Anne Briggs - Beginnings of Folk Music Career

Beginnings of Folk Music Career

Briggs visited the main British folk clubs which were then becoming well known: The Troubadour (London), The Scots Hoose and various Irish music venues. At his time, the emphasis at such venues was on instrumental folk music, and singing was regarded as merely a pause between tunes. A young Christy Moore heard her and was inspired to give more emphasis, in his own music, to singing rather than playing jigs.

She became loosely associated with the Scottish folk musicians who were sometimes regarded as part of the hippy culture: Bert Jansch, The Incredible String Band, and Clive Palmer, for example. Briggs and Jansch lived together in a squat in Earl's Court before moving together to a house in Somali Road, London, where John Renbourn lived, and The Young Tradition also lived for a time. Jansch and Briggs had some resemblance to each other and were so naturally close that they were often mistaken for brother and sister. It was Briggs who taught Jansch the traditional song "Blackwaterside" which he recorded on his Jack Orion album in 1966.

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