer-songwriter, recording artist, multi-instrumentalist, writer and graphic designer. Ashley is best known as a songwriter and first gained public recognition for his work with his debut solo album, Stroll On (Gull, 1974). Taking his inspiration from English traditional songs, Ashley has developed a songwriting style, which is contemporary in content while reflecting traditional influences in his melodies, poetry and vocal delivery.
Stroll On is the debut album by British singer-songwriter Steve Ashley. It was released in April 1974 in LP format on Gull Records and was critically acclaimed in the UK, being awarded “Contemporary Folk album of the Year” in the leading monthly folk magazine, Folk Review.[5] It has been described as “a masterful, beautifully textured and gentle epic” and “a masterpiece of its kind – a beautiful, rich and deeply atmospheric collection of very English songs, like a musical impression of Dickens, Victorian Christmas cards and Thomas Hardy’s Wessex with a running concept concerning seasonal change”.[6] According to the music collectors’ magazine Goldmine, it is “one of the key albums in the 
entire history of English Folk Rock”.
An extended version with three additional tracks, Stroll On Revisited, was released in 1999 as a CD on Market Square Records.
In 1971 Austin John Marshall arranged a production and publishing deal for Steve 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 music 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 1971 the first version of Ashley’s debut album was completed and offered to a number of major and independent labels.
By the spring of 1972 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. This line-up included ex-Fairport members Hutchings, Simon Nicol and Dave Mattacks, plus American fiddler Sue Draheim and ex-Young Tradition singer, Royston Wood. Sharing the lead vocal role with Wood, Ashley performed a few of his own songs plus a number of folk songs, including a 17-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.
In November 1972, 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 1974, entitled Stroll On.
The original track listing was changed prior to release when the deal with Gull was signed and “Silly Summer Games” was re-recorded, while “Love in a Funny Way” was removed along with “Spirit of Christmas” to make way for “Lord Bateman” (with the Albion Country Band).
After its UK release in April 1974 the album was also licensed for release in the Netherlands and Belgium through Dureco; in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland through the German record label Teldec; and in Australia and New Zealand through Astor Records. In 1975 the album was licensed for manufacture and distribution in the United States and Canada through Motown.
“Old Rock ‘n’ Roll”, with “Fire and Wine” on the B side, was issued in 1974 as a single in the UK and in New Zealand.
Stroll On was met with widespread critical acclaim in the UK. In The Daily Telegraph, Maurice Rosenbaum declared: “Ashley’s own songs are the product of an extraordinary gift for creating material of true folk quality” and, in Melody Maker, Karl Dallas hailed it as “the finest album since folk became contemporary”. At the end of 1974 it was awarded “Contemporary Folk album of the Year” in the leading monthly folk magazine, Folk Review.
Music journalist Colin Harper described it as “a masterful, beautifully textured and gentle epic” and “a masterpiece of its kind – a beautiful, rich and deeply atmospheric collection of very English songs, like a musical impression of Dickens, Victorian Christmas cards and Thomas Hardy’s Wessex with a running concept concerning seasonal change”.
The June 1999 issue of Mojo magazine featured the original Stroll On in its regular full-page series “Buried Treasure”.
Lee Blackstone, writing in RootsWorld, said: “Stroll On: Revisited is a classic album in every sense. The musical guests run the gamut of the English folk-rock scene, but, mind you, this isn’t a case of spoiled broth. Rather, Stroll On manages to be a well-orchestrated calendar album, with the play of seasons the overarching theme… Incredibly, the entire album has worn remarkably well and it bears the stamp of timelessness that the best British folk-rock can conjure… As a debut album, Stroll On is remarkably mature, and Ashley’s magical achievement can now be savored again.”
Keith Hadad, reviewing the album on Record Crates United, said: “[T]he range of influences on Stroll On is daringly unique. British and American folk and rock traditions have been seamlessly blended in with elements of Irish and classical music as well… Ashley’s starkly echoing vocals [on “Springsong”] sometimes harken back to Celtic choral singing while Kirby’s string arrangement is reminiscent of the Pastoral composers, like Ralph Vaughan Williams. Meanwhile the only percussion present in the song is a tabla being played in the traditional Hindustani style… [it] works beautifully here, making this an absolute highlight of the record.”
