Talking Elephant 2025
Last Call
Bowing out in style, English master of understated wonder sculpts his farewell album which is bound to cast a long shadow.
It’s been quite a journey from “An Acoustic Confusion” that Steve Tilston debuted with back in 1971 to here and now, with friends like Bert Jansch falling by the wayside and colleagues like FAIRPORT CONVENTION laying down his pieces and even nominating one of those, “Over The Next Hill” from 2004, for a titular number of their own platter. Naming seemed to have always played a crucial role in the folk veteran’s oeuvre, so Steve placed an onus on announcing the sixteenth studio entry in his solo discography as “Final Call” and ruling out the issue of a follow-up, only to later relent and soften the meaning of the phrase’s first word. Indeed, Tilston should not stop with these tunes, because not a lot of septuagenarian singer-songwriters retain emotions strong enough to make the listener’s very soul resonate.
Steve doesn’t need to deliver a single lyric to achieve such a staggering effect, as the ballad which lent the entire album its title is an exquisite instrumental that finds the artist all alone, weaving a rivetingly ruminative, romantic lace on his guitar. Still, when Tilston’s words are at the fore of a track, his melodies feel no less arresting, if on a different, merrier level, so the smoothly rumbling “Biding Time” goes for a full-band, harmonica-oiled rockabilly, while the shimmering “Time And Tide” measures the passage of years in a slightly histrionic, though just as sincere manner. More traditionally shaped cuts, fiddle-footed opener “Apple Tree Town” and reflective “As Night Follows Day” where gloom and hope engage in a dance, hardly hint at the depth revealed further on, but after the vibrantly dramatic “Never Could Have Asked For More” has offered a “mustn’t grumble” attitude the miracles of nature warrant, signs of existential awe transpire on the surface of this record.
Yes, the electric romp through “Hard Cheese” is humorous, yet Neapolitan-tinctured “No Tears To Spare” is tender and tremulous, giving Steve’s vocals ample room to soar, and the serene-to-solemn “Sweet Primroses” sees Tilston return to familiar folk fields to roam and enjoy life. Long may he walk!
****4/5
