Vashti Bunyan
Bunyan in Topanga Canyon in 2009
Bunyan in Topanga Canyon in 2009
Background information
Birth nameJennifer Vashti Bunyan
Born (1945-03-02) 2 March 1945
Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England
GenresFolk-pop[1]
Occupation(s)Singer-songwriter
Instrument(s)
  • Vocals
  • guitar
Years active
  • 1965–1970
  • 2002–present
Labels
Websiteanotherday.co.uk

Jennifer Vashti Bunyan (born March 2, 1945)[2][3] is an English singer-songwriter. She began her career in the mid-1960s and released a 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.[4] She released two more albums: Lookaftering in 2005, and Heartleap in 2014.

Early life and education

Bunyan was born in South Tyneside in 1945 to John Bunyan and Helen Webber, the youngest of three children. She was told that she was named after a boat that had belonged to her father, a name that was also a nickname for her mother inspired by queen Vashti.[5] The family moved to London when she was six months old. She has been said to be descended from John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim's Progress,[6] but she has denied this.[7] In the early 1960s, she studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at Oxford University, but was expelled for focusing on music instead of art.[8]

Musical career

1960s

At age 18, Bunyan travelled to New York and discovered the music of Bob Dylan through his The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan album and decided to become a full-time musician.[9] Returning to London, she was introduced to The Rolling Stones' manager Andrew Loog Oldham by an agent. In June 1965, under his direction, she released her first single under the name Vashti: "Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind", written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.,[5] with her own composition "I Want to Be Alone" on the B side. She released a follow-up, "Train Song", produced by Canadian Peter Snell and released on Columbia in May 1966. Both singles received little attention.[10]

Her distinctive vocal appeared on "The Coldest Night of the Year" by Twice as Much, on their second and final LP, That's All, released by Oldham's Immediate Records in 1968. She recorded more (unreleased) songs for Immediate Records and made a brief appearance in the 1967 documentary Tonite Let's All Make Love in London with her song "Winter Is Blue". She then travelled with her boyfriend Robert Lewis by horse and cart to the Hebrides to join a commune planned by a friend, fellow singer-songwriter Donovan ("...from South London up to the Hebrides. Initially to Skye but we carried on to the Outer Hebrides."[11]). During the trip she began writing the songs that would appear on her first album, Just Another Diamond Day.[12]

At Christmas 1968, during a break from her trip, a friend introduced her to producer Joe Boyd, who offered to record an album of her travelling songs for his company, Witchseason Productions.[13] A year later, Bunyan returned to London and recorded her first LP, with assistance from Simon Nicol and Dave Swarbrick of Fairport Convention, Robin Williamson of The Incredible String Band and string arranger Robert Kirby. The album appeared on Philips Records in December 1970 to warm reviews , but struggled to find an audience.[13]

Disappointed, she left the music industry and moved to The Incredible String Band's Glen Row cottages, then Ireland, and back to Scotland. She spent much of the ensuing thirty years raising her three children.[10] During this time, unknown to her, the original album slowly became one of the most sought-after records of its time. Copies have sold online on Discogs for as much as US$3,946.[14]

Bunyan has said that her sudden loss of confidence in her abilities and her retirement from music in her mid-twenties happened when, for the first time, in a television show, she saw and heard Joni Mitchell sing. "I thought, 'I can never do that'. It had a huge effect on me. From that moment on I never believed in myself. For about 30 years I gave up on music altogether ... I don't like to admit it, but that's what happened."[15]

2000 to present

In 2000, Just Another Diamond Day was re-released on CD with bonus tracks, exposing Bunyan's music to a new generation of folk artists such as Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom.[16] In 2001, Banhart wrote to her asking for her advice, beginning her connection with many of the contemporary performers who cite her work. In 2002 she was invited by Piano Magic musician Glen Johnson to sing guest vocals on his song "Crown of the Lost", her first recording in over thirty years.[17] Since then, she has appeared on releases by Devendra Banhart and Animal Collective.

