James Yorkston, Nina Persson and The Second Hand Orchestra - The Great White Sea Eagle
The Cardigans' Nina Persson joins James Yorkston and The Second Hand Orchestra for the follow-up to 2021's acclaimed The Wide, Wide River
When James Yorkston started writing these songs on piano, he didn't know where he was going. But he knew where he'd been. The acclaimed songwriter and author stands behind a beautiful body of work and is carrying a tailwind from records with Yorkston/Thorne/Khan and The Second Hand Orchestra, alongside recent recognition for his second novel The Book of Gaels. But it’s these 12 weary waltzes and bright ballads, written gazing upon the sea from the window of his Cellardyke studio, that will find their way into your heart forever.
Recording again with The Second Hand Orchestra's Karl-Jonas Winqvist, Yorkston is joined at the mic here by Cardigans singer Nina Persson. It's a match made in heaven when the light in Persson's voice gets into the cracks of Yorkston's baritone. But the heart of this record resides in the solitary darkness of songs such as the devastating A Sweetness In You, written for Frightened Rabbit’s late Scott Hutchison. 'I think of him often as I look out to the sea / And I live by the coast' is a noble line to write about someone lost in such tragic circumstances. But that’s Yorkston for you: a noble artist.
Listen to: A Sweetness In You, Hold Out For Love