James Yorkston - Roaring The Gospel

Songs in the key of Fife

Such is the varied quality of the many bands that come flooding in daily under the new folk banner, you’d be wary of tarring James Yorkston with that brush. Sure, he’s got the banjos, fiddles and harmonicas, but he lacks the pofaced earnestness of many new folkies, instead sharing the dirtyold- man humour of fellow Scots Arab Strap, if not their bleakness.

This collection of B-sides, old tracks and cover versions shows it to the full, with a relaxed warmth and easy grace. It’s full of wistful, witty lovesongs, dedicated to an array of unidentified ‘she’s. “It seems we share a weakness/It seems we’ve been blessed with a�one-track mind”, notes Yorkston mischievously on Someplace Simple, while on Seven Streams he wonders, “I hope she doesn’t consider me a curse, though I hear since then she’s had far worse than me”. Rather than retro hippy-dippydom or antique affectations, these are classic folk songs spun from a real, modern life. A Man With My Skills is Yorkston at his most accessible, warm acoustic guitar buoying up his dry, wry voice. There’s a fine cover of Tim Buckley’s Song To The Siren, too, which deftly punctures the high drama of the original, finding a simpler, gentler ballad beneath.

Domino | WIGCD 157

Reviewed by Emily Mackay
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