TREVOR BEALES - Fireside Stories

There are albums that tell more than simple stories. "Fireside Stories" is a collection of twelve songs, 34 minutes and 48 seconds that encapsulate not only a life lived and cut tragically short, but also the hardships of an entire community, the city of Leeds, struck in the early '70s by an industrial and economic crisis with devastating consequences. It wasn't only the city that was brought to its knees by financial troubles and the health repercussions of asbestos exposure, but also the surrounding areas — one of which was Hebden Bridge, a small town that years later would become a haven for many hippy and queer communities.

Young Trevor Beales was just one of many teenagers caught in the despair and isolation brought on by the economic crisis, with a single escape route: his passion for the music of Bob Dylan, James Taylor and the Byrds.

In the early 1970s Trevor dropped out of school, splitting his time between days spent playing music in an attic and several trips across Europe, where he met Christine, his faithful companion in life and adventure, whom he married in 1985 and with whom he had a daughter, Lydia, before dying at the young age of 33 from sepsis caused by an intestinal parasite.

His unwavering passion for music finally found an outlet in the sole record made by the band Havana Lake, a project with more of a country-rock bent than a folk one. The album, released in 1977 at the height of the punk era, is now a rarity traded among collectors for upwards of £50 a copy.

Now, however, thanks to Basin Rock, the precious recordings Trevor made in his attic between 1971 and 1974 have been unearthed and released, finally winning him public acclaim.

Idealistic, politically liberal and uncompromising, Beales wrote songs that were just as plainspoken and true to life. He was also a technically gifted guitarist, inspired by musicians such as Davy Graham, Bert Jansch, Ralph McTell, Jackson C. Frank and Michael Chapman. His voice is warm and enveloping, naturally youthful and smooth. The strength of "Fireside Stories" lies not only in its fascinating backstory, but above all in the sheer quality of the songs. The twelve tracks carry the scent of folk clubs and hope for the future. They're unassuming yet mature ballads, carried by nimble fingerpicking and a weary, wistful voice.

Beales' songs are lovingly monochromatic: evocative tales of drifting sailors ("Marion Belle", which had already appeared on the Havana Lake album and is revisited here in its home-recorded form), inspired, romantic ballads about the hippie community drawn to Hebden Bridge by its abundance of magic mushrooms and preyed upon by false prophets ("Then I'll Take You Home"), and painful accounts of social discrimination, such as "Tell Me Now", which follows a factory worker wrongly accused of raping the mayor's daughter.

A record like "Fireside Stories" would stand proudly alongside classics such as John Martyn's "Stormbringer", Roy Harper's "Flat, Baroque and Berserk", or the self-titled "Jackson C. Frank" — yet sadly, no one had ever heard the young Englishman's recordings before now, and they went on to have no glory or influence whatsoever on the singer-songwriter scene.

Still, it's hard to remain unmoved by Trevor's skill as a guitarist. The two instrumentals, "Dance Of The Mermaids" and "Brasiliana", not only honour the fingerpicking tradition but also summon both the expressive force of Django Reinhardt and the cross-pollination of world music.

Tracks like the radiant "City Lights" and the intimate folk-pop of "Ocean Of Tears" could easily have been 1970s hit singles. Likewise, the folk rigour of "Metropolis", the melancholy enveloping "The Old Soldier" and the poetic vigour of "Fireside Story" have nothing to envy in the finest folk music of the decade.

Trevor Beales' music is blessed with an expressive power, a genuineness and a talent that deserved a far kinder fate than the one history dealt it. "Fireside Stories" is the chance to finally grant this English musician the glory he never received in his lifetime.

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15/12/2022