Album review

James Yorkston & The Big Eyes Family Players

Folk Songs

added: 12 Aug 2009 // release date: 10 Aug 2009 // label: Domino
reviewer: Owen Gillham

A couple of years ago I remember harping on about how people apply the term ‘folk music’ to that which isn’t really folk music at all. The example I cited at the time was James Yorkston, the acoustic bard of the borders – a brilliantly talented, often challenging songwriter, but not, in the traditional (Martin Carthy-approved) sense a folk singer. Then what does the guy go and do? He releases a whole album of traditional British folk songs. So having so clearly set out on a mission to prove me wrong (which is obviously the only probably explanation for this career-defining decision) is the folk singer who isn’t a folk singer but is nonetheless a folk singer any good at singing folk songs?

In short yes, he is. It’s about as messed up as folk gets (short of, let’s say the Pet Shop Boys having made this album), but it’s great. As he murmurs his way through these ramshackle renditions what truly stands out is Yorkston’s unique take on the arrangements, harmonies and structures of the material he tackles. At times his renditions appear pretty standard, but there’s always an subversive, ethereal weirdness that bubbles away beneath the surface, allowing Yorkston the glorious and actually quite amusing honour of every-so-often unveiling himself as the folk villain. Take ‘Martinmas Time’ as an example, fairly inoffensive guitar and vocal arrangement interspersed with a joyously arranged leitmotif, or the rhythmic propulsion laid down behind ‘Low Down In The Broom’ – both offer, through Yorkston’s sheer fearlessness, the perfect off kilter counterpoint to otherwise staid traditionalism of this record.

Sure, Yorkston takes his art seriously, and I wouldn’t want for a moment to detract from the sense of sincerity that permeates Folk Songs, but you have also to admire the sense of playfulness he brings to an album that could so easily be a walk through old and tired territory. In truth I would have preferred to listen to Yorkston’s own compositions, but in the absence of such work this is nothing less than enjoyable.

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