Scottish songwriter
James Yorkston and his backing band the Athletes are well known to critics and rabid club and concert-going audiences in the British Isles. For a while,
Yorkston was a genuine cult figure; he entered the musical scene almost with a whisper as a member of the Fence Collective, a loose knit group of artists who include
King Creosote,
the Aliens,
Beta Band, and
KT Tunstall.
Yorkston, whose music is rooted deeply in the folk and Celt traditions, is a formalist, not a strict traditionalist. His first single caught the ear of the late
John Peel, and upon release of his debut album,
Moving Up Country in 2002, many other critics' as well. He's issued two other acclaimed proper studio albums since then --
Just Beyond the River (2004) and the stripped to the bone
The Year of the Leopard (2006). A rarities and B-sides collection titled
Roaring the Gospel appeared in 2007.