English singer-songwriter Roger Knott has released Gateway Songs, a twelve-track album gathering material written across several decades, including songs from his early 1970s band Lifeblud. The record arrived on 9 October via Seelie Court and Good Time Records, accompanied by an extensive interview in It's Psychedelic Baby! Magazine conducted by Klemen Breznikar.

Knott revisited compositions such as 'Echoes In Time', 'Oakenshade' and 'The Journey Home', originally developed during the Lifeblud era in Hertfordshire. Rather than simply re-recording them, he experimented with time signatures, tempos and keys, and brought in Nashville musicians — among them Pat McInerney (drums), Kevin McKendree (piano, Hammond B3), Justin Moses (fiddle, banjo, dobro) and Mark Fain (upright bass) — to give the songs a roots-oriented arrangement while preserving their lyrical core. Most tracks were produced by Thomm Jutz at TJTunes in Nashville; 'Laugh At The Rain' was produced by Clive Gregson and recorded live with Knott on voice and acoustic guitar. Vocals were captured in Spain and the UK.

In the interview Knott explains that the Nashville players begin each song by deciding on its 'feel', and that the first run-through routinely lifts the material to a level he had not anticipated. He singles out 'Soldier' as the track that still affects him most, its lyric rooted in family history and a line borrowed from Rupert Brooke's 1914 poem 'The Soldier'. Knott also notes that around 140 further Nashville recordings remain in his archive, with a planned follow-up collection of co-writes and covers titled 'Many Hands Make Light Work'.

The album is tagged psychedelic folk, folk rock and acoustic on Bandcamp, reflecting Knott's trajectory from the early British progressive underground to a mature songwriting voice that bridges folk tradition and psychedelic sensibility.