Music: James Yorkston

Jeff Hemmings talks to James Yorkston

Fife’s James Yorkston has established himself as an artist of substantial pedigree, releasing a stream of highly praised albums – all thoughtful and inspired works – since his 2002 debut, Moving Up Country. He was also the prime instigator in getting the then nascent Fence Collective (who are also promoting this tour) known beyond Fife. Some of the collective went on to sign with the highly esteemed Domino label to whom James also signed, with one artist in particular going on to much international success: KT Tunstall. Life on the road for a relatively struggling musician such as Yorkston. It’s both entertaining and informative, always just close enough to his subjects to not become a one-way street for his observations… “I started writing a tour diary and they liked it, and I just kept on going,” he says, referring to the Domino label who release his music, and who have published this book.

“A lot of it is written on the road, particularly while travelling from East Newick [where he now resides] to London, which I have to do a lot. It’s a six and a half hour journey… I found the act of writing liberating – I didn’t have to stop, or make things rhyme or add choruses! There were no parameters; the only one I set was that it must be entertaining… I didn’t want to use the book to settle cheap scores. Only I came out badly! There’s nothing in the book that I wouldn’t say to someone else’s face.”

Yorkston’s first solo show was supporting the legendary Bert Jansch, and his first tour saw him supporting the equally legendary John Martyn. Another legend, John Peel, played a demo of his ‘Moving Up Country, Roaring the Gospel’ song, proclaiming it had the “song title of the year, no doubt”. After those heady heights he went on to sign to Domino Records and record his debut album in a damp-soaked cottage in the Scottish Borders. Domino subsequently released this record, ‘Moving Up Country’, which went on to become Rough Trade’s Album of The Year 2002. Since then, and somewhat against prevailing music fashions, Yorkston has grinded out a career as an extraordinarily evocative and sublime songwriter and wordsmith, delving particularly into the world of folk music, his true passion it seems, culminating with the release of the 2009 album Folk Songs, a collection of traditional songs. “When we were kids, up to my teenage years, we used to go to Ireland – Cork in particular – and stay on a campsite in the middle of nowhere, and go and hear traditional music in a local pub. And then when I got older I started exploring folk music further.

“Some songs [on Folk Songs] date back to the 15th and 16th centuries, and that was our take on them,” he says. “I don’t really consider myself a folk singer. Much of what I write is in the pop song style. I don’t treat folk songs with too much respect.”

He has also maintained strong links with the Fence Collective, and sometimes performs with The Pictish Trail (aka Johnny Lynch, who alongside Kenny Anderson, aka King Creosote, runs Fence Collective)
and who will also be performing in Brighton.

Blind Tiger Club, Tuesday 16 April, 7.30pm, £14