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Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar

05 Jul 07 - 09:00 PM (#2095193)
Subject: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: GUEST,Heart+

Listening to Vashti Bunyan's Diamond Day album makes me curious as to why her particular style is not more prevalent and popular.

I am looking for several artists that impart that same peace ... that you could fall asleep to or daydream to another world in.


06 Jul 07 - 01:37 AM (#2095322)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Peace

Refresh


06 Jul 07 - 01:58 AM (#2095332)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: George Papavgeris

I cannot speak for others, but she is not to my taste. The music I like has to have more direct relevance to people and events and circumstances and real life out there, to make me think and question and feel diverse sentiments. For relaxing, I find others like Enya and Loreena McKennitt much better. For me, Vashti is somewhere in the middle, neither meat, nor fish. But that's just my personal taste. Perhaps others feel the same, hence her limited popularity.


06 Jul 07 - 02:30 AM (#2095341)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: The Borchester Echo

Vashti Bunyan (thankfully) clipped-clopped off into obscurity over 30 years ago, hence not so popular.

She sounded back then like a watered-down Marianne Faithfull (not surprising since Andrew Loog Oldham was her first producer) and Joe Boyd's subsequent efforts were, surprisingly, no better and markedly unsuccessful.

Folk Britannia decided for reasons unknown to drag her into the 'wyrd' department along with other wifty-wafty, new-agey, whimsical tripe and she underwent a brief mini-'revival' among the equally wyrd.

File alongside Enya or, preferably, in the bin.


06 Jul 07 - 02:56 AM (#2095351)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Peace

I LIKE ENYA!


06 Jul 07 - 03:09 AM (#2095360)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: open mike

how are we supposed to know who she is and what she sounds like if you do not provide any links or information? and what the heck does need highly similar even mean?


06 Jul 07 - 03:10 AM (#2095361)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Peace

See the other thread, om.


06 Jul 07 - 03:23 AM (#2095371)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: gnomad

I never heard of the lady until a few months ago, so cannot comment from experience of her work. Reviews suggest to me that the style may have been insufficiently mainstream to achieve success in the pop world, but too personal (hippyish?) for the folk community of the time.

As for looking for similar, well she appears to have 3 CDs and a DVD available, maybe one of those?


06 Jul 07 - 03:49 AM (#2095386)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Liz the Squeak

Diamond Day - is that the intensely irritating song 'just another diamond day, just a blade of grass' used in a UK TV advert recently?

The singer in that advert does have a pleasant voice, but with no knowledge of who she is or what she's done previously, it's a bit hard to find a similar artist.


The only song more irritating is the one for Lloyds Bank - all that 'oo oo oo oo-oo ooo ahhhh' stuff...

LTS


06 Jul 07 - 03:55 AM (#2095394)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: peregrina

see the other thread for a suggestion.


De gustibus non disputandum etc.

As a relative newcomer, I ask myself whether I want to take part in a forum where members reply to another newcomer in ways that might, on a bad day, perhaps be able to be perceived as rather unfriendly and dismissive.

It's hard for me to understand why people bother to be unpleasant to one another about their shared love for a category of music that is, well, from a commercial point of view, a minority taste, even if it's far older. and has lasted much longer than pop-stuff--and will outlive it!
Strong views about what you care about, fine,great material for lively and enjoyable discussion; express your own passions and pet peeves, great, but Insulting someone's taste and such-like. I ask: why?


06 Jul 07 - 04:04 AM (#2095401)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: The Borchester Echo

Good grief.
Let's be clear.
I do not share a love for a category of 'music' emanating from telly ads and lifts.


