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Just Another Diamond Day
As an album of songs written during times of travel and change, Just Another Diamond Day couldn’t be more unprepossessing. Having roamed across Britain, to Scotland, in horse and carriage, to get to folk singer Donovan’s proposed musical commune, Bunyan and companions arrived to discover he’d abandoned the idea. But Bunyan had been writing songs on the way – gentle, muted songs, sitting somewhere between everyday folk melodies, and lullabies for children – that, when recorded by Joe Boyd across three days, achieved a kind of hymnal purity. It’s partly in Bunyan’s voice, a whispery hum that’s as graceful as it is shy; the album’s other musicians, including members of Fairport Convention and Incredible String Band, support Bunyan’s finger-web guitar figures playfully, but without whimsy. The album disappeared when released in 1970, but slowly accrued legend. It’s now a classic of its time – deservedly so.