James Yorkston & The Big Eyes Family Players

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

5...according to our Brian on Fri 07 Aug, 2009.

Nice of the much loved James Yorkston to take things back to basics, with assistance from Sheffield's Big Eyes Family Players, he's unleashed a blinding collection of tender traditional folk classics, mostly picked from around the British Isles. His mellow Scots burr always brings a smile to proceedings and these contemporary interpretations range from the freewheeling & summery, the heartrending & melancholy to centerpiece 'Pandeirada de Entrimo', a token Spanish number sourced from the Galicia region which stirs the soul with it's flickering intensity - a marching drum & fiddle piece that has me dreaming of partaking in a slow muñeira with a fine dusky maiden! Being of traditional nature, the majority of songs here are remarkably free of a "shitting out the window" luddite attitude, these lilting acoustic lullabies are either touched with sweeping, gentle strings or embellished further with restrained bass strokes & discreet percussion. Every tune here has a reassuring, homely glow, played with the knowing prowess of musicians in awe of their proud heritage yet unrestrained by their ancestry. A thoroughly engaging listen with not a weak moment!

James Yorkston returns in the company of The Big Eyes Family Players
with a new album of traditional songs from the length and breadth of the
Great Britain and Ireland, and one tune from Galicia in Spain. After a decade
which has seen folk music morph into nu-folk, mobile phone-ad folk,
mortgage-folk, smoothie-folk and so on, Yorkston has reached back into
the tradition of song and place and drawn a line in the sand.

In May, a new team of musicians drawn from the Big Eye Players and other
like minded souls to record the Analogue Cat Sessions included on the
limited DVD. Recorded over three days the sessions see the band revisit
songs from the original ‘Folk Songs’ album and other traditional songs that
James has either played live or recorded as b-sides. What resulted is a
vibrant and alive collection of songs, ringing with new
arrangements and energy.

The session was filmed and six songs from the CD are included on
the accompanying DVD. Also featured on the DVD is a short film about the
session recording, filmed by Institute For Eyes who have made videos for
Duffy and currently have a film at the Edinburgh Film Festival. To round
it all off James Yorkston himself made a 3min short of the recording.

Leading up to release video clips of the sessions will appear on
James Yorkston’s YouTube.

Album:

Hills Of Greenmoor * Just As The Tide Was Flowing * Martinmas Time * Mary Connaught & James
O’Donnell * Thorneymoor Woods * I Went To Visit The Roses * Pandeirada de Entrimo * Little Musgrave *
Rufford Park Poachers * Sovay * Low Down In The Broom

Bonus Disc:

Analogue Cat Session: Old Maid * I Know My Love * Blue Bleezin' Blind Drunk * Cornfield * Mary
Connaught & James O'Donnell * Thorneymoor Woods * Just As The Tide Was Flowing * I Went To Visit
The Roses * The Snow It Melts The Soonest * Lowlands Away * Martinmas Time

DVD:

Analogue Cat Session: I Know My Love * Blue Bleezin' Blind Drunk * Cornfield * I Went To Visit The Roses
* Lowlands Away * Martinmas Time * Hares On The Mounta