Yarrow Acoustic Sessions

Lori Watson grew up in the Scottish Borders, an area where there seems to be a ballad around every bend in the path and, like the poets whose words she incorporates into her music, she draws heavily on her own heritage on this, her first major song work.

Watson is interested in sound as much as stories and her use of simple pizzicato fiddle figures and rustic textures adds to the sense of timelessness in songs such as the traditional ‘Fause Fause’. Elsewhere, she develops Hamish Henderson's ‘The Flytin O Life and Daith’ (itself taken from traditional sources) into a keyboard-driven, folk-pop prog anthem, delivered in her broad Scots brogue. Some of the lyrics, notably on the opening track ‘Yarrow (A Charm)’, can be difficult to decipher but at her best Watson sings clearly, sweetly and strongly, moving from childlike innocence to knowing boldness on ‘Fine Flooers in the Valley’ and giving ‘Dowie Dens O Yarrow’ a due sense of chilling bloodletting, while ‘Flooers O The Forest’ is a little more upbeat than might be expected of a lament.