quote: When did anyone ever hear Vashti Bunyan in folk music circles?
She's a staple of some folk music radio shows, and it's folkies who buy her albums. Some people refer to her style as "freak folk." Personally, I don't think she's freaky at all, any more than Bob Dylan was when he was a folk singer.

quote: I've lived in or near Edinburgh (which is where she lives) since 1976, never heard of her till the re-release of her stuff a few years ago, and have never seen her in person at any event I've been to.
Wikipedia says she disappeared from the music industry from 1970 till the early 2000's. And it sounds like she hasn't been doing a lot of live shows since reappearing.

quote: ...VB doesn't think of her work as being Folk...
quote: Vashti Bunyan totally rejected the label of folk singer in an interview I heard.
But she sounds like a folk singer. She sings melodic ballads in a traditional style, with natural acoustic guitar acompaniment. That's why folk music aficionados like her, and discos don't play her and interviewers don't ask her whether she thinks of herself as a scat singer.