06 Jul 07 - 04:38 AM (#2095415)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Joe Offer

ALLMUSICGUIDE (click) will give you names of similar artists.
-Joe Offer-

* Bridget Saint John
* Sandy Denny
* Kath Bloom
* Ruthann Friedman
* Sibylle Baier
* Erica Pomerance
* Turid
* Trees
* Linda Perhacs
* Nick Drake
* Shirley Collins



06 Jul 07 - 04:56 AM (#2095427)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: katlaughing

Well, I'd missed both threads. Thanks, guest, for bringing this up, though. I've now listened to a few sound samples at Amazon and I really like her voice and choice of songs.

kat


06 Jul 07 - 04:58 AM (#2095430)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Celtaddict

Peregrina: Welcome, and I hope you stay to enjoy and learn.

Please do bear in mind that a broad variety of people inhabit this site, and while many or I think most are very helpful and kind, as in any crowd there are some (members and visitors) who are more likely to come across as dismissive or discourteous. Please try not to take them personally. There is a relatively new policy for avoiding anonymous postings and it is hoped that will help, but there are some who sound cantankerous in print, and some outright trolling does go on. I try to think of it as the sort of heckling or static one might encounter in any large group, and of course the top of a thread lists posters so if there is someone who seems to you consistently off-putting, your best bet is to skip them, not to argue with the individual.


06 Jul 07 - 05:06 AM (#2095432)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Dave the Gnome

I have heard, via one of my daughters, the album that diamond day is not on. It is actualy quite good. Not entirely to my taste but then again neither is Opera and Jazz. I wouldn't worry too much about people dismissing what you like - what does it matter as long as you like it? You don't realy need the approval of people you have never met do you?

I would very rarely say that anything is rubbish, with odd exception, but rather say that I do not like it. The two generaly mean the same though, again, with the odd exception:-)

Cheers

Dave


06 Jul 07 - 05:08 AM (#2095433)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: redsnapper

Welcome peregrina!

I tend to agree with you and there are a lot of artists widely liked here who I don't care for much. I don't feel the need to diss them though as others do like them... often with a passion. You'll get used to it. The debate isn't always rational here... as in real life.

RS


06 Jul 07 - 05:08 AM (#2095434)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Jim Lad

Well, I was enjoying this topic on a friendly thread, now closed.
I'll catch you another time, Peregrina (Sweet Fern? Hawkeye?).


06 Jul 07 - 05:35 AM (#2095446)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: GUEST,Noreen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vashti_Bunyan has a lot of information about her and a link to Vashti's website.

Wikipedia classifies her as 'Psych folk' (not a term I have heard before) and has a list of 46 other pages in category "Psych folk musicians" which might be worth investigating, Heart+.

Bear in mind that all the knowledgeable people who visit this café don't necessarily do so every day. I for one didn't see the original posting, but am happy to help where I can, as are many others.

If you ask nicely (and patiently) you tend to get more responses than if you moan that people are treating you unfairly :0)


06 Jul 07 - 05:51 AM (#2095452)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: greg stephens

Peregrina: it is very unfortunate, but this is an open access forum. Unfortunately there are people who post here who are unable to confine themselves to saying they don't particularly like a song. They have to go on and insult the motivation and morals of whoever made the record.Try to ignore it, hard though that can be sometimes.
   Peronally, I am no huge Vashti Bunyan fan, though I liked her singing fine when I knew her as a student in the 60's. She was fey and hippy, I was rough so our tastes didn't coincide. But I am totally delighted for her that a record she made 40 years ago, which vanished into total obscurity, has suddenly reappeared and given her a bit of recognition and made her a few bob. Greatluck for her. Somtuimes things aren't totally right for their own times, but feel right years later. An interesting phenomenon.


06 Jul 07 - 05:59 AM (#2095457)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: TheSnail

I'm not familiar with most of the people on Joe's list, but I think that if you listen to Sandy Denny and Shirley Collins, you'll never want to hear Vashti Bunyan again.


06 Jul 07 - 06:00 AM (#2095458)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Dave the Gnome

And what an interesting story the 'years' section of her website makes. Thanks, Noreen.

Dave.


06 Jul 07 - 06:22 AM (#2095471)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: The Borchester Echo

Yes, Snail.

I was so appalled at the inclusion of Shirley Collins and Sandy Denny in a list of new-agey nonentities that I became (temporarily) gobsmacked.

