James Yorkston and The Big Eyes Family Players – Folk Songs

There's no getting away from it-the title here says it all. The idea for this latest, limited edition, does exactly-what-it-says-on-the-tin James Yorkston album has been floating around for a long while. It began as an idea in 2000/2001 while he was still firmly ensconced in the Fence Collective fold. However, when he signed to Domino, the folk record fell by the wayside somewhat, with tracks that had been intended for it surfacing on various other albums and EP’s alongside Yorkston’s own fine songwriting. It seems that in the face of what he terms "Mobile phone adverts and Mortgage folk" Yorkston felt the time was ripe to revisit the more traditional side of folk music. He selected songs mostly from the 1960s Folk Revival, including Nic Jones, Shirley Collins and particularly Anne Briggs, the woman Yorkston credits as being the person who “rekindled my thoughts on traditional music, after a well-spent youth making as much noise as I could”. Rather than playing with his usual band, The Athletes, Yorkston chose to work with Leeds collective Big Eyes, whose CD he had been given, and fallen for, while on tour.Opener ‘Hills Of Greenmoor’ is the first of many Anne Briggs’ tunes on the record. Yorkston’s vocal floats around his insistent guitar lines while the string section and flute swoon around the central melody. 'Martinmas Time' similarly reworks a tune Yorkston learnt from Briggs’ backcatalog. Skittering drums underpin Yorkston’s delicately picked guitar and the sweet underplayed harmonies. The beauty of this record comes from Yorkston’s superlative choice of material, and the stories of love, poaching, shipwrecks and female highwaymen contained within. Yorkston’s resigned but hopeful voice has always leant itself well to songs that tell stories, and the warmth of the accompaniment, be it haunting strings, pedal steel courtesy of Pip Dylan or ancient ‘mouse-proof’ harmonium fits the songs perfectly. The lillting ‘Little Musgrave’ is a melancholy beauty, combining subtle string rises with Yorkston’s finest vocal performance. That said, to choose any one song as a highlight would be to do a disservice to the other tracks on Folk Songs-from the subtly of ‘Just As The Tide Was Flowing’ to the charging take on ‘Low Down In The Broom’ Yorkston and the Big Eyes Players barely put a foot wrong.Hopefully, just as Yorkston was inspired by Briggs, Collins, Jones et al, the songs featured here and their stories will be passed down to another generation of curious listeners. 93%James Yorkston on MySpace