The album can, in fact, be treated as a concept album about the capacity for change that lies at the heart of even the most hard-boiled and unsympathetic of men, the kind we meet straight away on âAinât Niceâ and âToadâ.
When âInto The Sunâ introduces us to a similar figure having a Damascene moment in which he realises the damage he has caused, we realise that we are, in fact, following a single flawed protagonist: an aging huckster who loves nothing but his dog, his drugs and himself. Travelling with this self-sabotaging antihero though his highs and lows, his relapses and revelations, as he rises above his basest impulses to pursue love and a life of peace is a hell of a journey in itself.
Fife-based genius
James Yorkston pairs with old friend Karl-Jonas Winqvistâs Second Hand Orchestra for a vodka-splashed voyage down lifeâs wild, wide river. From Ella Mary Leather (regretted only on âcertain days of the yearâ) and To Soothe Her Wee Bit Sorrowsâ study of pacification - he has flair for characterisation, painting a world within the skeleton of a song.
But the music! Itâs contagious joy to hear players with such abandon and intuition, braiding their lines together: brass, brushed drums, the lyric of a singing fiddle. âChoices Like Wide Riversâ flows gentle to its destination (âSemaphore Your Love ); Struggleâs optimistic look to lifeâs choppy bits weighs up whatâs worth it and isnât.
3 months ago
James Yorkston and The Second Hand Orchestra, recently released a video for “Ella Mary Leather.” The track is of their forthcoming release
The Wide, Wide River available January 22, 2021 via Domino Records. “Ella Mary Leather” is titled after a Herefordshire based folk song collector in the early 20th Century, James Yorkston and The Second Hand Orchestra’s song is not about her. Yorkston explains: “No, it’s not about Ella Mary Leather. I am just using her lyrical name as a mask, to protect the innocent…” Over a wealth of percussion, violin, and nyckelharpa, Yorkston plays buoyant piano as he sings us a story about a friend from many years ago.
DJ Dolphin Boy.
James Yorkston & The Second Hand Orchestra have kindly unveiled a second song from their forthcoming album ‘The Wide, Wide River’, due January 22nd. ‘Ella Mary Leather’ opens with a good old piano vamp which leads us into a soaring and melancholy song about a friendship past, full of shoe-horned rhymes and buoyant instrumentation. Ella Mary Leather herself was a Herefordshire-based folk song collector in the early 20th Century, but James Yorkston and The Second Hand Orchestra’s song is not about her. Yorkston explains:
“No, it’s not about Ella Mary Leather. I am just using her lyrical name as a mask, to protect the innocent…” The sublime album was recorded