hypersongs

Vashti Bunyan

An English singer and songwriter who made one album, Just Another Diamond Day, after traveling to the Hebrides by horse and wagon, left music for three decades, and came back when the record was rediscovered.

Oldham and the singles

Jennifer Vashti Bunyan was born on March 2, 1945 in Newcastle upon Tyne, by MusicBrainz and Wikipedia's infobox, though Wikipedia's early-life text says South Tyneside. She was the youngest of three children, studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford and was expelled in 1964 for concentrating on guitar and songwriting. She does not consider herself a folk singer, and Joe Boyd has said he never saw her as much of a folkie. After a visit to New York around 1963 she discovered Bob Dylan's The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

Andrew Loog Oldham signed her in 1964 or 1965. Her debut single, issued as Vashti on Decca in 1965 (May or June by different accounts), was the Jagger and Richards song "Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind", produced by Oldham with Jimmy Page on guitar and "I Want to Be Alone" on the B-side. "Train Song" and "Love Song" followed on Columbia in May 1966 with Peter Snell producing. She appeared in the documentary Tonite Let's All Make Love in London in 1967 singing "Winter Is Blue", and sang on Twice as Much's That's All in 1968.

The journey and Diamond Day

In 1967 or 1968, sources differ, she and her partner Robert Lewis left London with a horse called Bess, a wagon and a dog, heading for Donovan's planned artists' community in the Hebrides; the trip took roughly a year and a half, and when they arrived Donovan had gone and there was no room. She wrote songs along the way and has called it an education, the best education I could possibly have had. At Christmas 1968, in the Lake District, she met Joe Boyd, who offered to record the songs when she finished. She settled on Berneray from March 1969 to April 1970.

Just Another Diamond Day was recorded in November and December 1969 at Sound Techniques in London, produced by Boyd with Jerry Boys engineering and the string and recorder arrangements by Robert Kirby. She has said it took maybe three days, three evenings, and that it was all mixed and mastered without her. Philips released it in December 1970 in a few hundred copies, with weak sales and few reviews; she told OK Whatever that rather unkind things had been said, including that it was nursery rhymes. She left music in 1971.

Rediscovery

In 1997 she found out, searching for herself online, that the album had a following, and she recovered the master tapes. Spinney reissued it on CD in 2000. She sang with Devendra Banhart and Animal Collective in 2004 and 2005 and made Lookaftering (FatCat, October 17, 2005), produced by Max Richter, with Banhart, Joanna Newsom and Adem among the guests. Uncut gave it 10 out of 10 and it scored 85 on Metacritic. She played the Barbican on February 4, 2006, the earliest date in setlist.fm's history, and the 2008 documentary From Here to Before by Kieran Evans followed. Heartleap (October 6, 2014), self-produced, was announced as her last album.

Her memoir Wayward: Just Another Life to Live appeared in 2022. She played the Roundhouse on April 18 and 20, 2024, and received an honorary doctorate from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in July 2024. Pitchfork called Diamond Day a sonic sibling to the Boyd-produced Nick Drake albums. She has been called the godmother of freak folk and is cited by Banhart and Adem. Her longtime guitarist is Gareth Dickson.

Albums

  • Just Another Diamond Day 1970 · Philips

    Her only album of the first era, a record of the horse-and-wagon journey to the Hebrides.

Songs

  • Diamond Day Just Another Diamond Day · 1970

    The opening track of Just Another Diamond Day, with a string and recorder arrangement by Robert Kirby.

  • Rainbow River Just Another Diamond Day · 1970

    Track eleven on Just Another Diamond Day, arranged for strings and recorders by Robert Kirby.

Sources

  1. Vashti Bunyan, Wikipedia
  2. Lookaftering, Wikipedia
  3. Vashti Bunyan: Wayward, Los Angeles Review of Books
  4. Vashti Bunyan: the Folk Radio interview, Folk Radio (2022-08)