| Folk Songs II | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by Big Eyes Family Players & Friends | ||||
| Released | 2012 | |||
| Genre | Folk | |||
| Label | Static Caravan Recordings | |||
| Producer | James Green, David Jaycock | |||
| Big Eyes Family Players & Friends chronology | ||||
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Folk Songs II is an album by the Big Eyes Family Players & Friends, released in 2012 on Static Caravan Recordings. It is the follow-up to the 2009 album Folk Songs by James Yorkston and the Big Eyes Family Players.
Following the success of the first Folk Songs album and tour, and at a loss for what to do next, Yorkston suggested to the Big Eyes Family Players leader James Green that he make a sequel. [1] Green then invited some of his favourite singers to choose songs and he would provide the music. [2] A limited edition version of the album features a bonus CD entitled The Meersbrook Manor Sessions, which contains three additional tracks.
The album received positive reviews from the music press. Writing in The Guardian, Robin Denselow commented on the "even more adventurous, often sprawling arrangements", compared to the first album, and called it "A strange, compelling set." [3] Folk Radio UK said, "The Big Eyes Family Players have proven yet again that they are sensitive interpreters of traditional folk songs", [1] while the website For Folk's Sake commented that, "anyone who can’t find plenty to be excited about really doesn’t have the right to call themselves a folk fan." [4]
Eliza Carthy, MBE is an English folk musician known for both singing and playing the fiddle. She is the daughter of English folk musicians singer/guitarist Martin Carthy and singer Norma Waterson.
Elaine "Lal" Waterson was an English folksinger and songwriter. She sang with, among others, The Watersons, The Waterdaughters and Blue Murder. She was born in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire. In 1998, she died suddenly in Robin Hood's Bay, of cancer diagnosed only ten days before. 'Lal Waterson's voice was stark but captivating, her songs lyrically ambitious and melodically powerful.'
Norma Christine Waterson is an English musician, best known as one of the original members of The Watersons, a celebrated English traditional group. Other members of the group included her brother Mike Waterson and sister Lal Waterson, a cousin John Harrison, and in later incarnations of the group her husband Martin Carthy.
Alasdair Roberts is a Scottish folk musician. He released a number of albums under the name Appendix Out and, following the 2001 album The Night Is Advancing, under his own name. Roberts is also known for his frequent collaborations with other musicians and writers, as well as for being a member of the folk supergroup The Furrow Collective.
James Yorkston is a Scottish folk musician, singer-songwriter and author from the village of Kingsbarns, Fife. He has been releasing music since 2001. As well as recording as a solo artist, he has released music with his backing band the Athletes, as part of the Fence Collective, and as a member of the trio Yorkston/Thorne/Khan. He has also written fiction and non-fiction books.
Jon Thorne is an English double bassist, producer and composer.
Maria Gilhooley, who records under the name Marry Waterson, is a singer, songwriter and visual artist. A member of the Waterson-Knight-Carthy family musical dynasty, Waterson is described as having "thrived on communal music making while developing highly original and distinctly English performance styles of [her] own."
The Unthanks are an English folk group known for their eclectic approach in combining traditional English folk, particularly Northumbrian folk music, with other musical genres. Their debut album, Cruel Sister, was Mojo magazine's Folk Album of the Year in 2005. Of their subsequent albums, nine have received four or five-starred reviews in the British national press. Their album Mount the Air, released in 2015, won in the best album category in the 2016 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. In 2017 they released two albums featuring the songs and poems of Molly Drake, mother of Nick Drake.
When the Haar Rolls In is the fourth studio album by James Yorkston. The haar in the title is also a metaphor for depression.
Adrian Crowley is a singer, composer, songwriter, lyricist from Galway, based in Dublin and was born in Sliema, Malta.
Long Distance Swimmer is the fourth studio album released by Irish singer-songwriter Adrian Crowley. It was recorded during a one-week period in the home of Crowley's sister in the suburb of Foxrock, County Dublin, was released on the Tin Angel record label, and features contributions from other musicians, such as James Yorkston.
Jonny Kearney & Lucy Farrell were a contemporary English folk duo. Although they played some traditional songs, most of the songs they sang were their own compositions influenced by the folk tradition, but also songs by other artists such as Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Cole Porter, Brian Wilson and The Beatles.
The Fruit Tree Foundation is a Scottish musical project founded by Idlewild guitarist Rod Jones and former Delgados vocalist and guitarist Emma Pollock in 2010. Created in conjunction with the Mental Health Foundation, the project's overall aim is to "raise awareness of mental health and challenge perceptions of mental health problems by creating great art."
The Unthanks with Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band, the sixth album by English folk group the Unthanks, was released on 30 July 2012. Its extended title is: Diversions, Vol. 2: The Unthanks with Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band. Recorded at Salford's The Lowry, at Leeds Town Hall, at Derby Assembly Rooms and St George's Bristol, it was the Unthanks' second live album. It was acclaimed by the critics, receiving a five-starred review in the Daily Express and a four-starred review in The Guardian.
Lisa O'Neill is an Irish singer-songwriter.
Folk Songs is a 2009 album by the Scottish singer-songwriter James Yorkston in collaboration with the Big Eyes Family Players. As the title suggests, all of the tracks are traditional British and Irish folk songs. Many of them are versions of songs recorded by singers in the 1960s British folk revival, such as Nic Jones, Anne Briggs and Shirley Collins.
The Big Eyes Family Players/ Big Eyes Family are a group from Sheffield, UK, formed in 1999 by multi-instrumentalist James Green. They initially recorded experimental music under the name Big Eyes, but in 2006 they changed their name and began to venture more into folk and traditional music. They are best known for two albums of traditional material: Folk Songs, which they released in collaboration with the Scottish singer-songwriter James Yorkston on Domino Records in 2009; and the follow-up, Folk Songs II, featuring a variety of guest vocalists and released on Static Caravan Recordings in 2012.
James William Hindle is a British singer-songwriter from Yorkshire. He released three albums in the 2000s on Badman Records before re-emerging in the 2010s as a member of Glasgow-based indie rock bands The Pooches and US Highball.
The Wide, Wide River is an album by the Scottish singer-songwriter James Yorkston, recorded in collaboration with the Swedish collective The Second Hand Orchestra. Produced by Yorkston and Karl-Jonas Winqvist, it was released by Domino Records in January 2021.
Yorkston/Thorne/Khan is a musical trio made up of the Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist James Yorkston, English bass player and singer Jon Thorne and Indian sarangi player and singer Suhail Yusuf Khan. Their musical style has been described as "Indian-folk-jazz fusion" and "a kind of rustic neo-psychedelia". Their recordings feature both original and traditional material, with lyrics in English, Hindi, Urdu and other languages of the Indian subcontinent. They have released three albums on Domino Records.