Look Who's Coming: Vashti Bunyan

AT A GLANCE

KNOWN AS | A '60s-era musician whose influence is cited by a new generation of atmospheric folk artists, such as Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom.

HER JOURNEY, PART 1 | Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham discovered Bunyan in a London club during the mid-1960s. When her career stalled, she and her boyfriend traveled by horse-drawn carriage from London to the west coast of Scotland -- to the Isle of Skye, then the Outer Hebrides. The journey led to her ethereal 1970 hippie folk album, "Just Another Diamond Day."

HER JOURNEY, PART 2 | Bunyan abandoned music, moved to a farm and raised three children. In the early '90s, she discovered via the Internet that "Diamond Day" hadn't been forgotten. It was re-released in 2004, and her newly-recorded second album, "Lookaftering," came out in 2005.

Bunyan, who performs tonight in Carrboro, spoke with staff writer Danny Hooley from New York City, where she was preparing for a Carnegie Hall performance with Banhart, Newsom, the band Vetiver and others.

Q - You hung out in the "Swinging London" scene in the mid-'60s. Did you feel like you fit in?

A - I was way too shy. And so I wasn't the right kind of person to be in that world, however much I loved it and yearned to be in it. I didn't play with other musicians, and I think that would have been much better for me. But I was always a loner.

Q - How did you end up on the road to Skye?

A - It was Donovan's idea. ... He lent us the money for the horse and carriage. It was his idea to have a colony, really -- to recolonize those parts of Skye that had been depopulated. There were lots of empty ruins and roofless buildings. He wanted it to be a community of like-minded people. He described it as a "west coast renaissance." And we thought that sounded like a wonderful idea.

Q - Was Donovan actually there?

A - Well, miraculously, he was. ... He had moved to Los Angeles. He just happened to be there for five days when we arrived, and all the houses had been taken up. There really wasn't a place for us anymore.

Nobody knew we were coming. They thought that we'd have given up just north of London. It took us a year and a half to get there.

Q - Why is your style of folk music popular today?

A - I've thought about it an awful lot, and why it should be now, and I think it's a generation thing. I think there's a generation of people who inherently know that violence isn't the way to go, and their music expresses this.

Q - Are you getting used to playing live again?

A - I think I am. It's very different now, to how it was when I started a year ago. I don't dread it in the same way. I don't think about it every minute of the day that I'm going to be playing, and feel fearful. I don't feel fearful anymore.

Q - Your lilting singing voice sounds remarkably similar to when you were in your early 20s. Can we attribute that to clean living?

A - [My voice] just didn't grow up, I think, because it never got used!

DETAILS

WHAT Vetiver with Vashti Bunyan.

WHEN 8:15 tonight.

WHERE The ArtsCenter, 300-G E. Main St., Carrboro.

COST $13-$15.

CONTACT 929-2787, www.artscenterlive.org.