Anne Briggs - First Recordings

First Recordings

Anne Briggs began her recording career by contributing two songs to a thematic album, The Iron Muse, released by Topic Records in 1963. Ewan MacColl and Bert Lloyd sang on the tracks, and Ray Fisher made a brief appearance singing along with Briggs. An EP The Hazards of Love was recorded in 1963. It was an early inspiration for both June Tabor and Maddy Prior.

At about this time, Anne Briggs entered a relationship with a Scotsman who proved to be violently abusive. She was rescued from this relationship by Hamish Henderson who accidentally bumped into her and invited her to join Louis Killen, Dave Swarbrick and Frankie Armstrong for a recording project. This resulted in the album called The Bird in The Bush which is still regarded as one of the best collections of traditional erotic folksongs recorded in the 1960s.