The baldly (and aptly) titled 'Folk Songs' isn't quite JAMES YORKSTON'S fifth 'official' studio album as such. He's not got The Athletes in tow for starters, though this isn't the result of a spat or the personable Yorkston suddenly suffering a Mark.E. Smith-style strop. They're still friends and will be back working with James the next time out.
So how did Mr. Yorkston end up working with the curiously-monikered BIG EYES FAMILY PLAYERS? Well, the short version is that Big Eyes' frontman James Green shoved a CD into the other James' hand in one of those many apres-gig moments when the audience come up and do a real music fans' version of the industry's meet and greet bit with the artist. Much listening later, an enthusiastic Mr. Yorkston called a surprised and delighted Mr. Green and Big Eyes ended up his collaborators on 'Folk Songs': the album of 'Trad. Arr' songs Yorkston's been threatening to deliver ever since he was signed by Domino.
Bizarrely, though, you'd actually struggle to spot the musical join, as Big Eyes (who have released three albums under their own name) clearly operate with an enviable intuition akin to The Athletes. Although Green and his cohorts freely admit to having scant prior knowledge of the 'Folk' genre, they have adapted with the same sort of (apparently) insouciant, subtle brilliance The Athletes regularly bring to the party with each new Yorkston release.
Initially, at least, this album of Scottish, Irish, English and (in one case) Galician folk songs doesn't seem like much of a diversion for Yorkston. With its' lovely fiddle and tambourine breaks, opener 'Hills of Greenmoor' is the kind of plaintive balladry handled with care we expect from our hero, as is the charming and intimate 'Just as the Tide was Flowing' and the skirling, Dick Gaughan-style broodings of 'Martinmas Time'.
No complaints about any of that, of course, but it's really when we get to the rollicking, Celtic-fuelled two-step of 'Mary Connaught & James O'Donnell' where Big Eyes get stuck in behind a rockabilly backbeat and Yorkston spits out the lyrics' doomed romance where it all really starts to gel.
From there on, fireworks are launched with regularity. 'Thorneymoor Woods' is probably the most avant garde thing here, based upon a drone and Yorkston singing a capella. It sounds a bit like a post-rock update of Fairport's version of 'Nottamun Town' and – with Yorkston relishing its' tale of poaching and bloody revenge – it's a sinister tour de force. A further curve is thrown by 'I Went To Visit The Roses' which has a likeably poppy spring in its' step and a gloriously inebriated vocal from Yorkston. Just when you're re-aligning your mind again, they head off at a separate tangent courtesy of the Galician 'Pandeirada de Entrimo' which isn't so much a Flamenco outing as a military two-step, all rolling snares and gracious violins, though its' formality is actually very attractive.
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From here on, we're back on rather more familiar territory thanks to 'Little Musgrave”s potent tale of jealousy, betrayal and revenge (“how do you like his fair body? Now there's no life in it!”) and the sparse, sombre confessional 'Sovay'. The closing 'Low Down In The Broom' is another excellent track, ramping up the drama and getting the widescreen Folk-Rock treatment to boot. Such is the quality of its' rousing climax, it's already gearing up to be another 'Lang Toun' or 'I Know My Love' and will surely be lovingly coveted when The Athletes get their skilful hands on it in the future.
'Folk Songs' may be viewed by artist and fan alike as at least a departure of sorts, but it's clear that Yorkston and The Big Eyes Family Players found working together to be both a blast and extremely natural on both sides. Ultimately, it adds up to another sublime and distinctive James Yorkston album and it's every bit as essential as everything else he's released to date.
(http://www.big-eyes.co.uk)
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