Bridget St. John

Jumblequeen (1974)

In 1974, Bridget signed to Chrysalis Records and released her 4th album, Jumblequeen. This was a great folk-rock album, produced by Leo Lyons of the band Ten Years After. The album includes support from excellent musicians including the folk guitarist Stefan Grossman, Chick Churchill (Ten Years After) and Mike Giles (King Crimson). It also features harmony vocals from Beverley Martin.


Interview in 1995:
It seemed like you weren't going anywhere career-wise in the UK when you moved there. Two years between albums...
Definitely. I remember saying to people that I felt creatively as if I was walking down a cul-de-sac. I could go on doing college gigs and it was all lovely, but I didn't feel I was being stretched at all. I need something to stretch me, it’s hard to motivate myself constantly. And New York definitely stretches me. All the time. Plus it was very hard with the Chrysalis thing. It was very clear they didn't care about that album ["Jumblequeen"].

Were you still signed to Chrysalis?
Yeah. What happened was, they didn't pick up the option for another album, but they had my publishing for five years, so that was really frustrating. Everything I wrote would be theirs and they weren't doing anything with it. But when I came to the States, Mark Goodman, who was then running the Chrysalis office, was much more open to letting me go and make demoes.

So that's how you got to record those four tracks that were added to the BGO reissue of "Jumblequeen"?
No, not all of them. "Curious & Wooly" I paid for. That was done at Right Track with Steve Burg who did Steve Forbert's first album. "Easy Come, Easy Go" Chrysalis did pay for.

How quickly did you assimilate yourself into the New York scene?
In terms of playing gigs? My first gig was in June of 1977 so it took me almost a year - 10 months. Having said that, I was in Canada for three and a half months of those. I'd been talking to Island Records, they'd heard "Moody" and really liked it and they were half thinking of doing something with me, but then I left for Canada. When I got back, my first gig was at Kenny's Castaway opening for John Martyn. From there it was relatively easy to get gigs.

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