In 2005, she recorded and released her second album, Lookaftering on Fat Cat Records, some 35 years after her first.[18] The album was produced by composer Max Richter and featured many of her contemporary followers, including Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Adem, Kevin Barker of Currituck Co, Otto Hauser of Espers and Adam Pierce of Mice Parade, and it was well received.

Bunyan performing at the Summer Sundae festival in Leicester in 2006

In the autumn of 2006, Bunyan assembled an ad hoc band and embarked on a brief North American tour, with performances in both Canada and the US. She performed songs from both of her solo albums, as well as some of the rare material from the unreleased Oldham sessions.

Her music reached a much wider audience when "Just Another Diamond Day" was covered and used in a TV advert for T-Mobile. "Train Song" gained her further attention when it was used in 2008 by Reebok for an ad for the NFL,[19] in 2014 as part of the soundtrack for the TV series True Detective, and in 2015 as the opening credits song for the Amazon Original Series Patriot.

In 2007, she collaborated with novelist Rodge Glass on the song "The Fire" for the compilation album Ballads of the Book, which was devised to combine Scottish writers with Scottish singers (Bunyan lives in Edinburgh). She also provided vocals on three songs for the debut solo album of former Jack frontman Anthony Reynolds, British Ballads. Bunyan sang with Reynolds on the songs "Country Girl", "Just So You Know" and "Song of Leaving". In October 2007 a compilation album of her mid-1960s singles and unreleased demos was released, entitled Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind - Singles and Demos 1964 to 1967.[20][21] In January 2008, Bunyan said she was in the process of recording a new album. "I'm supposed to be writing just now. I have one complete song and a whole lot of fragments. I'm supposed to have them finished by May, and there's no way."[22]

In June 2008, she appeared at London's Royal Festival Hall with The Heritage Orchestra as part of Massive Attack's Meltdown, in a live performance of Vangelis' Blade Runner soundtrack, singing "Rachel's Song" as sung by Mary Hopkin on the original recorded soundtrack.[23] In October 2008, a feature documentary about her, Vashti Bunyan: From Here To Before, directed by Kieran Evans, had its world premieres at the Times BFI London Film Festival. The documentary retraced Bunyan's journey across the UK and Ireland against the backdrop of her first high-profile London concert, using her trip through the UK and Ireland as its narrative structure. The album provided the soundtrack to the journey, as it had the first time. In 2011, Bunyan's cover of the late John Martyn's "Head and Heart" appeared on the tribute album, Johnny Boy Would Love This...A Tribute to John Martyn.[24]

In June 2014, she announced her third and final album, Heartleap. She wrote, "The whole point of the album was finally to learn a way that would enable me to record the music that is in my head, by myself. I neither read nor write music, nor can I play piano with more than one hand at a time, but I have loved being able to work it all out for myself and make it sound the way I wanted. I've built these songs over years. The album wouldn't have happened any other way." Heartleap was released on 7 October in the US by DiCristina and 6 October in the UK by FatCat Records.[25] The cover artwork was created by Bunyan's daughter, Whyn Lewis, who also contributed the artwork for Lookaftering.[26]

In 2022 Bunyan published a memoir Wayward: Just Another Life to Live (White Rabbit Books).[27]

Reception

In 2008, Bunyan was labelled "the Godmother of Freak Folk"[28] for her role in inspiring the "new generation of folk experimentalists including Devendra Banhart and Adem".[28][29] Her music has been categorized as folk, psychedelic folk, or new folk.[30]

Despite this, she has often said that she is not a folk singer: "... I find it quite hard to read myself described as a folk singer, because I'm not."[31][32] Her former producer Joe Boyd said in the 2008 Kieran Evans film From Here to Before, that he never considered Bunyan to be "... much of a folkie".[33]

