Anne Of Folk Fables

Young folk tearaway Anne Briggs made just a handful of highly acclaimed, highly collectable recordings in the 60s and 70s, before forsaking her musical career for motherhood, conservation work and obscurity in the Scottish Highlands. She tells Graeme Thomson her story.

Anne Briggs’ journey into the annals of folk legend began with a hitch-hike to Edinburgh at the age of 15 and ended, 14 years later, with a retreat into obscurity. In the intervening years she established herself as not only perhaps the purest folk voice of her generation, but also as an elusive figure, uncomfortable operating within the confines of stage and studio. Briggs never truly lost her inhibitions in formal situations, which could explain why her recorded legacy is so slim: a handful of songs scattered across EPs and compilation albums, one album for Topic and two more for CBS. She has been silent since 1973.

Briggs arrived in Edinburgh in 1959, having thumbed lifts with a friend from her home in Nottinghamshire, drawn by the city’s vibrant folk scene. “I was interested in folk music, and I knew this Scots lad who was working in Nottingham who knew Ray and Archie Fisher,” she says today. “He was going up to see them in the Easter holidays and asked me along. I knew their music from their first record, so I said ‘Yes, that would be fantastic.’ I stayed for the whole of the holidays and just about managed to get back for school!”

In Edinburgh, she met Bert Jansch for the first time and quickly embarked upon a friendship that has lasted to this day. “It was almost like we already …

by Graeme Thomson
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