As Christmas this year was approaching, we visited James Yorkston at The Lexington for the last date of his short December run. If any fans recall Yorkston’s Simple Folk Radio session from early 2013, they’ll know how much of a soft spot the Fife singer/songwriter has for pipers. With only two gigs to their name, Uillean pipers Paddi Benson & Grace Lemon (with James Patrick Gavin accompanying on guitar/fiddle) open the evening and from the hushed appreciation felt during their set, it would seem our London audience share a similar fondness.
Their set is based around the movements of a conceptual piece titled A CURIOUS DANCE, which ‘relays the story of wondering antics through the recreation of the annual patients’ ball’ at London’s Bedlam Asylum. Before launching into it they offer this enlightening Dickens quote: “Are not all of us outside this hospital, who dream, more or less in the condition of those inside it, every night of our lives? Do we not nightly jumble events and personages and times and places, as these do daily?”
Movement 01 gently comes into focus with Gavin’s acoustic subtly adding body. Woozily it pulls us in, those gig-goers sat in cross-legged attention slowly encircled by the growing crowd. The long-drawn intro of Movement 02 breaks into a rapid trade-off between Benson & Lemon, signalling the ball in full flow. Melodies pirouette and pitch bend, coming together like dancers taking up hands to embrace one another, before splitting and wheeling away. The final movement unravels in fragmented fits and starts, the weeping call of fiddle and pipes recalling the creeping unease of Lankum’s Ian Lynch and Cormac MacDiarmada.
With a tight clasp around his stand, Yorkston opens with an acapella rendition of 6.30 Is Just Way Too Early. As the bar noise dies down to just the empty clink of glasses, his unmistakable voice fills the room. He immediately radiates heart, warmth and humour, as he sways transfixed, his mic pitched down towards him. The Athletes opener fades into the dissonant torrent of My Mouth Ain’t No Bible, a prize cut from this year’s The Route To The Harmonium. Clawing at his lower strings, the song’s sardonic, self-deprecating humour sets the tone for the evening. “I could’ve been a lifer” he laments, “A Martin Carthy, a Michael Hurley, a Michael Chapman, a Peter Brotzman…”
Learnt from Jean Ritchie (though missing the mock Appalachian inflection) Yorkston’s take on Little Musgrave is an epic retelling, alive with a scorn and pride that’s not lost to a modern audience. He spits “kith and kin”, latching onto the sibilance, riled as if reliving some past trauma. Before the deeply impassioned cascade of The Villages I Have Known My Entire Life, he addresses the elephant in the room, congratulating us on our recent election ‘victory’ slipping into a tongue-in-cheek “two world wars, one world cup” bit that’s amusing as it is painful.
Changing tact, he calls for requests, reeling off a little Donna Summer, then staggering into two pop numbers of his own, Steady As She Goes and Tortoise Regrets Hare. When The Haar Rolls In favourites Queen of Spain & Would You Have Me Born With Wooden Eyes follow quick on the heels of Tortoise, reminding us over eleven years later why the album’s still considered such a classic, its splintered poetry and barbed melodies still bringing a tear to the eye, as the front row faithful mouth along. It’s a devastating run ending with Broken Wave, Yorkston’s stirring dedication to Doogie Paul (bass player with The Athletes) fingers and memories lapsing, onlookers caught in a ‘stunned reverence’ of their own. The call and response of Fellow Man closes. Its refrain is picked up and an awry sort of festive spirit takes over. Yorkston on grand form as ever, here’s to another decade of the Scotsman’s inimitable charm.
Upcoming Solo Dates
Friday 24th January – Cleeres Kilkenny – Physical tickets only from Rollercoaster or Cleeres
Saturday 25th January – Grimes Waterford – tickets here
Sunday 26th January – Coughlan’s Cork – tickets here
Monday 27th January – Workmans Club Dublin – tickets here
http://www.jamesyorkston.co.uk/live-dates/