Discography

Studio albums

Compilations

Singles

Compilation appearances

  • Tonite Lets All Make Love in London (1967)
    • "Winter Is Blue" (as Vashti)
    • "Winter Is Blue (Reprise)" (as Vashti)
  • Circus Days – UK Psychedelic Obscurities 1966–70 Vol.1 (1990)
    • "I'd Like to Walk Around in Your Mind" (as Vashti)
  • A Pot by Any Other Name (2001) (compilation issued by Ptolemaic Terrascope magazine)
    • "17 Pink Sugar Elephants" (rec. 1966) (early variation of "Train Song")
  • Instant Karma (2002)
    • "Winter Is Blue" (as Vashti) (combined version of song from Tonite Lets All Make Love in London)
  • Folk Rock and Faithfull: Dream Babes Vol. 5 (2004)
    • "Train Song" (rec. 1966) (as Vashti)
    • "Love Song" (rec. 1966) (as Vashti)
  • The Golden Apples of the Sun (2004)
  • The Enlightened Family: A Collection Of Lost Songs (2005)
    • "Song of a Wishwanderer" (rec. 1968)
  • Not Alone (2006)
    • "Same But Different"
  • Ballads of the Book (2007)
    • "The Fire" (lyrics by Rodge Glass)
  • Gather in the Mushrooms – The British Acid-Folk Underground 1968 – 1974 (2004)
    • "Winter Is Blue"
  • Johnny Boy Would Love This...A Tribute to John Martyn (2011)
    • "Head and Heart"
  • Way to Blue: The Songs of Nick Drake (2013)
    • "Which Will"

Guest appearances

  • Bunyan's voice was heard on Saint Etienne Presents Finisterre (2005), a documentary about London featuring the music of the band Saint Etienne.
  • Friend, fellow folk singer and longtime fan Devendra Banhart reportedly writes her name on his arm before some concerts.
  • Lush covered her song "I'd Like To Walk Around in Your Mind". They got to know it from the Circus Days compilation.
  • A cover of "Train Song" performed by Ben Gibbard and Feist appeared on Dark Was The Night, a charity compilation benefiting HIV/AIDS awareness and the Red Hot Organization. It was released by 4AD on 17 February 2009.
  • "Diamond Day" was featured in the popular UK teen comedy/drama Skins on the third series (2009), episode six entitled "Naomi".
  • Her song "Here Before" was covered by the Swedish artist Fever Ray, released as the B-side of the 2009 single "Stranger Than Kindness".
  • "Here Before" also featured in the soundtrack for the 2008 BBC production Heist, about a medieval burglary.
  • She is name-checked in the Half Man Half Biscuit song "Totnes Bickering Fair", from the 2008 album CSI:Ambleside.
  • Bunyan's important link to the back-to-the-land counterculture of the 1970s and the insightful expressions of 'nature' in her work have been discussed in an academic paper in 2009 by geographer Keith Halfacree ('"Glow worms show the path we have to tread": the counterurbanisation of Vashti Bunyan', Social and Cultural Geography 10: 771–789).
  • "Train Song" was selected as the background music for Samsung's 2011 SMART TV commercial.
  • "Train Song" was also featured in the 2014 HBO television show True Detective.
  • "Train Song" was used in the ad for Reebok 'Join The Migration' in 2014
  • "Train Song" was used in the opening credits of the 2017 Amazon Original Series Patriot.
  • "Diamond Day" was featured in the Australian film Babyteeth in 2019.
  • "I'd Like to Walk Around in Your Mind" is featured at the beginning of the 2017 Turkish film "Kedi".
  • Several verses of the song "Diamond Day" are sung by a character in the 2023 drama film Fremont, The song is also played over the ending credits.

