Cruel River

Steve Knightley

In the flesh Steve Knightley is one of those people who looks you in the eye when he talks to you, he gives you his full attention, and he talks a lot of sense. His songwriting does the same thing, with Phil Beer in Show Of Hands he's recorded some of the best albums in English roots music over the past couple of decades. Their recent album 'Witness' has been their most ambitious in production and most successful in sales.

Steve has released his latest solo album, Cruel River, on the back of this success. Not to say that he's cashing in on the SOH success, rather that he's in a particularly creative and productive phase. Cruel River showcases his vocal strength against stripped back instrumentation. Tall Ship Story, for example has him spinning a tale of the seas against a single mandocello. Well OK there's a bit of fuzz guitar in there, just enough to leave you wanting more...

He's taken the opportunity to gather together a few old favourites as well; Crooked Man and Poppy Day, which was released on Poppy Day in 2006, it chronicles the by-product of the symbol of remembrance - opium that ends up as heroin on our streets.

Knightley conjures engaging characters and more often than not let's them play out their dramas in the Devon landscape. I don't know of any other songwriter that can move from first to third person narratives with such ease, or of one that can bring the natural and cultural landscape to life in such a way.

The new songs explore familiar territory, with his customary insight and social commentary. Seeing that he'd covered Dire Straits as an extra live track set the warning bells off in my head, due mainly to my over exposure to them by a room mate at art school. He makes it his own to my considerable relief.

This album covers the range of human experience and emotion, indeed, I'd say that Steve Knightley would find it physically impossible to release an album that was not well-rounded. Likewise the production is understated yet excellent, play it on a high end hi-fi and the relationship between singer, music and listener is delightfully intimate.

Catch him live and try to have a chat with him afterwards, and see if I'm right.

Iain Hazlewood