Tender To The Blues

 

2026 Charity Shop Purchases #18 - James Yorkston & The Athletes -Tender To The Blues (CD Single)

I visited the Kinder Handl charity shop on Glasgow's Battlefield Road on Saturday afternoon. I went through all the 500 to 600 CDs on their shelves and came away with two!

One was Tender to the Blues a CD single by James Yorkston & the Athletes from 2002 on the Domino label. 

A native of the East Neuk of Fife James Yorkston was part of the Fence Collective. I have a couple of his albums on the shelves and this is a welcome addition. More recently he has been writing fiction books and those I have read have been pretty good.

Stay tuned for CD 2 which also has Fence Collective connections

James Yorkston & The Athletes - Tender To The Blues

James Yorkston & the Athletes - 6.30 Is Way Too Early (Reuben's String Arrangements)

James Yorkston & the Athletes - A Man With My Skills

James Yorkston & the Athletes - Hares On The Mountain/ Old Maid

He replaces Dwight Yoakam as the last CD single alphabetically speaking on the shelves

Celtic Connections: An Evening with James Yorkston, The Pictish Trail and Withered Hand

It's the final Celtic Connections outing tonight and we are off to The Mitchell Theatre for an evening with James Yorkston, The Pictish Trail and Withered Hand three Scottish based singer songwriters.

I am looking forward to this one as I have limited knowledge of these three and probably know them more by reputation than by their music.
I have New Gods by Withered Hand (aka Dan Wilson) which is a terrific album bought on the strength of a radio broadcast of a previous Celtic Connection performance.
I have the occasional track by Anstruther based former Fence Collective member James Yorkston here and there including on the Ballads of the Book and The Fruit Tree Foundation compilations.
He features in Vic Galloway's splendid book Songs in the Key of Fife and also has written his own book It's Lovely to Be Here: The Touring Diaries of a Scottish Gent which is a wonderful read and highlights the difficulties of a vegetarian musician getting a decent meal whilst touring.
I am aware of The Pictish Trial (Johnny Lynch)'s association with The Fence Collective and that he is the founder of  Lost Map Records  and that he lives on Eigg but am not familiar with his music.

Something to look forward to I suspect

Withered Hand - Horseshoe

James Yorkston and Bill Duncan - A Calvinist Narrowly Avoids Pleasure

Just Beyond the River

2004's  Just Beyond the River on the Domino label was the second album by James Yorkston and the Athletes and their most successful in chart terms reaching the dizzying heights of number 155 on the UK album charts.
The album is produced by Keiran Hebden aka Four Tet
A native of Fife Mr Yorkston has connections with the Fence Collective and was a childhood friend and neighbour of DJ Vic Galloway
He was working in a bookshop in Edinburgh when he sent a single to John Martyn leading to him supporting Martyn on tour where he was spotted by Laurence Bell of Domino Records.

A recent find in a Stranraer charity shop.

James Yorkston & the Athletes - Shipwreckers

James Yorkston & the Athletes - Hermitage

Songs in the Key of Fife

If you are looking for a Christmas present for a music lover or looking for something to spend your Christmas money on you could do a lot worse than purchasing Songs in the Key of Fife an excellent book by BBC presenter Vic Galloway.
It is the intertwining stories of The Beta Band, King Creosote, KT Tunstall, James Yorkston and The Fence Collective.
All artists and bands who hail from the East Neuk of Fife as indeed does Vic.
My take on all those featured.
KT Tunstall - shot to worldwide fame with 2004's The Eye of the Telescope.Since then she has had a further four albums none of which have had the same success. Probably the most mainstream of the artists featured.
King Creosote - Kenny Anderson, heid honcho of the Fence Collective has recently finally received some well deserved recognition (in his mid 40s) following the success of Diamond Mine (with Jon Hopkins) and From Scotland with Love two terrific albums. He has a back catologue of about 50 records so plenty of exploring to do.
James Yorkston -  an artist who produces some fine acoustic folk. The only album of his I am familiar with is 2008's When the Haar Rolls In on Domino
The Beta Band - to my shame I have never really heard much of The Beta Band.. I recently downloaded a couple of their tracks and a couple of solo tracks from Steve Mason all of which are excellent. Some further exploring to do
The Fence Collective - a record label and collective based in Anstruther and Cellardyke founded by Kenny Anderson. Lots of artists with interesting pseudonyms which  again require to be explored further. In particular Kenny's brothers Gordon (Lone Pigeon) and Een (Pip Dylan) and his right hand man Johnny Lynch (The Pictish Trail)
Any more and you won't require to buy the book!

