“Winter Is Blue” by Vashti Bunyan

Just Another Diamond Day is the debut album by the English folk singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan, and was released on Philips Records in December 1970. Much of the album is a musical reflection on Bunyan and travelling partner Robert Lewis’s experiences while travelling by horse and wagon through Scotland in 1968. It highlighted Bunyan’s vocals with minimal instrumental accompaniment that was arranged by contemporary musical artists supervised under record producer Joe Boyd.

Upon release, Just Another Diamond Day went relatively unnoticed. Stricken by the demoralising and disillusioning outcome, Bunyan began a self-imposed exile from the music industry to live a low-profile lifestyle. Over the years, the album has received more attention among record collectors, resulting in reissues that sparked a revival in Bunyan’s music career. Although it was largely overlooked by the public at the time of its release, the album’s critical standing has improved over the years and today Just Another Diamond Day is now by many considered one of the best works in British folk.

Vashti Bunyan on Soho, silence and finding her voice

Fragile.

The word has been used to describe Vashti Bunyan so often over the years you wouldn’t be surprised to find her picture if you looked the word up in a dictionary. It’s been used about her voice – a delicate, slight yet utterly beautiful thing – and it’s been used about the woman, or at least the girl she was. The girl who was once signed up by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham. The girl who in 1970 released an album, Just Another Diamond Day, that nobody bought, a failure that crushed her will to make music for decades and saw her disappear in a horse and cart to the wilds of Scotland and Ireland. A fresh peach who was bruised by life. […]

Read the Full Story: Vashti Bunyan on Soho, silence and finding her voice (From HeraldScotland)