PhilPaine.com

It will come as no sur­prise to any­one that I’m fond of the Fair­port Con­ven­tion song “Here’s To Tom Paine”. That song was orig­i­nally com­posed by the fine Eng­lish folk gui­tarist, Steve Tilston. While he must have over a dozen albums, the only one I own is Swans at Coole (1990). Though it nowhere says so on the album, this refers to the William But­ler Yeats poem, “The Wild Swans at Coole”, a wist­ful alle­gory of tran­si­tory beau­ty. The album fits that mood. Tilston’s fine, con­trolled, but not flashy gui­tar play­ing is bal­anced with var­ied accom­pa­ni­ments on ban­jo (Kevin Boyle), vio­lin (Stu­art Gor­don), flute (Mag­gy Boyle), and cel­lo (Tony Hilli­gan). If you want to have some­thing play­ing on a cold win­ter evening, gath­ered by the fire­place, with old friends not inclined to chat­ter, this is just about right.