James Yorkston

5th April 2010

El Lokal, Zurich

and

7th April, 2010

Gaswerk, Winterthur

and

8th April 2010

Bleu Lezard, Lausanne

James Yorkston first emerged as a central figure in one the most interesting folk movements in Britain for quite some time: Fife’s Fence Collective. He counted among his contemporaries the likes of King Creosote, Lone Pigeon and The Pictish Trail. But while they have wandered off on various other musical paths, Yorkston is arguably the one to stick most faithfully to his folk origins. As well as putting out a number of high quality, critically adored solo albums of original material, Yorkston makes a point of reinterpreting existing, often forgotten folk standards. His mission is one is the essence of folk music: to mine the past in order to evolve and innovate. His latest record, simply titled Folk Songs, is a collection of traditional songs re-imagined by Yorkston and his band The Big Eyes Family Players.

Many have seen the link between Yorkston and Bert Jansch (the two have played together several times) but Yorkston also has much in common with fellow man of Fife, Jackie Leven, in that neither can really sing and rely the imagination of their guitar playing and production. The latter has been a feature of Yorkston’s best albums of original material – especially 2006′s The Year of the Leopard. Perhaps because of the influence of other Fence artists, Yorkston has always had a penchant for layers of sound,  including stabs at electronica. His critical high watermark was arguably 2008′s When The Haar Rolls In, his most recent album of original material. At these Switzerland shows look out for his wonderful cover of the Anne Briggs song, ‘Martinmas Time’.

He says: “Folk is a word that means something different to practically everyone you ask, from the music in the fields passed down from mouth to ear to all the different music that’s out there. For me the word “folk” has always meant traditional folk so for me the word “folk” doesn’t describe what I do because I write pop songs, even though they’re not very popular.” – James Yorkston

We says: Wholesome, wordy and witty quasi-folk music that offers a great deal of food for thought. Artists like this aren’t a regular thing in Switzerland, so go to, dears.