Steve Ashley

Steve Ashley has influenced the evolution of British folk music for nearly four decades. A member of the short-lived Albion Country Band in the early '70s, Ashley has continued to perform in a variety of settings. In addition to leading his own bands, Ragged Robin and the Steve Ashley Band, he performed with a duo in the 1980s that he shared with future Fairport Convention multi-instrumentalist Chris Leslie. His harmonica playing can be heard on albums by Plainsong, Marc Ellington, Richard Thompson, Ashley Hutchings, and Mike D'Abo. While Folk Roots claimed that "Ashley's freshness and vigour are constants," Melody Maker declared that he was "one of the finest singer/songwriters in Britain, if not the entire English-speaking world." Ashley was still in his teens and a student at Ealing Art College when he began singing traditional folk tunes in West London folk clubs. Moving to the town of Maidstone in 1964 to study graphic design, he quickly became friends with Peter Bellamy of British folk trio, the Young Tradition. Together with Bellamy, he founded the Maidstone Folk Club. Inspired by American blues, he played with an Art College blues band, the Tea Set. Graduating in 1967, Ashley accepted a graphic design position with the Observer. Around the same time, he began composing his first tunes. Forming a duo, Tinderbox, with guitarist Dave Menday, he recorded an unreleased single, "Farewell Britannia," in late 1967. Ashley's first radio session was for the BBC with Tinderbox and Shirley Collins.. He continued to be involved with Collins following the breakup of Tinderbox, singing on Shirley & Dolly Collins' 1969 album Anthems in Eden. Signed to a publishing contract with Harbrook Music in 1971, and his first success came when Anne Briggs recorded his tune "Fire and...