Anne Briggs

Anne Patricia Briggs (born 29 September 1944) is an English folk singer. Although she travelled widely in the 1960s and early 1970s, appearing at folk clubs and venues in Britain and Ireland, she never aspired to commercial success or to achieve widespread public acknowledgment of her music. However, she was an influential figure in the British folk revival, being a source of songs and musical inspiration for others such as A. L. Lloyd, Bert Jansch, Jimmy Page, The Watersons, June Tabor, Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson, and Maddy Prior.

Early life Briggs was born in Toton, Beeston, Nottinghamshire, England.

In 1960, the Trades Union Congress passed Resolution 42, concerned with developing cultural activities outside London. To implement this resolution, playwright Arnold Wesker was appointed as the leader, with Ewan MacColl and A. L. "Bert" Lloyd heavily involved, and Charles Parker on production. Calling themselves Centre 42, they organised a tour around Britain, hoping to involve local talent at each stop.

Beginnings of folk music career Briggs attended a folk song club in Nottingham between 1960 and 1962 run by Joy and Eric Foxley in their flat near the Nottingham Goose Fair site. Briggs visited the main British folk clubs which were then becoming well known such as the Troubadour and the Scots Hoose, as well as various Irish music venues. At this 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.

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 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.

Johnny Moynihan While touring England, The Dubliners met Briggs and thought she would be the perfect musical partner for Johnny Moynihan, a folk singer they knew in Dublin. In 1965 she went with them to Ireland and for the next four years she spent her summers there, travelling by horse-drawn cart and singing in pub sessions. During the winter months she earned money by touring English folk clubs. Her time in Ireland introduced her to the solo sean-nós singing heard in the songs of Irish folk artists, and this was an influence on her later singing style, when blended with the elements of traditional English music which she had already taken up.

In 1966, Moynihan and Irvine formed Sweeney's Men. Briggs joined them on tours and learned to play the bouzouki, at that time a rare instrument in Britain and Ireland. She wrote "Living by the Water", which was to appear on her 1971 album, accompanying herself on the instrument.

Reluctant star The folk-rock impresario Jo Lustig signed up Pentangle in 1968 and a couple of years later took on Briggs. Briggs performed along with the folk-rock group COB (Clive's Original Band) at the Royal Festival Hall in 1971.

In the same year, she recorded an album, Anne Briggs, which was released by Topic. By this time Briggs was living in the Hebrides.

After Bert Lloyd died in 1982, Briggs was persuaded to sing in a memorial concert. Despite coaxing from some of the brightest names in British folk music, she refused to return to the studio. In 1993, Briggs took part in a TV documentary about Bert Jansch, singing "Go Your Way" as a duet with Jansch for the show. The recording later reappeared in the soundtrack Acoustic Routes (1993) on Demon Records.

In recent years her material has been re-released on vinyl for Record Store Day. She appeared in the 2006 BBC 4 documentary "Folk Brittania".

Influence Jansch and John Renbourn played "The Time Has Come" on their duo record before eventually recording it with the rest of Pentangle on the Sweet Child release. One song, "Mosaic Patterns," which Briggs herself has never recorded, was recorded by blues singer Dorris Henderson. Sandy Denny wrote a song in tribute to Briggs, called "The Pond and the Stream", on Fotheringay (1970).

Briggs has been cited as a favourite by Eliza Carthy, Kate Rusby, June Tabor and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh (lead singer of Altan). Charlotte Greig and the Scottish band James Yorkston and the Athletes have said Briggs was an influence on them. David Tibet of Current 93 also mentioned her in an interview.

She inspired several songs, including Richard Thompson's "Beeswing" and Sandy Denny's "The Pond and the Stream."

Briggs' "Go Your Way" has politely been described as "the model for" Beth Orton's "Shadow of a Doubt."

The Decemberists album The Hazards of Love (2009) was inspired by Briggs's album of the same name.

In 2009, Topic Records issued a 70th anniversary boxed set, Three Score and Ten, including "Blackwater Side" from her eponymous album.

The TV show Alias Grace used her version of the song "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme" as its end credit theme.

In 2020 Green Gartside of Scritti Politti covered "Tangled Man" and "Wishing Well".

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss covered "Go Your Way" on their 2021 album Raise the Roof.

Discography Albums Anne Briggs (1971) The Time Has Come (1971) Sing a Song for You (1997) recorded 1973 EPs

The Hazards of Love (1963)

Collaborations

Bert Lloyd, Ewan MacColl, Anne Briggs, et al. The Iron Muse (1963)

Bert Lloyd, Anne Briggs, and Frankie Armstrong The Bird in the Bush (Traditional Erotic Songs) Topic Records,(1966) Compilations

Classic Anne Briggs (Topic Records, 1990) A Collection (Topic Records, 1999)