Folk Music Appreciation Thread

[CiG]

So I was digging through boxes of old VHS tapes and came across my old copy of an on-the-road style documentary produced by (and starring) Tony McMahon from 1979 on RTÉ, with Barney McKenna from The Dubliners fame. It shows them travelling through Europe, playing music at gatherings etc.

So I thought I'd make a thread for folk music since there doesn't seem to be any active folk threads.

If anybody is interested, the documentary is on youtube in 3 parts. It's a pretty cool piece of history.



You know what do do. Folk music! Favourite artists, albums, favourite countries, eras, etc.

Discuss.

 

[H.P. Lovecraft]

The folk I usually listen to is traditional Scottish, English, and Irish folk, older American folk, Eastern European folk, Native American traditional, and Indian traditional music.

 

[H.P. Lovecraft]

With respect to my favorite folk artists, I go for Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie, Roscoe Holcomb, Ralph Stanley, The Stanley Brothers, Dick Burnett, Peter, Paul, & Mary, The Dubliners, The Clancy Brothers, Lead Belly, Joni Mitchell, Loudon Wainwright III, Gordon Lightfoot, Paul Brady, Bert Jansch, Uncle Dave Macon, Van Morrison, Doc Watson, Clifton Chenier, The Osborne Brothers, Bobby Charles, Tim Buckley, Simon & Garfunkel, Charlie Poole, Dock Boggs, and Uncle Charlie Osborne among many others.

 

[TageRyche]

I like John Gorka and Eliza Gilkyson.

 

[Slayed Necros]

I like a bunch of what H.P posted, and I worship the likes of Townes Van Zandt and Jackson C. Frank. I definitely need more stuff like this.

 

[H.P. Lovecraft]

I like a bunch of what H.P posted, and I worship the likes of Townes Van Zandt and Jackson C. Frank. I definitely need more stuff like this.

Good ones, there's Flatt & Scruggs too.

 

[CiG]

One of my favourite performances ever.

 

[CiG]

Another of my favourites. Luke Kelly was such an amazing performer.

 

[Serjeant Grumbles]

 

[Burkhard]

If I listen to folk music, it's often mixed with some other influences. I tend to prefer folk (influenced) music from Scandinavia, especially Norway, but I also like some oriental-sounding stuff and occasional albums/artists from different other places.

My favourite folk singer (though her music also includes other influences as well) is Mari Boine from Norway:



I also like the versions she played with an entire orchestra like e.g. this one:



Sometimes I just like a specific album by certain artists (because the other stuff they have done goes in a different musical direction), as for example the album "Solrenning" by Anne Vada and Aki Fukakusa:



Or "Tideland" by Rita Eriksen and Dolores Keane:



The song above has already been played by quite a lot of artists, but this is one of my favourite versions.

 

[Burkhard]

One of my overall favourite folk albums, "Jungfruburen" by the Swedish band Två Fisk och en Fläsk, is now finally also to found on youtube:



My favourite songs are the opening instrumental "Saltarello IV", "Lussi lilla" and the two final songs "Meie din" (the lyrics aren't in Swedish, but Middle High German) and "Gift med näcken" which picks up the theme of "Saltarello IV" (I love how the song gets faster and faster until the end).

The following song is my favourite from Gjallarhorn's album "Rimfaxe" - I really like how the rhythm imitates the gallping of a horse:

 

[CiG]

Kimi Karki (of Reverend Bizarre/Lord Vicar/Orne infamy) released a cool folk album some years back called The Bone of My Bones.

 

[CiG]

I recently picked up this guy's second album on cassette at a thrift shop for 50c.
Always wanted to actually own something by him, he was a major figure of the neo-pagan movement in the 1960's, eventually starting his own sort of hippie-esque faerie cult. Nothing sinister though, just herpy derpy magick stuff.

Almost like a real life Harry Potter character. Anyway his music was very cool.

 

[CiG]

 

[no country for old wainds]

so in love with this album. not sure how much it'd appeal to traditional folkies (i loves me some steeleye span and friends but this is not that), but i think it transcends genre really. just thrillingly alive, nuanced, vivid, messy, contradictory, deeply felt music. (i should add it's really best to follow along with the lyrics with this kind of thing)

 

[Sophii]

Nick Drake is my favorite folk artist of at least modern era. He was a genius who was tortured by plaguing depression and demons. God rest his soul

Aside from Nick Drake, old Southern US folk music really gets me going. Emmylou Harris particularly.

 

[CiG]

Anne Byrne is so underrated, I love her voice.

 

[metalshred]

I never heard of Richard Dawson before reading this thread, but it's really good. I will have to delve in deeper.

 

[Sedition and Pockets]

Dick Gaughan is that fire.

 

[Iwan Ruby]

i was involved in a folk band, actually at this time we did not disband.. but because everyone is busy with personal matters, the condition of the band is currently in a vacuum..
and these are some of the songs I've released with them..