Old Stone Churches, Part Two

A few years ago, my friend Kevin, who has impeccable taste in music, handed me a dvd filled with albums. He introduced me to Beck, Sigur Ros, Nico, and perhaps most intriguingly, to Vashti Bunyan. The album was Just Another Diamond Day, and it's full of soft little songs about nature, the seasons, and love. She has a tiny whisper of a voice, the music is empyreal.

Truthfully, up until last night, I thought Vashti Bunyan was a fairy.

But, she is real! And she played at The Bowery last night; a rare event, since she gave up music 35 years ago and has not performed much since.
I arrived early with Tamsin and Mike and we were among the first there. The show was in the actual church, not in the basement like last time, and little chairs and tables were set up in the nave. We sat up front, drank organic beer and listened to the excellent pre-show entertainment, funky piano jazz by a slick looking guy in a fedora.

The first act was questionable...some gal playing sickenly optimistic songs on ukelele. We liked her backing musicians more than her. One guy played the cello and the other played the omnichord and a snare-drum-box-thing (which seems like a pretty fantastic invention if you're in a band, travelling a lot, and don't have too much of a requirement for percussion).

The second act shocked us...two guys got up onto the stage with guitars, one guy was older and called himself Lucky Jim. Don't know what the other guy's name was, but it doesn't matter, because Lucky Jim was CAT STEVENS. Seriously, he started to sing and Tamsin, Mike and I turned to each other, with wide eyes, and we all whispered 'Cat Stevens?!'. So yeah, I know Cat Stevens is now Yousef Islam and he doesn't perform anymore but this guy was so convincing. His sang his folky love songs with Cat-like gusto and I just sat back and enjoyed it. It was pretty amazing.
By now the church was surprisingly full and anticipating the headline act. Vashti Bunyan came on stage with two other musicians. Apparently she is 64...she looks about 35-40. She sat in the centre with her guitar and started to sing, with her little voice that hasn't changed a bit. She also told us lots of stories of her hippy days...she really did the hippy thing. She walked from London to the Isle of Skye with a horse and caravan to set up a sort of dream-commune thing with Donovan. How crazy is that?
The set was a wonderful mixture of old songs and new songs and stories, and when it was over and we were all filing out of the church, you could hear everyone humming the flute melody from 'Just Another Diamond Day'...it was special.