John Scott goes to see James Yorkston and The Secondhand Orchestra with Nina Persson at The Dissection Room in Edinburgh

James Yorkston recorded last year’s album The Wide, Wide River with The Secondhand Orchestra, a collective of Swedish musicians.  Yorkston is now taking the band out for a series of live shows along with Swedish singer Nina Persson and drummer Phil Selway, “depping” for The Secondhand Orchestra’s usual drummer who is absent due to family commitments.

Nina Persson is better known as the singer in The Cardigans who had massive worldwide hits with Lovefool and My Favourite Game, amongst others.  Phil Selway is better known as the drummer in Radiohead who had massive worldwide hits with Creep and Paranoid Android amongst others.  James Yorkston used to be in The Athletes and has not, as yet, had any massive worldwide hits, something he is fairly confident will change with new song, Upturned Crab.  “This is going to be the big one,” he tells us.  “Yay, Upturned Crab!” he mouths, mimicking the sound of thousands of adoring fans.  In a just and fair world, this will indeed come to pass.  Upturned Crab is fairly typical of Yorkston’s elliptical, elusive songs which take everyday experiences such as the unexpected discovery of a crustacean in distress and reveal them as universal truths.  Determinedly non-genre specific, if a pigeon-hole is a prerequisite then “indie-folk may be scribbled on the label. Yorkston’s songs,  as performed with The Secondhand Orchestra,  inhabit a world where they rub shoulders with Stuart Murdoch from Belle and Sebastian, Mike Heron from The Incredible String Band and Steve Wickham from The Waterboys.  Every now and again John Cale pops in to complain about the noise. 

If Nina Persson’s presence here seems something of a curveball, it turns out that she and Yorkston share a mutual appreciation of each other’s songs.  They might be a world away from The Cardigans’ thrusting pop but Persson’s vocals, whether solo or in harmony, serve Yorkston’s songs perfectly.

Yorkston flits between guitar and piano.  Yorkston tells us that most of the songs on his upcoming album were written on piano.  Casting around for a suitable album title, guitarist Peter Morén suggested Shit Elton; “He looks like a nice person” says Yorkston “but he’s not”.

Aside from the soon-to-be worldwide smash hit Upturned Crab, there are a number of obvious highlights in tonights performance.  Ella Mary Leather’s choppy violin and tight rhythm frame a terse rebuff to an ex-acquaintance.  Choices, Like Wide Rivers swoops and swoons while There Is No Upside bounces,  bobs and weaves its way to a celebratory climax thanks to The Secondhand Orchestra’s first-rate accompaniment.  Based on tonight’s performance, Shit Elton, whatever it ends up being called, will be worth waiting for.

Setlist

To Soothe Her Wee Bit Sorrows

A Droplet Forms

Upturned Crab

Peter Paolo

Ella Mary Leather

Harmony Observation

Hollow Skeleton

Choices Like Wide Rivers

Heavy Lyric

Old Fashioned Blues

keeping Up With The Grandchildren

Hold Out For Love

Mary

Struggle

There Is No Upside

John Scott