Bridget St John, a close contemporary of John Martyn and Nick Drake on the British Folk scene at the end of the sixties. Martyn helped her develop her guitar style and also plays on this. Although she received a reasonable amount of attention at the time, her reputation appears unaccountably to have diminished over time since. This seems perverse, for her records, at least this one, her 1969 debut Ask Me No Questions, which I was happy to chance upon yesterday, stand shoulder to shoulder with the albums both Martyn and Drake were putting out at the time.
Released on John Peel's Dandelion label, he also produced the album. Peel was St John's most immediate champion. The record is as good a document as any to what life was life in 1969 and how it has changed since. Everything unfurls at a leisurely, utterly measured pace, like sitting in silence in a dimly lit country kitchen, listening to the steady tick of a grandfather clock. It's a comforting and warming record.
St John has a thick, husky quite distinctive vocal tone. Its deep timbre most obviously recalls Nico but she has a greater range, is never stentorian, less foreboding and essentially much more musical. These are her own songs after all. The lyrics are thoughtful and evocative, focused most obviously on the ebb and flow of particular romantic relationships, but also as she reflects upon them upon the nature all around her and her wonder for it. Like so many Folk records of the period this has an incredibly sensitive feel for and dialogue going on with the British land and countryside around it.
As I listen to this, it does seem inexplicable to me why St John doesn't get more of the attention that Drake and Martyn do because her records certainly merit comparison with theirs as I said before. Perhaps its a matter of biography, Drake's terrible story and the fact that he was virtually all but ignored at the time all added fuel to his flaming reputation as he began to be rediscovered in the late eighties. He's part of the canon now. For better or worse. The ultimate, sensitive, outsider artist.
St John's and Martyn's picking, flowing acoustic playing styles on this are remarkably similar to Drake's. They have that warmth in common but lyrically and in terms of its overall feel Ask Me No Questions comes from a generally more contented place than Five Leaves Left for example. There's little of the detachment that is audible, even in Drake's earliest records and which would eventually find its full, sad voice in the remote, resigned alienation of Pink Moon his last album. Ask Me No Questions in contrast is a record that it's made in the midst of a supportive, appreciative crowd rather than slightly apart from it where Drake always positioned himself. There's also more carnal curiosity and exploration than you ever get with Drake. Listen to Lizard-Long-Tongue-Boy if you don't believe me. Much as I love Nick, Bridget sounds like better company.
As I said she did garner some appreciation during her initial career, most obviously from Peel, but she also featured in Melody Maker polls over a number of years in the early seventies. But this fine record at least has been unfairly neglected since, all but forgotten save for those in the know. It's a remarkably consistent, rewarding and confident album that demands rediscovery in the same way as Vashti Bunyan's Just Another Diamond Day was unearthed and lauded to the heavens a few years back. If you're interested in reading more here's another link to the Perfect Collection blog, where there's a great review of the record. As the author puts it in his sign off line, 'this is English folk at its most ambrosial.'
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