Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Blackwaterside

Anne Briggs is one of the most influential unknown artists in the history of folk music. Okay, she's not exactly unknown. She was quite well thought of in her day, and was considered a rising star in the folk world. However, at age of 27, she walked away from it all. She has not recorded or performed since. Her entire recorded output is about 30 songs. It seems that she didn't like recording, or the sound of her recorded voice. But others did. June Tabor is said to have been inspired to take up singing by an Anne Briggs album. She influenced all of the Sandy Denny, Maddy Prior, and others. She has continued to influence singers such as Kate Rusby and Eliza Carthy. I think that she may be the reason that female British folk singers never went down that sterile crystal pure dead end that so many American female singers went down in the 1960s. Here she is sing Blackwaterside.

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