Where do they get such cloth-eared 'sound-a-like' list compilers from?


06 Jul 07 - 06:48 AM (#2095487)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: greg stephens

Actually, Diane, I think including Shirley Collins and Vashti Bunyan makes a great deal of sense. They both sing in a kind of weird, unusual, unexpected voice that instantly transports you somewhere else. In the Collins case, generally into a sort of mythical nymphs and shepherds kind of place, and with Bunyan more of a fairy, Celtic twilight, 60's Malory sort of thing.Of course, whether you wish to be transported into that world is another question.
Sandy Denny is a totally different kind of thing again. She sounds like a 60's/70's folkie. What it says on the tin.


06 Jul 07 - 06:54 AM (#2095489)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: The Borchester Echo

I'm applying for my ticket to be a fly on the wall when you tell Ms Collins this.
Are you sure you're not thinking of Toni Arthur?


06 Jul 07 - 07:06 AM (#2095496)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: greg stephens

No, I'm not thinking of Toni Arthur, in fact I don't think I have any knowledge of what she sounds like.How would you categorise the Shirley Collins world then, Diane? I'm not sure about my "nymphs and shepherds" phrase, which is perhaps a little too art-song orientated, and Collinsland is stranger than art-song. But I think it does have nymphs and shepherds in it. And the 5-string banjo moves it another lurch sideways.
   This subject of voice quality will come up more here, I think. The Collinses and Bunyans seem to me to be on the ascendent, and the Priors and Dennys are going down. Or that is my impression of what is happening outside the enclosed world of the folk revival.
    I am not making any judgement from personal taste here particularly, just observing the vagaries of fashion and reputation.


06 Jul 07 - 07:21 AM (#2095504)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: The Borchester Echo

I cited Toni Arthur because she has a trained voice, very nice if you like art song but it always struck me as sounding out of place in the duo with Dave Arthur.

I'm trying hard to imagine Our Shirl doing madrigals but can't. Has she ever?

And I don't know what point you are attempting to make re: Maddy & Sandy. Is it just that they have both fronted a folk-rock band? Shirley has done that too, remember. As has June Tabor yet she is rather heavily into art song these days (discounting her latest CD, obviously).


06 Jul 07 - 07:22 AM (#2095506)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: redsnapper

I would not personally put Shirley Collins into the same category as Vashti Bunyan but that is my personal opinion. I'm also not sure about "voice quality". SC and SD have very different voices but both eminently suited to what they do and did respectively.

RS


06 Jul 07 - 07:48 AM (#2095518)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: greg stephens

The only thing really that Bunyan and Collins have in common, the reason I was categorising them together, is that they both have powerfully unusual non-mainstream voices, and therefore transport you swiftly into their own world.
   Sandy Denny and Maddy Prior are more the opposite, they have voices typical of the genre in which they operated(folk scene/folk rock): that was the point I was making.


06 Jul 07 - 07:58 AM (#2095523)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Dave the Gnome

Spot on, redsnapper. Neither does voice quality have anything to do with it being good or bad music. Just different tastes. Anyone saying that one is not as 'good' as another should realy have a re-think, or at least a re-phrase. What do you mean by 'good' anyway? Would Pavarotti sound right singing 'The times they are a changing'? No, yet by all accounts he has a 'better' voice than Dylan. I doubt very much whether any of the godmothers of folk would sound right singing 'Another Diamond Day' by the same token. To quote Mr D, now that I have mentioned him, You're better that no-one and no-one is better than you.

Whoever said 'once you listen to Sandy Denny or Shirley Collins you will not listen to Vishti Bunyan again' really needs to get of that high horse btw. I am afraid it just doesn't work that way. Just because they are your favourites does not mean that everyone else has to agree with you.

Sorry. Rant over.

:D


06 Jul 07 - 08:06 AM (#2095529)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Dave the Gnome

PS - I am going to commit the most heinous crime possible and admit that I don't particularly like Norma Watersons singing...