References

  1. ↑ Murphy, Matthew (27 October 2005). "Lookaftering Album Review - Vashti Bunyan". Pitchfork. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  2. ↑ "Results for England & Wales Births 1837–2006". Search.findmypast.co.uk. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
  3. ↑ "Songwriter/Composer: BUNYAN JENNIFER VASHTI". Repertoire.bmi.com. Archived from the original on 10 January 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
  4. ↑ "Vashti Bunyan: 40 Years Later, A Musical Rebirth". NPR.org. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
  5. 1 2 Rogers, Jude (18 March 2022). "Folk star Vashti Bunyan: 'My voice made me think of sorrow. I didn't even sing to my children'". The Guardian.
  6. ↑ Richard Harrington, "Vashti Bunyan's 'Day' Has Come Again" The Washington Post 9 February 2007
  7. ↑ "CultBox – British TV drama and comedy – News, reviews and interviews". Lastbroadcast.co.uk. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
  8. ↑ Beta, Andy (31 January 2007). "Reaching Carnegie Hall by Horseback". The New York Sun.
  9. ↑ Alex, Michael. "'If I could take off to the hills I probably would,' says 'Godmother of freak folk' Vashti Bunyan ahead of rare Fife gig". The Courier. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  10. 1 2 "Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music": Rob Young, Faber & Faber 2010
  11. ↑ "Vashti Bunyan Interview | Features | Clash Magazine". Clashmusic.com. 18 January 2010. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
  12. ↑ Murphy, Matthew. "Vashti Bunyan: Just Another Diamond Day". Pitchfork. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  13. 1 2 "The album that camein from the cold". The Independent. 25 August 2000. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  14. ↑ "Most expensive items sold in Discogs Marketplace for May 2018 by discogs | Discogs Lists". www.discogs.com. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
  15. ↑ Trousse, Stephen (January 2024). "Ladies of the Roundhouse". Uncut. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  16. ↑ Zoladz, Lindsay. "Vashti Bunyan". Pitchfork. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  17. ↑ "Vashti Bunyan: 'When Just Another Diamond Day came out again it was as if there was a whole different climate'". www.yorkshirepost.co.uk. 23 November 2018. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  18. ↑ Long, Chris (9 November 2018). "BBC - Music - Review of Vashti Bunyan - Lookaftering". Archived from the original on 9 November 2018. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  19. ↑ "Reebok "Join The Migration"". YouTube. 23 July 2008. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
  20. ↑ Vashti BUNYAN Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind Singles & Demos 1964 To 1967 vinyl at Juno Records., retrieved 8 December 2019
  21. ↑ Powell, Mike. "Vashti Bunyan: Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind: Singles and Demos: 1964 to 1967". Pitchfork. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  22. ↑ Tobias Khan, "Vashti Bunyan: The Past and Future Collide" Tiny Mix Tapes 8 February 2008
  23. ↑ Ally Carnwath, "Massive chill melts into warm Vangelis" The Observer 22 June 2008
  24. ↑ Roffman, Michael (5 July 2011). "Check Out: Robert Smith covers John Martyn". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
  25. ↑ Gordon, Jeremy (2 July 2014). "Vashti Bunyan Says New Album Will Be Her Last". Pitchfork Media. Pitchfork. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
  26. ↑ "Whyn Lewis Paintings — 'Run' oil painting from 2005 that was used for the..." Whyn Lewis Paintings. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  27. ↑ Kitty Empire, Wayward by Vashti Bunyan review – the adventures of wander woman" The Observer 3 April 2022
  28. 1 2 Archived 2 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  29. ↑ Rogers, Jude (2 January 2008). "Lie back and think of ukuleles". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 August 2008.
  30. ↑ Michael Keefe. "What Is New Folk? A Genre Profile". About.com. Archived from the original on 12 December 2007. Retrieved 7 July 2008.
  31. ↑ "Vashti Bunyan". www.prsformusic.com. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  32. ↑ "Lost music rediscovered: An interview with singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan". 20 November 2018.
  33. ↑ "From Here To Before And Back Again - Kieran Evans". The Social. 1 August 2020. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
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