Anybody here want to talk James Yorkston?

jonahpwll

I only just discovered James Yorkston.

Technically, it happened many months ago.  He contributes to Second Hand Orchestra, and I did a little write-up of their 2022 release "Reimagining the wide wide river."  It's on the final track, 'The Secret Beach,' that he hit me something hard.  It's just spoken word, but his voice is so charismatic, something about it just connected with me something fierce.

On BC:  https://singasongfighter.bandcamp.com/track/the-secret-beach-feat-james-yorkston

So, tonight, after re-listening to the album, I decided to see if he had anything to his own name, and now I'm checking out his BC page.

I'm currently listening to this:

(On BC:  https://jamesyorkston.bandcamp.com/album/moving-up-country)

It's a 2002 release on Domino.  In varying doses and via various personnel, Yorkston adds strings, keys, wind instruments, percussion, and all of it to a warm, disarming yet riveting singer-songwriter delivery.

I'm getting that rush of excitement from knowing that I'm about to do a deep dive into the music of an artist that will become a big favorite.  I love this about music, and I especially love it on a Sunday night, when I'm vulnerable to the blues, but instead find myself being reminded that life can be majestic and sublime and hold wonderful, endearing surprises around the very next corner.

Anybody else familiar with Yorkston?  Have some favorite recordings?

peterfrederics

@jonahpwll thanks for the intro as I had never come across him before.

Am just listening to his third album from 2006 "The Year of the Leopard" and really enjoying it.

Love the cover!

greg

I thought I recognised the name. I've got a couple of tracks on samplers, probably downloaded from eMusic. Of the two the one I like most is Martinmas Time on Folk Against Fascism. Very much based on the English Folk Music tradition, although he is actually Scottish (Scottish folk music is very different from English folk music)