Steve Tilston - Life By Misadventure (1987)

Steve Tilston is a singer-songwriter-guitarist who has been recording great albums since the 70s, has been praised by fellow musicians, but has never received the recognition he deserves. Maybe that could change with the release of Danny Collins, an Al Pacino film inspired by a true story: John Lennon sent Tilston a letter offering advice, but he didn’t receive it for more than 30 years. Tilston has responded to the publicity in typical fashion, by releasing yet another thoughtful and classy album. This set starts with memories of his early days in London, and moves on to quietly angry songs of natural disaster and human stupidity. The Riverman Has Gone cleverly mixes references to the Nick Drake song with stories of economic cuts and flooding, Running Out of Road is a bleak but jaunty story of global destruction, and Pecket’s Well is an impressively arranged folk-baroque instrumental. I suspect Lennon would have approved.