:-P


06 Jul 07 - 08:19 AM (#2095534)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: greg stephens

Does that go for the Watersons as a group as well? I am interested. You may possibly be committing the sin for which there is no forgiveness, the sin against the Holy Ghost.


06 Jul 07 - 08:59 AM (#2095548)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Dave the Gnome

I like Mike very much and I like some of the families stuff but not all. There is some of what Norma does that I do like but in general I can take or leave most of the Waterson/Carthy stuff. I do like Martin on his own and love some of his other bands - Brass Monkey in particular. I must admit that most of what the Watersons do and did leaves me a little cold as do a few of the other 'trad' (or is it revival? Don't start that again...) singers and bands.

I think the Boat Band are wonderful of course...

:D


06 Jul 07 - 09:01 AM (#2095551)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: TheSnail

Dave Polshaw

Whoever said 'once you listen to Sandy Denny or Shirley Collins you will not listen to Vishti Bunyan again' really needs to get of that high horse btw.

I've just listened to Lily Pond, Another Diamond Day and as much of Rose Hip November as I could handle. It's not a matter of taste, it's a matter of quality and value. Nobody would sound right singing 'Another Diamond Day'; it's drivel. Vashti Bunyan has a pleasant but unremarkable voice with no emotional range.

I don't particularly like Norma Watersons singing...

Er, try harder. It's worth it.


06 Jul 07 - 09:05 AM (#2095556)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Giant Folk Eyeball (inactive)

I can understand the Shirley Collins reference (though personally, much as I like JADD when I'm in the right mood, I'd take one Shirley Collins album over a thousand Vashti Bunyan albums). Where the reference makes sense is the strange otherworldliness of Shirley's voice, especially when set in the context of Dolly's portative organ. I was listening to 'The Power of the True Love Knot' last night and was yet again struck by what a strange and lovely thing it is - the dreamlike quality is what I think it shares in part with Vashti's first album (Lookaftering's a different matter entirely). I think that is why many in the 'wyrd' folk world love Shirley's music where they wouldn't necessarily be interested in a lot of other traditional or traditionalish music.

For more on the psych/wyrd/whatever-you-want-to-call-it folk world, including plenty of artists who share some traits weith Vashti, you could do a lot worse than check out Mark Coyle's site, the Unbroken Circle which is a fascinating place to poke around.

Now please don't shout at me for liking other things than just traditional(ish) folk music...

Cheers

Nigel


06 Jul 07 - 09:08 AM (#2095558)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker

my mrs don't give a toss what you lot think.

I bought her Vashti Bunyan's Diamond Day album for xmas

to add to her immense collection of female vocalists
of all musical genres..

..and its now one of her favourite CD's.

I also enjoy listening to it late into the early hours of a winters morning
when i've enjoyed an expensively mellow bottle of single malt..


06 Jul 07 - 09:09 AM (#2095561)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: The Borchester Echo

What does 'voice quality' mean anyway?

'Quality' has two distinct meanings:

(1) the pragmatic interpretation as the non-inferiority, superiority or usefulness (i.e. without value judgment) and

(2) the degree or standard of excellence or high social status (which cannot but involve personal preference).

It is perfectly possible to recognise that something is 'good' without necessarily liking it.
Not that I think this about Ms Bunyan's voice which I find unbelievably twee and nothing about it to like.
Nor about the Boat Band who are unremittingly wonderful and likeable.


06 Jul 07 - 09:26 AM (#2095579)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker

oh and..

"Nobody would sound right singing 'Another Diamond Day'; it's drivel"


you havn't heard my version...!!!!


..my gig battered Boss DS-2 Turbo distortion,
and very crunchy grainy industrial drum samples
figures quite prominently in the musical arrangement..


i've now claimed it as a very 'manly' song for the male singer repetoire..


