Album Reviews

Album Review: James Yorkston And The Big Eyes Family Players – Folk Songs (Domino)

By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 10 August 2009

This record has been fairly long in the making; the idea of Yorkston recording an album of traditional folk songs first came about in 2000. The songs originally planned for that album ended up featuring on previous releases and being amalgamated into live sets, so now Yorkston draws anew on the tremendously deep well of traditional song in Great Britain and Ireland (and one from Galicia) to produce another work of understated, effortless brilliance. This time he’s perfectly backed by James Green’s outfit Big Eyes Family Players (instead of usual cohorts The Athletes) who contribute some absolutely beautiful playing; ‘Thorneymoor Woods’ is full of subtle little touches, ‘Low Down In The Broom’ is driving and dramatic and ‘Martinmas Time’ is a perfect little folk-out (have a listen and you’ll know what I mean). In keeping with folk traditions, these are very much Yorkston’s (and Green’s) own interpretations of songs which have existed in a huge variety of different forms for years and years. ‘Mary Connaught & James O’Donnell’ and ‘Little Musgrave’ feature new melodies and arrangements, to create music which is both timeless and unmistakably Yorkston. Similarly the Irish song ‘I Went To Visit The Roses’ gets a new lick of paint, and sounds like an outtake from last year’s ‘When The Haar Rolls In’. In these times of nu-folk, anti-folk, psych-folk and the like, it’s a treat to hear some real traditional tunes being reinterpreted by a true master, sympathetically played by a fantastic band. The release will also be available as a limited edition set, with two CDs and a DVD containing five live tracks and a further five traditional songs. TH

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