Telling the Bees return with their much-anticipated third album, Steer by the Stars. Now with an expanded five-piece line-up, Telling the Bees deftly weave exceptional musicianship around Andy Letcher’s carefully crafted songs, to brilliantly paint stories with words and music. Three years in the making, the album takes you on a journey of magical realism through a strange but familiar world. It’s one where a mysterious Punch ’n Judy man is much more than he seems; where blackbirds nest in a penitent’s upturned hands; where lovers look at the stars and contemplate the Artist and the Muse; where the rantings of a mad hedge-poet still carry political clout; and where an Oxford scholar flees the cloisters for a life on the road. The astrolabe, and the stars, point the way. The songs have been painstakingly arranged through extended jam sessions, such that each band member can bring their own influences to bear. Rooted in folk, you’ll also hear prog, psych, Indian, classical, TV-theme and circus-music influences that together create Telling the Bees’ unique sound: a ‘cunning folk’ indeed. The ‘English melancholy’ of Andy Letcher’s vocals recalls the wistfulness of Nick Drake, early John Martyn, and Caravan. Once again, the artist Rima Staines has provided a stunning album cover recalling the glory days of vinyl. And containing some of the band’s most popular songs – ‘The Scholar Gypsy’, ‘Oxford May Song’ and ‘One More Mazurka’ – Steer by the Stars is destined to become a classic of English folk quirkiness, alongside albums by COB, Comus, ISB, Thistletown, Tull and Circulus.