06 Jul 07 - 09:32 AM (#2095583)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Celtaddict

It is worth remembering that 'quality' is also used to describe traits, without the level of judgment implied by the two definitions above.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
qual·i·ty      /ˈkwɒlɪti/ [kwol-i-tee] noun, plural -ties, adjective
–noun
1.        an essential or distinctive characteristic, property, or attribute: the chemical qualities of alcohol.
2.        character or nature, as belonging to or distinguishing a thing: the quality of a sound.

I suspect this aspect of 'quality' was what was meant in referring to Ms. Bunyan's and Ms. Collins' voices as possessing an unusual other-worldly quality.


06 Jul 07 - 09:35 AM (#2095586)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: TheSnail

GUEST,punkfolkrocker

i've now claimed it as a very 'manly' song for the male singer repetoire..

Great. Is it on YouTube? What did you do about all the La La La La Las?


06 Jul 07 - 09:36 AM (#2095587)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: greg stephens

The way I was using "quality" was definitely the non-value-judgement version. Collins and Bunyan both have the "come from another world" quality, but as I said you may not want to go there with them. Now, Diane, you may find Bunyan insufferably twee, and others find that perfectly charming. And of course, people change opinions sometimes, forty years on. I too have made a run for the Hebrides and the west of Ireland too, though I'm firmly in Stoke today. Who knows tomorrow?
    I'm sticking my neck out,and advising anyone to sell shares in 70's folk-rock and buy Bunyan/Collins for a profit in the short to middle term.


06 Jul 07 - 09:45 AM (#2095596)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Dave the Gnome

Snail, seeing as you are into the very sensible argument of "What I like is marvelous and what I do not like is drivel" I feel that there is only one response I can make...

Bollocks!

I am quite happy to accept that you do not like it but do not try to inflict your views on anyone else please. Try to accept that some people do indeed like 'drivel'.

And I don't realy give a monkeys whether you believe that the sun shines out of Norma Watersons arse as long as you don't expect me to believe it as well.

Cheers

Dave


06 Jul 07 - 09:48 AM (#2095597)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: greg stephens

"Nor about the Boat Band who are unremittingly wonderful and likeable"

Thanks for that comment Diane, but it makes me feel a little cautious. You are a person justly famous for somewhat rebarbative views on various performers(or almost anything), so I feel a touch of the "timeo Danaos et dona ferentes" coming on (excuse my French). Have you ever actually heard the Boat Band? I do hope so. But I don't recall that we have had the pleasure of meeting?


06 Jul 07 - 09:49 AM (#2095598)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: TheSnail

Dave Polshaw

Try to accept that some people do indeed like 'drivel'.

OK


06 Jul 07 - 09:53 AM (#2095600)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Giant Folk Eyeball (inactive)

I certainly didn't mean to say either of their voices possessed 'an unusual other-worldly non-inferiority, superiority or usefulness (without value judgment)'... That would have just been silly of me.

Cheers

Nigel


06 Jul 07 - 09:55 AM (#2095601)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: The Borchester Echo

Ah, Greg. How could you forget?

[exit stage left in a huff]



What I like is marvellous and what I do not like is drivel


This might sort out my gravestone.

Once (at some festival, I forget where) we had a virtual female mudwrestling competition.
Norma Waterson won. Obviously. Who else?


06 Jul 07 - 09:57 AM (#2095606)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Celtaddict

'What did you do about all the La La La La Las?'
You could well be quoting the last verse of Me and Bobbie McGee as penned by that Rhodes Scholar, Kris Kristofferson. Like him or not, his image is not exactly feminine or other worldly.

Confession time: often on this forum, someone mentions a song, artist, or album with which I am unfamiliar. I often follow the link, or search for a clip myself. I find I tend to do this about equally whether the poster rhapsodized or lambasted; if someone has strong feelings about it, I often feel it worth one listen even if it is not to my taste.

Also, I often enjoy hearing a song presented in a fashion totally different from its origin, a ballad with rocking contemporary arrangement, a music hall romp presented as torchy blues. (I think there was a thread on this a while back.)


06 Jul 07 - 09:57 AM (#2095607)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: greg stephens

Beer, probably.


