Vashti Bunyan’s songs were too imaginative and powerful to be lost to the sands of time. Though her 1970 album Just Another Diamond Day was barely heard on original release, it became a freak folk foundational document. Recently, Bunyan published her first book, Wayward: Just Another Life. She joined us to discuss the book, that journey, and what it felt like to have her work rediscovered—and why she hates being called a “folk” singer.
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Vashti Bunyan is an English singer-songwriter. Beginning her career in the mid-1960s, she released her debut album, Just Another Diamond Day, in 1970. The album sold very few copies and Bunyan, discouraged, abandoned her musical career. By 2000, her album had acquired a cult following; it was re-released and Bunyan recorded more songs, initiating the second phase of her musical career after a gap of thirty years. She subsequently released two more albums: Lookaftering in 2005, and Heartleap in 2014.
In 2008, Bunyan was labelled “the Godmother of Freak Folk” for her role in inspiring the “new generation of folk experimentalists including Devendra Banhart and Adem”. Her music has also been categorized as folk, psychedelic folk, or new folk. Despite these classifications, she has stated multiple times she is not a folk singer: “[…] I find it quite hard to read myself described as a folk singer, because I’m not.” - wikipedia
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An unusually appreciative audience was at the FreedM studio to see the legendary Vashti Bunyan. Augmented by a quartet of young musicians, she delivered a selection of her fragile lullabies, taken from her two albums.
The line-up of cello, piano, violin (plus occasional flute, thumb piano and concertina) made a lush, melancholic sound that was a perfect frame for Bunyan’s breathy whispers. Songs like “Just Another Diamond Day” and “I’d Like to Walk Around in Your Mind” seemed as fresh and unaffected as they did when they were written almost 40 years ago, though her newer material (from the recent ‘Lookaftering’ album) was received with equal rapture by the audience (one of whom had brought a large bunch of flowers for her heroine). - bbc.co.uk
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Track 01. Hidden 3:25
Track 02. Another Diamond Day 2:24
Track 03. Lately 3:39
Track 04. Here Before 2:54
Track 05. Against The Sky 3:32
Track 06. I’d Like To Walk Around In Your Mind 3:13
Track 07. Feet Of Clay 3:55
Track 08. Wayward 4:17
28 mins