When Show of Hands announced ‘an indefinite break’, there will have been many in their large following who wondered what will come next. After all, you don’t just switch off the creative juices that helped to deliver three decades of award-winning music for Steve Knightley as principal songwriter in partnership with multi-instrumentalist, Phil Beer.
To begin the follow up musical salvoes, Steve Knightley has released his first solo album in seventeen years, ‘The Winter Yards’. It gathers together twelve tracks which draw support from the many musical friends that he’s made over the years. The lyrical mix that they work upon covers the social themes of Knightley’s songwriting. This all being pulled together by Mark Tucker who not only produces the album but also adds his own instrumental skills on a number of songs.
The opening track, ‘Transactions’, is classic Knightley songwriting in the way that it draws lessons to be learnt from the news headlines. In this case, juxtaposing population change, fluid personal identities and the Post Office scandal viewed through a lens of social justice. All this set to a slow driving rhythm propelled by the tabla playing of Johnny Kalsi and the keyboards of Matt Clifford. The atmospheric backing vocals of the Cornish sisters, True Foxes, making for a smooth arrangement in the style of some of Leonard Cohen’s later work.
The latter use of True Foxes’ backing vocals is an element that works well on other tracks such as ‘I Tried’, a reflective song that considers how life throws up opportunities in ways that we might choose to take or not, regret or not. On ‘Requiem’, the vocal backing approach is given its full rein with the contribution of The Lost Sound, a Dartmoor based choir that adds richness to a song that uses the tune of ‘The Parting Glass’ and was originally developed for Show of Hands’ Great War Centenary recording. ‘The Winter Yards; album closes with yet another satisfying use of choral vocal on ‘A Song For Wickham’ where the singing of the Forest Folk Club audience mixes with the tabla and dhol of Johnny Kalsi in a celebration of the Hampshire countryside.
A meeting at the local Wickham festival provided an opportune moment for a songwriting collaboration with Ross Wilson, the musician behind Blue Rose Code, resulting in the ‘Remember This Kiss’ track included here. As you’ll have gathered, Knightley draws much inspiration from his surroundings on the south coast of England and this is apparent on the song that supplies the album’s title, ‘The Ride (The Winter Yards)’. The subject matter of a country fair helping to express society’s need for communal gatherings that offer fun and frivolity.
Given the number of guests on ‘The Winter Yards’, it would be a surprise if Steve Knightley didn’t put in a call to his old sparring partner in Show of Hands. So, we find those dexterous hands of Phil Beer contributing Spanish guitar to ‘Maria (Recuerdos)’, a song that finds the Show of Hands pairing in tandem with their Madrid based pals, Track Dogs. Elsewhere, Beer’s own love of early Ragtime and Blues guitarists Is the inspiration for the bluesy ‘If You Come Back’ which has Phillip Henry of Edgelarks playing dobro and harmonica on this tale of one of those characterful musicians.
Knightley has described this point in his career as a ‘crossroads’. However, ‘The Winter Yards’ is evidence that the maturity of his career provides a rich palette of songwriting complete with a talented supporting cast. Whilst there is no doubt there will be other projects to savour, Steve Knightley has amply satiated the hunger for more that his many fans wanted.
Steve Henderson