Alan Rose, for The Living Tradition magazine, said: “‘Stroll On’ was released in 1974 amid critical acclaim, which all these years later seems eminently justified. The very first track led to his alternative title of ‘The Fire and Wine Guy’, and after twenty-five years its lush harmonies, electric arrangement and sound philosophy ensure that its magic is undiminished… Ashley’s songs are packed with life-affirming, earth-touching sentiments, deceptively simple at first hearing but unfolding at each repeat to display deeper meanings with staggeringly intelligent and original use of language.” (wikipedia)
Personnel:
Steve Ashley (vocals, guitar, harmonica, whistle)
Richard Byers (guitar, mandolin, background vocals)
B. J. Cole (pedal steel guitar)
Claire Dawson (background vocals)
Brian Diprose (bass)
Barry Dransfield (fiddle)
Thom Friedlein (bass)
Chris Karan (tablas)
Dave Mattacks (drums)
Redd McReady (harpsichord)
Lea Nicholson (concertina)
Dave Pegg (bass, mandolin)
Daryl Runswick (bass)
Danny Thompson (bass)
+
Albion Country Band Mk1 1972:
(Ashley Hutchings, Royston Wood, Steve Ashley, Simon Nicol, Sue Draheim and Dave Mattacks) on 10.)
Tracklist:
01. Fire And Wine (Ashley) 4.36
02. Finite Time (Ashley/Menday) 2.54
03. Silly Summer Games (Ashley) 4.51
04. Springsong (Ashley) 3.30
05. Monkey Puzzle Tree (Ashley) 2.58
06. Farewell Green Leaves (Ashley) 4.28
07. Morris Minor (Ashley) 1.35
08. Candlemas Carol (Ashley) 3.03
09. John Donne Song (Donne/Ashley) 5.24
10. Lord Bateman (Child 53; Roud 40) (Traditional) 8.45
11. Follow On (Ashley) 3.31
Steve Ashley is a unique performer whose voice can convey great power and great tenderness. He has performed since the 1960s, when he was popular in the folk clubs of West London, and his style might be described as folk-influenced social commentary. He is one of the great treasures of English music. (ukfestivalguides.com)
Still alive & well: Steve Ashley and his website from 2020:
Eddie Harris (October 20, 1934 – November 5, 1996) was an American jazz musician, best known for playing tenor saxophone and for introducing the electrically amplified saxophone. He was also fluent on the electric piano and organ. His best-known compositions are “Freedom Jazz Dance”, recorded and popularized by Miles Davis in 1966, and “Listen Here.”
standard drum kit and tacky-sounding electric bongos, some of Harris’ most irresistible grooves (“Funkaroma,” “Look Ahere”) can be found here. The title track, a Ronald Muldrow/Harris collaboration, is an ingenious self-contained little piece, a chugging machine-driven rhythm, a catchy guitar riff, and a great brief repeated chorus. Harris resurfaces as a competent piano player (with overdubbed electric sax) on the down-home “House Party Blues” and as usual, he plugs another electronic innovation into his sax on “Space Commercial,” an eerie pitch-tracking device designed by Robert Moog, inventor of the Moog synthesizer. (by Richard S. Ginell)
Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947)[2] is an American rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has been a member of five successful rock bands: James Gang, Barnstorm, Eagles, the Party Boys, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Walsh was also part of the New Zealand band Herbs. In the 1990s, he was a member of the short-lived supergroup The Best.
the early James Gang.” Eric Clapton said that “He’s one of the best guitarists to surface in some time. I don’t listen to many records, but I listen to his.”[8] The Who’s guitarist, Pete Townshend, said “Joe Walsh is a fluid and intelligent player. There’re not many like that around.”
Growl: Formed 1969, United States, Disbanded 1974. Produced by Robert Duffey on Frank Zappa and Herb Cohen’s label, a cross between rock and hard rock. Dennis Rodriguez, Harry Brender, Gene Lucero and Danny McBride were previously in Utopia (not the Todd Rundgren group)….~
Blues on Bach is an album by American jazz group the Modern Jazz Quartet recorded in 1973 and released on the Atlantic label. The album includes five John Lewis arrangements of pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, interspersed with four original blues pieces “on” [the name] “Bach” — in keys (and with titles) that spell out in order the name B-A-C-H.
