Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4

Subject: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 06 Sep 16 - 04:58 AM

Just spotted that BBC Radio 4 is broadcasting an interview with Annie Briggs at 11.30 this morning - The Voices of Annie Briggs will be available on I-player after broadcast.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: Leadfingers
Date: 06 Sep 16 - 05:14 AM

Thanks for the Heads Up Kitty

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Sep 16 - 06:59 AM

Really interesting. Thanks

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: GUEST,oldnic kilby
Date: 06 Sep 16 - 08:54 AM

What a simply outstanding Broadcast, I was almost in tears. Stunning This is the Beeb at it's very best Take my advice and LISTEN.

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: Uncle Tone
Date: 06 Sep 16 - 10:17 AM

Yes, thanks for this. Really enjoyed it. Good sensitive interviewing too.

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: GUEST,Henry Piper of Ottery
Date: 06 Sep 16 - 10:36 AM

A lovely insight into this most reclusive and gifted singer,... pity she no longer sings in public, her version on "The snow it melts the soonest" sends shivers up my spine every time I hear it , (which is far too rarely)

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: GUEST,oldnic kilby
Date: 07 Sep 16 - 07:05 AM

There is a new E P of Annie's songs on fledglingrecords .co.uk
Only 4 songs but an absolute cracker.

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: Uncle Tone
Date: 07 Sep 16 - 07:35 AM

From: GUEST,Henry Piper of Ottery - PM
Date: 06 Sep 16 - 10:36 AM

Quote: "The snow it melts the soonest" sends shivers up my spine every time I hear it , (which is far too rarely)

Can I add this to this, Henry?

The Ultimate Folk and Blues Show thread

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Sep 16 - 09:13 AM

link to the "Anne Briggs - Four Songs" on Fledg'ling.

track list:
1 The Recruited Collier
2 My Bonny Boy (A Bower In My Breast)
3 Polly Vaughan
4 The Verdant Braes Of Skreen

Release date: 12th August 2016
Barcode number: 5020393 100649

http://fledglingrecords.co.uk/product/anne-briggs-four-songs-wing-1006-vinyl-ep/

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: GUEST,John Routledge guest
Date: 07 Sep 16 - 09:22 AM

Wonderful balance between song and talk. Well worth another listen.

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 07 Sep 16 - 10:14 AM

Just listened to this excellent programme, wow, what a huge blast of nostalgia.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: Uncle Tone
Date: 07 Sep 16 - 10:57 AM

From: GUEST
Date: 07 Sep 16 - 09:13 AM

link to the "Anne Briggs - Four Songs" on Fledg'ling.

track list:
1 The Recruited Collier
2 My Bonny Boy (A Bower In My Breast)
3 Polly Vaughan
4 The Verdant Braes Of Skreen

Release date: 12th August 2016
Barcode number: 5020393 100649

http://fledglingrecords.co.uk/product/anne-briggs-four-songs-wing-1006-vinyl-ep/

Thanks for this, 'Guest'. Have contacted the label for a promo for air time.

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: GUEST,Gealt
Date: 07 Sep 16 - 01:56 PM

http://fledglingrecords.co.uk/product/anne-briggs-four-songs-wing-1006-vinyl-ep/

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: matt milton
Date: 08 Sep 16 - 04:44 AM

Great show.

On a related note...

I don't think I'll ever be able to understand how a singer can stop singing. I can understand why a singer might stop singing professionally. Or why a singer might not wish to sing in public. But I can't imagine how a singer could simply stop singing full stop - to cease singing even when alone. I can't help but think there are unresolved psychological issues there. That's certainly the impression I got from that programme. Totally Anne Briggs' own business, of course, totally her prerogative, but I could hear a subtle defensiveness, a blockage, an obstacle, almost a streak of masochism in how she talked about the fact that she doesn't sing anymore.

I was so glad to hear Shirley Collins has started singing again - I don't care whether or not she starts regularly singing in public, and I don't care whether or not she makes a new album, I'm just really pleased for her, that she has retrieved the ability to enjoy doing something she loves and is good at, something she has invested time, care and energy in.

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: DaveRo
Date: 08 Sep 16 - 05:03 AM

Excellent programme. Very sensitive interviewer. Lovely singing. Thanks to the OP for the alert.