06 Jul 07 - 10:00 AM (#2095609)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Dave the Gnome

Oh - and in case no-one noticed. I have never said that anyone or any song is good or bad. The most I have ever said is that I do or do not like it or them. I would not dream of suggesting that my tastes are in anyway better or worse than anyone elses. I can however tell when something realy is bad, which Norma Waterson is not, I just don't like her singing, like I don't enjoy Thomas Hardy novels. If anyone feels that they have to work at it to get to like it then I am afraid that is beyond my limited capabilities. Shallow as I may be if I cannot enjoy something in the first couple of listens I doubt very much whether I would be brainwashed into liking it by repeated playings or detailed analysis.

Sorry, that is just how I am. Take it or leave it but don't try to say that you are any better than me.

Cheers

Dave


06 Jul 07 - 10:09 AM (#2095614)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Dave the Gnome

Nice one, Diane:-) Glad I could be of help.

On the other topic did you enter Mama Cass into the competition?

:D


06 Jul 07 - 10:16 AM (#2095622)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker

"What did you do about all the La La La La Las?"


I make it sound like a an invading marching army's Battle Cry !!!!


06 Jul 07 - 10:24 AM (#2095627)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Celtaddict

But is it on YouTube? Or somewhere we can have a listen?

Sorry about the double-post above; the first time, it seemed to disappear completely.


06 Jul 07 - 10:24 AM (#2095628)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Dave the Gnome

2!


06 Jul 07 - 02:12 PM (#2095779)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Joe Offer

    appalled at the inclusion of Shirley Collins and Sandy Denny in a list of new-agey nonentities
Or, if you look at it from a positive point of view, maybe they were suggesting performers who would take the listener to a higher level?

If osmebody listens to crap and wants suggestions, I often try to avoid suggesting more crap. If a folk-pop fan wants exposure to more sophisticated music, Shirley Collins and Sandy Denny are a good place to start.

I see Dave Polshaw says he doesn't "particularly like Norma Waterson's singing."
Are people actually allowed to say stuff like that at Mudcat? I guess I tend to agree. I like her songs and her interpretation of the songs, but I don't like her voice. It's grating, and I can't listen to it for lengthy periods.

-Joe Offer-


06 Jul 07 - 02:28 PM (#2095790)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: peregrina

Another thought for the original question --this suggestion I onlyk now from the odd track on the radio: Joanna Newsom's album Ys ??


06 Jul 07 - 02:44 PM (#2095797)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Peace

Heart+:

It has never bothered me one way or other what music people like or don't. Musically--in terms of history and theory--I am as adept as most people at disecting songs, music, etc. I sometimes do when I am trying to figure out what makes a song 'work for me' as a listener. But generally, when my 'music hat' is doffed, it boils down to what touches my heart or intellect or soul or gut. I find that I am much less pedantic than I used to be, and it gets to "I like what I like because I like it." The converse holds true, also.

I recently wrote a keyboard piece despite the fact I don't play keyboard. The music I got is very beautiful in spots and IMO the over-all piece works quite well. Someday I will spend a month, learn to play the piece, clean up a few rough spots, do a decent recording of it and pop it on youtube or something like that and them what likes it will listen to it and them what don't will tear it apart. That's the way it is often in music.

I happen to like some country/rock music. Also some folk, jazz, symphonies, straight rock, folk-rock, traditional, plainsong, etc. All people do not share my tastes. Such is life. I seldom enter into arguments anymore with people who are tearing a musician/writer down, because often people who do that just don't have the ability themselves, and what is offered as criticism simply shows up as jealousy.

I have a good friend here who was kind enough to give me some criticism of new material I've been writing. (He is an accomplished musician.) Criticism from someone like him is criticism I listen to, internalize and consider carefully. I also listen to an audience. When I work a room/stage, if three different crowds give tepid applause to a song I did, I have to find out if it was the performance, the material, the presentation or what. That's part of the responsibility of performing. When someone pays me bucks to perform, I tend to do what works for an audience. When I'm at home, I tend to do what works for me. If the two happen to be one and the same, hey, cool.

