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| Track list: 1. Old Maid 2. I Know My Love 3. Blue Bleezin' Blind Drunk 4. Cornfield 5. Mary Connaught & James O'Donnell 6. Thorneymoor Woods 7. Just As the Tide Was Flowing 8. I Went to Visit the Roses 9. The Snow it Melts The Soonest 10. Lowlands Away 11. Martinmas Time Running time: 38 minutes Released: 2009 |
This was, I believe, a bonus disc in the purchase of Folk Songs, a James Yorkston project that I picked up because, well... James Yorkston is one of my enduring favourite artists. Even if I think his best work is a decade or more old, he has built up enough good will for me to follow all his projects with interest. That explains the image here, which will get reused again later.
A few of the songs here are those from Folk Songs but others are JY staples or additional material. To be honest I do not know how similar these renditions are to the others I have elsewhere and this listen will probably not clarify enough there to decide whether to cut on grounds of duplication. Still, it starts with a unique track that I have nowhere else.
I love the chorus of Old Maid, a duet between Yorskton and Nancy Elizabeth, who sings the verses. It is a sad song, and horribly reflective of gender roles and expectations but the performance is really good. It finishes then drops into I Know My Love - a very different version from the one that closes Moving Up Country (a favourite if ever there was one). The timbre of the vocal is similar, as is the tempo, but the arrangement here is very staccato, very repetitive. I do not think it a particularly strong version and I am toying with the idea of getting rid.
Third up is another Yorkston staple about an unhappy wife drinking herself through a horrible violent marriage; it is really quite uncomfortable listening - tale told from the wife's perspective; Elizabeth again provides a co-pilot and the harmonies, whilst not perfect, are interesting. We then get Cornfield, a Lal Waterson song that Elizabeth did for the tribute album Migrating Bird. I guess JY is playing the guitar here, but this song possibly should not be giving "James Yorkston and the Big Eyes Family Players" as the artist, and given I have Migrating Bird, I am not certain I need this too. Keep for now though.
These are session tracks, and the backing harmony on Mary Connaught & James O'Donnell is awesome, goosebumps awesome. This album (well, Folk Songs) is one I managed to pre-order two copies of, getting myself listed twice in the liner notes in the "thank yous" in the process; internet shopping whilst tipsy folks: don't do it! I regretted the mistake for about 5 minutes; the second copy became a present for my dad, and I remember watching the included DVD on their couch in Greece.
Thorneymoor Woods is an a cappella duet on this disc. It is not a style I am particularly fond of as I do not feel most vocalists are good enough to electrify the air alone - sparks need to fly somewhere to catch. However I am continuing to enjoy the intertwining of voices between our two lead singers: him gruff, rough around the edges, her light and soft, distant, floaty. The two synergise; greater than the sum of the parts. As much as I love Yorkston's music and enjoy his delivery I would never call him a great singer - he does not need to be, his songs do the heavy lifting so his voice does not have to carry the listener: you are already engaged in other ways.
There are some really nice strings used on I Went to Visit Roses, and a couple of moments where they are on the edge of falling over. It makes for a topsy-turvy listen, then we get a rendition of The Snow it Melts the Soonest - almost another a cappella number. This is my favourite traditional song, entirely down to Yorkston's version on Just Beyond the River which has a higher tempo and a nice arrangement. This is a slow, dark telling, almost steeped in sorrow, with a backing hum from the assembled and very sparse instrumentation. It is a sombre take. Lowlands Away is a very JY song in style and delivery and it slides by before I even realise it was playing, and then we are on Martinmas Time to close. I am not a great fan of this one, the main refrains having harmonics that just disagree with my ears. I am tempted to cut this, especially since it is also on the main disc of Folk Songs but I find myself unwilling to commit for the same sentimental reasons that left Amnesiac intact. It is one of only 3 longer tracks on the album, which I think makes the fact it is not a favourite stand out more. Most of the songs breeze past at a rate of knots and I am coming to really appreciate that when listening for the purposes of this project: plentiful song changes keep me more engaged with the listen and less inclined to drift off to do other things whilst they play. It is not always good for generating output though as songs are gone before I can crystalise my thoughts on them. Typical of my lot: I am never happy.
I love the chorus of Old Maid, a duet between Yorskton and Nancy Elizabeth, who sings the verses. It is a sad song, and horribly reflective of gender roles and expectations but the performance is really good. It finishes then drops into I Know My Love - a very different version from the one that closes Moving Up Country (a favourite if ever there was one). The timbre of the vocal is similar, as is the tempo, but the arrangement here is very staccato, very repetitive. I do not think it a particularly strong version and I am toying with the idea of getting rid.
Third up is another Yorkston staple about an unhappy wife drinking herself through a horrible violent marriage; it is really quite uncomfortable listening - tale told from the wife's perspective; Elizabeth again provides a co-pilot and the harmonies, whilst not perfect, are interesting. We then get Cornfield, a Lal Waterson song that Elizabeth did for the tribute album Migrating Bird. I guess JY is playing the guitar here, but this song possibly should not be giving "James Yorkston and the Big Eyes Family Players" as the artist, and given I have Migrating Bird, I am not certain I need this too. Keep for now though.
These are session tracks, and the backing harmony on Mary Connaught & James O'Donnell is awesome, goosebumps awesome. This album (well, Folk Songs) is one I managed to pre-order two copies of, getting myself listed twice in the liner notes in the "thank yous" in the process; internet shopping whilst tipsy folks: don't do it! I regretted the mistake for about 5 minutes; the second copy became a present for my dad, and I remember watching the included DVD on their couch in Greece.
Thorneymoor Woods is an a cappella duet on this disc. It is not a style I am particularly fond of as I do not feel most vocalists are good enough to electrify the air alone - sparks need to fly somewhere to catch. However I am continuing to enjoy the intertwining of voices between our two lead singers: him gruff, rough around the edges, her light and soft, distant, floaty. The two synergise; greater than the sum of the parts. As much as I love Yorkston's music and enjoy his delivery I would never call him a great singer - he does not need to be, his songs do the heavy lifting so his voice does not have to carry the listener: you are already engaged in other ways.
There are some really nice strings used on I Went to Visit Roses, and a couple of moments where they are on the edge of falling over. It makes for a topsy-turvy listen, then we get a rendition of The Snow it Melts the Soonest - almost another a cappella number. This is my favourite traditional song, entirely down to Yorkston's version on Just Beyond the River which has a higher tempo and a nice arrangement. This is a slow, dark telling, almost steeped in sorrow, with a backing hum from the assembled and very sparse instrumentation. It is a sombre take. Lowlands Away is a very JY song in style and delivery and it slides by before I even realise it was playing, and then we are on Martinmas Time to close. I am not a great fan of this one, the main refrains having harmonics that just disagree with my ears. I am tempted to cut this, especially since it is also on the main disc of Folk Songs but I find myself unwilling to commit for the same sentimental reasons that left Amnesiac intact. It is one of only 3 longer tracks on the album, which I think makes the fact it is not a favourite stand out more. Most of the songs breeze past at a rate of knots and I am coming to really appreciate that when listening for the purposes of this project: plentiful song changes keep me more engaged with the listen and less inclined to drift off to do other things whilst they play. It is not always good for generating output though as songs are gone before I can crystalise my thoughts on them. Typical of my lot: I am never happy.
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