The Winter Yards

This is – believe it or not – the first solo studio album from English folk singer-songwriter Steve Knightley in 17 years. Given his prolific output, perhaps it’s unsurprising that he hasn’t found the time. This is a quiet, thoughtful collection from Knightley, with just the introspection one might expect from a singer-songwriter who has just hung up his boots as part of the hugely successful folk duo-cum-trio, Show of Hands, with Phil Beer and Miranda Sykes. Their ‘indefinite break’ doesn’t mean any interruption, however, in the seam of West Country folk song that Knightley has mined for so long. The hard up, the unassuming grafters, are always Knightley’s muses. Right from the title-track, which is a reference to the place where fair folk wrap up their bumper cars and waltzers for the winter months, this feeling of the down season is one that Knightley nails so well.