Various folks have introduced their work on Mudcat--their personal performances, their own material, etc. Only a cad would say anything but positive about those performances. Writers and performers know when they are 'cutting it', and some sideline quarterback jumping in with, "You should go back to being a butcher" is just a wise-assed comment that has very little usefulness to the performer.

You keep liking what you like. At the end of the day, that is what should matter to you as a listener.

Keep well.


06 Jul 07 - 04:30 PM (#2095871)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: M.Ted

Next time anyone asks, "What happened to the folk revival?" I'll show them this thread. And not with any sense of joy.


07 Jul 07 - 02:57 AM (#2096192)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: GUEST,miserablist

Come on, M.Ted, expand on what you mean... Is a thread involving discussion of Vashti Bunyan too frivolous for a serious folk forum or something? And which particular folk revival?


07 Jul 07 - 03:13 AM (#2096194)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Liz the Squeak

I only said I found it intensely irritating, I didn't say I didn't like it. I know lots of things that are even more irritating (like Mudcat!!) but that doesn't mean I don't like them.

If I didn't like it, I'd say so, but only if you asked me if I did or not. Personally, I had no idea who sang the song and was not interested enough to find out - if indeed it IS that intensely irritating TV advert.

She has a pleasant enough voice and it's been interesting finding out here that she has other works available. One day, I might get to listen to some but at the moment, she's not really pulling my strings as it were.

I get the feeling that if I did buy one of her CDs, it would be one of those I have to have on shuffle, with other music interspersed. I don't think I could manage to sit through a whole, uninterrupted CD of her - something I do with a lot of artists. Dido is similar.

LTS


07 Jul 07 - 04:20 AM (#2096228)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: The Borchester Echo

Since the subject of this thread has not the vaguest connection with any 'f*lk revival' known to person or beast, it would scarcely be relevant to show it to anyone mentioning (as they would in casual conversation) such an occurrence.


15 Jul 07 - 03:16 PM (#2103515)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: GUEST

Thank you all for your help. In the future, I'd appreciate more similar artists and less arguing.


15 Jul 07 - 03:19 PM (#2103518)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Peace

"Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 03:16 PM

Thank you all for your help. In the future, I'd appreciate more similar artists and less arguing."

In the future I'd appreciate it if you'd stop posting as GUEST, OK?


16 Jul 07 - 02:08 PM (#2104383)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: M.Ted

My point was about the petty arguing--and I'm not posting as a GUEST.


16 Jul 07 - 02:17 PM (#2104399)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: The Borchester Echo

The OP was Guest Me who transmogrified in to Guest Heart+ then became just Guest.
Are you saying that these three persons are MTed all along?
Vashti's clip-clopping and 30+ year disappearance is more interesting than this.


17 Jul 07 - 12:22 AM (#2104841)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: M.Ted

I'm not three persons. I've never been three persons. Only me. Always have been, and will be for the forseeable future.


17 Jul 07 - 12:25 AM (#2104842)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Peace

Yippee. So bloody what?


17 Jul 07 - 12:30 AM (#2104843)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Peace

My remark was to a nameless guest. I do not take crap just because someone feels like doling it out. Particularly from a nameless someone. And I don't particularly give a shit who does or doesn't like that.


31 Jul 07 - 04:17 AM (#2115314)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Vashti Bunyan - Need Highly Similar
From: Giant Folk Eyeball (inactive)

Sorry to revive a thread that became so surly so quickly, but just a quick note to tell you all about how good Vashti's songs are capable of becoming in the right hands. Alasdair Roberts, with his old band, Appendix Out, recorded an EP called 'A Warm and Yeasty Corner'... alongside great versions of 'Sally Free and Easy' and 'A Very Circular Song', there is a fantastic version of Vashti's 'Window Across the Bay'. The marvellous Mr R manages, as he does with most things he turns his hand to, to make it his own.

Cheers

Nigel