James Yorkston & The Big Eyes Family Players - Folk Songs

A deliberate reaction to recent folk-mutations, Folk Songs sees James Yorkston take time out from his work with The Athletes to record eleven traditional tracks with James Green’s Big Eyes Family Players. The concept may suggest a staid and old-fashioned affair, but the song choices are more varied and unusual than might be expected, ranging from sixteenth-century England to more recent Galician Spain. The execution is similarly innovative: poacher’s ballad Thorneymoor Woods pitches its conventional melody over eerily minimal rippling cymbal rolls, while Lay Down In The Broom rattles along at a whip-crack pace, laden with danger and drama. But the album’s no-nonsense title possibly makes this review superfluous - if you want to hear James Yorkston sing folk songs, then James Yorkston’s Folk Songs is probably already on your to-buy list. But on the off-chance that you’re on the fence, may I suggest going ahead and putting it there?