I really don't think we should be discussing her mental state here, for so many reasons.

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: GUEST,johnmc
Date: 08 Sep 16 - 07:34 AM

I regret not going to hear her speak at Celtic Connections. Did anyone go ?

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: GUEST,Willa
Date: 09 Sep 16 - 02:52 PM

Thanks for the link, Kitty. Enjoyed it very much.
I have TSCD504(Topic Records) which has 22 tracks by Annie; wonderful and still available!

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: GUEST,153_fishes
Date: 09 Sep 16 - 03:41 PM

"to cease singing even when alone"

Now are you really ever alone?

On the willow we hung our harp
in the midst thereof?

Subject: Voices of Annie Briggs BBC Radio 4 Extra
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 17 Feb 20 - 06:12 PM


Yesterday on BBC Radio 4 Extra there was a very interesting programme about Anne Briggs which many of you might enjoy. It was called "The Voices of Annie Briggs" and in it she talks to Alan Hall about her role in the 60s folk revival.It is available to listen to using this link
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07syrrs

Subject: RE: Voices of Annie Briggs BBC Radio 4 Extra
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 17 Feb 20 - 06:30 PM

also some more info & discussion :
thread.cfm?threadid=160547

Subject: RE: Voices of Annie Briggs BBC Radio 4 Extra
From: GUEST,Keith Price
Date: 18 Feb 20 - 03:40 AM

Thanks for the heads up GeoffLawes excellent programme.

Subject: RE: Voices of Annie Briggs BBC Radio 4 Extra
From: GUEST,SB
Date: 18 Feb 20 - 04:19 AM

Been on before. Here's the blurb ...

Annie Briggs

The Voices of...

An intimate portrait of the iconic but elusive English folksinger Annie Briggs.

Annie Briggs was a leading figure in the English folk revival of the early 1960s, inspiring Bert Jansch (famously, in Blackwater Side), Sandy Denny, The Watersons and many more. But she was a restless spirit, travelling through the British Isles and Ireland, finding songs and living close to the earth.

As Sandy Denny depicted her in The Pond and the Stream:

Annie wanders on the land.
She loves the freedom of the air.
She finds a friend in ev'ry place she goes.
There's always a face she knows.
I wish that I was there.

And so she remains, now a grandmother living by the water in the west of Scotland. She's always resolutely resisted celebrity and commercial success, withdrawing from the folk scene in the early 1970s, but her legacy - her voice and her attitude - continue to inspire and to carry a link to life as it was once lived in 'the imagined village'.

Annie talks to Alan Hall about childhood holidays singing along with the waves, writing songs while living on a beach in west Ireland, her garden and the wildlife that she shares it with, and the ballad tradition she discovered as a teenager and that she 'belongs to'.

Producer: Alan Hall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in September 2016.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07syrrs

====

Another folk singer is in the same (repeated) series - Richard Dawson

For a man whose musical demeanour comes across as rough-hewn with a potency that's barely contained, Richard Dawson in person is gentle with a soft smile and opinions that are precisely worded though almost tentatively shared. He admits to a high level of everyday anxiety, yet has left a mark on contemporary folk music in England that testifies to an innate confidence in his musical vision. His albums (notably Nothing Important of 2014 and Peasant in 2017), as well as being critically acclaimed, have taken folk music into new territory that's at once ancient and avant-garde.

Speaking at his home in the north-east of England, Richard reflects on the particular qualities of his voice, the life that music has opened up to him and his ever-present companion, Trouble the cat.

Presented and produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio Four

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00075jj

====

get_iplayer will get both using the pids

====

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: andymac
Date: 18 Feb 20 - 05:37 AM

Utterly spellbinding. One of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard, though sadly never live. Shvers down my spine indeed. She conveys a depth of understanding and feeling of the ballads that goes way beyond simply singing them, however beautifully.
The programme was very sensitive, apart from a silly attempt at the end to persuade her to sing to the stream.
She sounds content with how her life has been and is now, and that is all that matters.

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: The Sandman
Date: 20 Feb 20 - 03:37 AM

thanks

Subject: RE: Annie Briggs interview BBC Radio 4
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Feb 21 - 03:47 PM

The programme is still available on line, along with the rest of the series it was part of.