Wishbone Four is the fourth studio album by British rock band Wishbone Ash, released in 1973. It was a departure from their previous album, Argus, in that it lacked that recording’s overall cohesion and atmosphere and the loose conceptual framework of a stately, pastoral and warring medieval England. Containing only hints of the extended twin-lead guitar harmonies, Wishbone Four’s stylistic variety found its footing in acoustic folk elements in half of the eight-song set (“Ballad of the Beacon”, “Everybody Needs a Friend”, “Sorrel” and “Sing Out the Song”), two aggressive and melodic starters on each side of the vinyl release (Side 1: So Many Things to Say” and Side 2: “Doctor”), and the band’s first use of horns on the semi-autobiographical “rave-up” touring song “No Easy Road”.
The massive Cal Jam took place in Ontario, California in the Spring of 1974, the event was done in part with ABC television who would broadcast parts of the festival. The bill of Deep Purple, ELP, Sabbath, as well as Black Oak Arkansas and the Eagles drew a staggering 250,000 music fans to the day long event. While the Deep Purple set has been released on both audio and video, precious little of the Sabbath set has made its way to fans on video, but thankfully the soundboard audio of the band’s entire performance has been circulating for some time. There have been several previous releases of this recording, Metal Mess (Oh Boy 1-9016), Bagdad (German Records GR-032), Live USA (Imtrate IMT 900-098), Iron Man Vol 2 (Bananna BAN 053-B), Canadian Nightmare (Aulica A 120), Canabis Confusion (Chase The Dragon CTD 005), and most recently on the third disc of 1974 (No Label). The soundboard audio source is excellent, instruments and vocals are cleanly heard with perfect balance, by far the best sounding document of the tour. It is however, a bare bones kind of recording that robs it of that concert ambiance, the band is in excellent form and rise to the occasion and gives the largest crowd they had played to at this point something to remember.
Tomorrows Dream is the opening number, its short and sweet it sets the stage for the lumbering “Sweet Leaf” but for me things heat up as the band go into “Killing Yourself To Live”. The new song is played perfectly, it also includes some kind of swirling noise effect that is interesting to say the least. Ozzy demands “Smoke it” then as if doing it himself “Get High” that is followed by some stoned laughter. “War Pigs” does not have the storm sounds and the siren typically found at the beginning of the song, most probably due to it being a festival set. You can clearly here Bill Ward’s count in to “Snowblind”, Tony plays a beautiful yet mournful solo that is perfect for the bleakness of the song.
Focus are a Dutch progressive rock band formed in Amsterdam in 1969 by keyboardist, vocalist, and flautist Thijs van Leer. The band has undergone numerous formations in its history. Since December 2016, it has comprised van Leer, drummer Pierre van der Linden, guitarist Menno Gootjes, and bassist Udo Pannekeet. Past members include guitarist Jan Akkerman, drummer Hans Cleuver and bassists Martijn Dresden, Bert Ruiter and Bobby Jacobs. They have sold one million RIAA-certified albums in the United States.
On one hand, the vibe of A Band Of Roadies comes as no surprise: after all, the band comprised members of the Allman Brothers Band’s road crew circa ’73-’74, along with some other players from the Macon, GA music scene at the time. This mix of covers and originals – infused with bluesy, jazzy grooves and adventurous jams – is exactly what you might expect from offshoots of the ABB family.
José Monserrate Feliciano García (born September 10, 1945), better known simply as José Feliciano [xoˈse feliˈsjano], is a Purto Rican-American musician, singer and composer, best known for many international hits, including his rendition of The Doors’ “Light My Fire” and the best-selling Christmas single, “Feliz Navidad”. His music is known for its fusion of styles: Latin, jazz, blues, soul and even rock, created primarily with his unique, signature acoustic guitar sound. His oftentimes mellow easy listening influences are easily recognizable in many songs heard around the world.
