From the Vaults Friday Anne Briggs The Time Has Come 1971

The Year: 1971
The Album: Anne Briggs, The Time Has Come
Who it Influenced: Isobel Campbell, James Yorkston, Richard Youngs, Meg Baird, Devendra Banhart, The Decemberists

During the brief, blossoming freak-folk era —an era which may or may not've actually just been one 2004 summer— old, forgotten folk albums made by odd, quiet women 30 years before were suddenly a hot currency. But for all those who flipped for Vashti Bunyan or Linda Perhacs, few seemed to get smitten by Anne Briggs; perhaps due to her records lack of freakiness.

There's no daft, hippy air to Briggs recorded works; no Incredible String Band guest spots or psychedelic freakouts. Instead, there's almost an ascetic air to her performances, in which she sings originals and traditionals in a warm, unaffected, direct voice of such honesty that it borders of purity.

Briggs first album found her singing traditional ballads unaccompanied; interpreting these songs via solely her voice, turning words with her tongue until they seemed both spontaneously her own and weighted in history; in blood and tears. The Time Has Come found Briggs making a more 'contemporary' record, performing her own acoustic compositions. It may've lacked the ties to tradition, but the album was instantly more personal, more passionate, more heartbreaking, even as its sound remained stark, Briggs voice unadorned and never theatrical.

But sales of the LP were, upon its 1971 release, tepid to say the least; the record soon disowned as the music industry abandoned folk music with the '60s soon receding into the rear-vision mirror. Not long after Briggs would retire from music, and turn into somewhat of a recluse. Though she never became a Bunyan-styled flavor-of-the-month, her influence was slowly incremental. And for those who revere her spartan sound, Briggs is a figure reverential; someone to be spoken of in hushed awe.

• Full review: Anne Briggs, The Time Has Come