Just by listening to Vashti Bunyan

What is it about Vashti?


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Vashti Bunyan

Vashti Bunyan is an English musician who's debut dropped in 1970. The LP was titled Just Another Diamond Day. Vashti, who has been labeled in some circles as "The Godmother of Freak Folk" disappeared from the music world after this release.


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Just Another Diamond Day

Although her album had an impact her album did not reach a large audience.


Diamond Day

Since her only album recording Vashti raised three children in Ireland and Scottland. Vashti only occasionally contributed vocals to albums belonging to such artists as Devendra Banhart and Animal Collective.

In 2005 she released Lookaftering which came 35 years after her initial release.


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Lookaftering

In 2007 she released of a compilation album of her mid-1960s singles and unreleased demos recorded entitled Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind - Singles and Demos 1964 to 1967.


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Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind

Why don't we have more like Vashti? Actually we probably do however our fast paced world is often suffocated by flashes of MTV and VH1. Where does that leave music?

I am not so arrogant as to say that if one does not appreciate Vashti Bunyan or folk music in general then the result is a shallow understanding of music.

I will say that we as a whole are exposed to a limited interpretation as to what music can be. The radio and tv gives us a narrow view. So narrow that one must be inspired to look for other means in order to educate oneself of other generes, and artists past and present.


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Vashti Bunyan

What I have found is that Vashti's voice is almost childlike and the delicacy in her music some how makes her a powerhouse. When I hear her I hear a lifetime. Because her releases have been few and far between I am left to wonder what time has done for her.

Vashti considered Just Another Diamond Day to be a failure and it apparently broke her heart. In 2005 at the release of Lookaftering she told Pitchfork, "Diamond Day's failure-- as I saw it-- made me unable to pick up my lovely old Martin guitar without waves of sadness overwhelming me and so I'd put it back up on the wall where it gathered dust till I gave it to my oldest son."

I am glad that Vashti now can pick up a guitar. Will she release more music? Only time will tell. in 2005 Pitchfork asked Vashti if she believed in destiny.

"I suspend belief, always. I cannot believe one thing over another. As far as I can see the minute you shackle an idea it withers and dies. If in anything I have faith in something you could call the human spirit-- I have faith it will always save itself at the last minute."

As of late I have been revisiting Vashti's work and it has reminded me that revisiting music you haven't listened to in a while is like revisiting an old friend. Sometimes we remember what it was like to feel certain past emotions and sometimes we gain new perspectives just by listening. Just by listening.