Newborough Open Mic

Vashti Bunyan

I think I may have over enthused about “These New Puritans” in an earlier post. With hindsight, I haven’t even downloaded the whole album, which speaks volumes, so I thought I’d better recommend something tried, tested and deeply loved since I was a very small puppy – (most of) the collected works of the wonderful Vashti Bunyan.

For those who don’t know the story, here’s a potted version: Vashti was ‘discovered’ by Andrew Loog Oldham in the mid-sixties and got her to record a Jagger/Richards song (which, frankly, didn’t suit her delicately beautiful voice) with his orchestra doing the music (which, to be honest, didn’t really suit her beautifully delicate voice) and she failed to be the new Marianne Faithful. Help came in the form of Donovan who bought her a horse and horse drawn caravan so she could travel up to his new commune thing on the Hebridean island of Clett but by the time she got there everyone else had abondoned the idea and left. She slowly made her way back to London with a handful of songs she’d written while travelling and recorded the “Just Another Diamond Day” album for Joe Boyd before going back to Scotland to stay with The Incredible String Band for a while, then to Ireland and just carried on, bringing up children and playing with dogs, picking flowers and being lovely, that sort of thing, and more or less disappeared.

Just Another Diamond Day

You’ve probably heard the title track of “Just Another Diamond Day” on a recent TV advert for portable telephones, most of the rest of the album is in a similar style: Childlike, almost nursery rhyme, words sung over gently picked acoustic guitar with other instruments played by various Joe Boyd alumni (Simon Nicol and Dave Swarbrick from Fairport Convention, Robin Williamson from The Incredible String Band and string arrangements by Nick Drake’s friend Robert Kirby) that seem a lot more simple than they actually are when you try to work them out, but what makes this album so extraordinary is the bewitching sheer beauty of Vashti’s voice. Perfect music to play on a picnic with your loved ones, especially if they like horses, boats and anything to do with the countryside, and perfect to listen to on your own when you’re feeling disenchanted with the world.

So Vashti went off to live her life but the world never forgot about her. When Devendra Banhart tracked her down and wrote her a letter a few years ago, one of her children showed her how to google herself on this new-fangled interweb thing she discovered copies of “Just Another Diamond Day” changing hands for thousands of pounds on Ebay (not my copy though – it’s worth much more than that to me!) and loads of of young singers and musicians saying she was a big influence. So she made friends with them and started hanging out with Devendra, Adem, Joanne Newsom, Espers, Vetiver etc, etc and started singing again and making guest appearances on her friends recordings. Particularly worth checking out are “Prospect Hummer” by Animal Collective (a song about her cat) and “Bees Dream Of Flowers And Your Summer’s Meadow Breath” by Anthony Phillips from Jack. Then she made her second album in 35 years – “Lookaftering”.

Lookaftering

“Lookaftering” is musically much more similar to “Just Another Diamond Day” than her recent collaborations but lyrically it is very grown up, as you would expect from a more mature songwriter, though the essential soul remains intact, there is no cynicism or bitterness here.  There are songs about children growing up, chances both missed and taken and unsentimental nostalgia, with a little bit of help from “Nu-Folk” superstar veterans and German composer Max Richter. Perfect music to listen to on a picnic when your loved ones are getting a bit fed up with “Just Another Diamond Day”.

It may be worth pointing out that her recent compilation of early singles and demos “Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind”  is probably not the best introduction to her work. While it is still very good, it is Vashti’s voice which is the best thing about it and it is easily only her third best album. Pretty much everything she has ever done is available on your preferred free music streaming service so check her out and tell me she’s not the musical equivalent of falling in love for the first time.