James Yorkston & the Athletes - Moving Up Country, Roaring the Gospel

The Beta Band - To You Alone

The Quiet Revolution

A Summer Folk Compendium for you today as we near the end of October!
Courtesy of Mojo magazine from October 2006 and in turn courtesy of a Nairn charity shop.I give you The Quiet Revolution.

Proper folk - none of your Mumford and Son/Noah and the Whale nonsense.
There are some classic folk acts on here as the tracklist testifies.
I've gone for two of the more recent artists on display.

James Yorkston from the Kingdom of Fife is no stranger to these pages. He was a member of the Fence Collective alongside the likes of the Beta Band and King Creosote.
The featured song Summer Song comes from his fourth album The Leopard from 2006 and as most of his records on the Domino label.

I think that Josephine Foster from Colorado is making her CCM debut. There are Eyes Above is taken from her album Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You released in 2005 although it it sounds as though it is from much further back than that


James Yorkston - Summer Song

Josephine Foster - There Are Eyes Above

Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival

October is the month for the ever growing and ever brilliant SMAFF  brochure here
For those of you in Scotland a chance to check some things out - for those of you further afield details of some of the good work that is going on to help reduce the stigma of mental health.
Rod Jones from Idlewild and Emma Pollock, formerly of the Delgados, have long been supporters and participants of the festival
In 2010 they founded The Fruit Tree Foundation and released an album First Edition in partnership with The Mental Health Foundation.
They are joined by such luminaries as James Graham, Scott Hutchison, Jill O'Sullivan, Karine Polwart, Jenny Reeve, Alasdair Roberts and James Yorkston - the creme de la creme of the Scottish Indie scene.
You should buy this record as a) it is excellent and b) it is for a good cause.
Here are a couple of tracks to whet your appetite

The Fruit Tree Foundation - Favourite Son

The Fruit Tree Foundation - Beware Beware

K.T.

Can it really be 12 years since K.T.Tunstall  released her debut album Eye to the Telescope and subsequently shot to fame with her performance of Black Horse and the Cherry Tree on Later.. with Jools Holland?
Apparently so.
She has subsequently released a further 3 albums one of which 2007's Drastic Fantastic has previously featured on CCM.
She is from St Andrews and is a contemporary of Fence Collective artists such as King Creosote and James Yorkston.
She did a radio show on Christmas Night on Radio Scotland which confirmed that she has great musical taste.
She has moved to Los Angeles to pursue a soundtrack musical career and prepare a fifth stdio album - as you do.

K.T. Tunstall - Black Horse and the Cherry Tree

K.T. Tunstall - Suddenly I See

The Debra Haul 2 - The Band

 

2023 Charity Shop Purchases #39 - The Band - The Band

Speaking to Mick the manager in Debra he said that the chap who had handed in the collection which I fortuitously stumbled upon was from Anstruther and in the music industry.It immediately had me thinking that King Creosote or James Yorkston had wandered into a shop on the South Side of Glasgow with a couple of large bags. Highly unlikely! I suspect that whoever he was that he was ages with me or maybe slightly older given that the majority of the ones handed in were from the late 60s/early 70s and what some of you might rudely describe as Old Man Music.

You would perhaps be forgiven for thinking that The Band could fall into that category. It was their second album from 1969 on the Capitol label. It almost reads like a greatest hits The 2000 re-issue, which is the one I picked up, includes an additional 7 tracks with alternative takes of 6 of the 12 album tracks plus an outtake of Get Up Jake.

.What a line up - Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel and Robbie Robertson. Clearly it is an essential album which everyone should have and it replaces the copy I burnt from the library many moons ago. 

The Band -Rag Mama Rag

The Band - Up On Cripple Creek