STEVE DAGLEISH – Yours For Eternity (own label DAG CD 05)

Yours For EternitySteve Dagleish is originally from Hull and, via Saltburn-on-Sea, now resident in London. Yours For Eternity is his second album. Like many others, Steve tried his luck with an acoustic guitar in the 70s but abandoned that idea for a steady job and family life. Thirty years later he picked up a guitar again and this is the latest result – an entirely solo album with an unexpected warmth.

As a songwriter Steve is also fond of an unexpected twist. Frequently the title of a song is entirely accurate but doesn’t really reveal the essence of the piece. So the opener, ‘Hello Son’, is about a mother writing to her son with family news but is really about her feelings and emotions about her life with a husband who is capable of falling of his moped and her family which is moving away from here. ‘Governor Of Sombrero’, based on a true story and sung a capella in the style of a traditional ballad, tells of a young Cornish boy press-ganged on board what seems to be a somewhat disreputable ship. After rebelling against unjust treatment he is finally marooned on the island of Sombrero but there is a happy ending as he is rescued and his captain drummed out of the navy.

Steve continues the historical theme with ‘Emily Stands Strong’, a song about Emily Hobhouse who protested about conditions in the Boer War concentration camps and the title track is a not-unfamiliar story from Great War but with a rather bitter hook – “try to tell me that love is not greater than war”.

Steve is pretty good finger-style guitar player – ‘Miss Sweeny’ and the instrumental set, ‘Marriage St./Road To Mary’ are testament to that – and a fine songwriter. There was a time when I’d say that a big label should snap him up but in the current climate I’d say he was doing well enough by himself.

Dai Jeffries

Artist’s website: http://www.stevedagleish.com/

Steve’s Showreel: