Track Listing

1. In Your Hands
2. St Patrick
3. Sweet Jesus
4. Tender To The Blues
5. Moving Up Country, Roaring The Gospel
6. Cheating The Game
7. I Spy Dogs
8. 6.30 Is Just Way Too Early
9. The Patience Song
10. I Know My Love

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4130 in Music
• Released on: 2002-06-24
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Scottish folk troubadour James Yorkston might not quite smell like the latest underground hero, but his debut album, Moving Up Country, is a quietly stunning testament to the enduring creativity of a musical form many thought long dead and buried. Newly signed to Domino Records, Yorkston claims no knowledge of label mainstays like Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Smog--but his music contains definite parallels, demonstrating an individuality of voice, an experimental urge, and a dry humour that so many traditional singer-songwriters lack. Meanwhile, his backing band, The Athletes, fill in his countryside tales with flourishes of twanged banjo, screeching harmonica, and whirring Wurlitzer organs. "St. Patrick" could almost be a long-lost Nick Drake rarity, deftly balancing its wistful lyrical edge with a blossoming musical beauty. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, the fast-paced "I Spy Dogs" find Yorkston romping through a bawdy, half-cut tale of bar-room trouble-making. As it happens, the only disappointment here is the omission of "The Lang Toun", the fantastic nine-minute epic that preceded the release of Moving Up Country, and still sounds like Yorkston's defining moment to date. Still, an impressive debut, and a worthy addition to the Domino roster.--Louis Pattison

Customer Reviews

A grower
For those mellow evenings when you're maybe feeling a little down, or a little knackered - this is the ideal calmer. Laid-back, alt-country that isn't quite morose but certainly not upbeat - in some ways almost jazz-like. The album is worth buying if only for the majestic and melodic Tender To The Blues. Wonderful.

Two scoops of accoustic loveliness.
If you're reading this, do yourself a favour and buy this record. James' delicate and intricate accoustic guitar and vocal arrangements are set off by the various and varied backing instruments and harmonies of the athletes.
Tender and St Patrick are my favourite tracks, tho everyone's a little gem.
At turns haunting, at others rousing, with a homegrown feel to it - this is how music should be. And he's a Fifer too! Gaun the neeburs!

alt.country from the auld country
This is a remarkable record. It's not, perhaps, a great one, and certainly not a dynamic one, but it runs so strongly counter to the grain of popular music this side of the Atlantic and does it so confidently and skilfully that it makes you shake your head in wonder when you first hear it.
To a wheezy, burbling backing (The Athletes? Someone's having a laugh, then.), Yorkston half-sings, half-murmurs a collection of lost-love and fading-memory stories, sounding like a companionable stranger in a dark, warm bar in Winter. The songs are playful but melancholy, and Yorkston's golden ear for a melody makes them instantly sound like you've heard them played in the background all your life. If that makes this CD sound like comfort food, then that's just perfect - the whole thing is full of whispery low-key charm and likeability, and there cannot be anyone on earth it would offend.
It sounds a bit like Will Oldham, as almost every review says it does, but it sound much more like the quiet parts of a Sparklehorse album - Good Morning Spider especially. Moving Up Country doesn't have the musical and emotional range of Mark Linkus' record, but almost nothing does, and Yorkston's album at least has absolutely no low spots: the first track is lovely, the last track is beautiful, and all the others fall somewhere in between.
How can that be a bad thing?