In folk music circles bass player and producer Ashley Hutchings is known as The Guv’nor, having clocked up more than 40 years in the business. This month sees the founder of luminaries Fairport Convention and Steelye Span add another string to his bow - published author.
His debut book, Words, Words, Words, is a selection of song lyrics, poems and
album sleevenotes which he has written during his career. Ashley said: “This is the first book of any kind that I have put together.
“I’ve been asked by many people for a good number of years to put my writings into a book and had resisted this. Last autumn I was quite ill and to a degree housebound and not gigging so I decided to put this book together. I had great support from Judy Dunlop.
“There are all manner of themes in the book - humorous, tragic, social commentary - anything really, from romantic love and dancing to animals, football and philosophical questions. “The timespan it covers is early 1970s to the present day. Fairport material doesn’t figure in the book but there are songs and poems that hark back to those early days.”
Ashley, 69, of Cutthorpe, has been writing verse since the early 1980s, treating poetry and song writing as separate entities. He said: “I am gigging a lot less than in the past but this has enabled me to work on putting out three albums. There are three planned releases - a compilation of ten years of the best tracks by my group the Rainbow Chasers; a compilation of dramatic historical songs from my back catalogue to which is added a new song around the Great War - a real epic; and the release of an Anglo-Italian album made a few years ago, with more tracks added.
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO
 | Live In Maidstone 1970 CD - £7.99 |
 | Live At Maidstone Castle 1970 DVD - £9.99 |
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