Folk Music Thread

Folk is one of my favorite genres, and I imagine others here enjoy some too. I'll probably just post things I love, and stuff I'm getting into in here for anyone who is interested. And the same is encouraged of anyone else.

I'll post a couple links to get it started.

I can listen to stuff like that.  Not sure I'd ever buy any but I don't hate it.

On a side note, can someone enlighten me as to the difference between folk music and country music?

For instance, is this considered folk or country?
(this is one of those times where I miss S.D. I'm sure he'd have a ready answer that I'd understand)

Honestly, that sounds like bluegrass to me. But it's definitely in that weird blurred area between folk, bluegrass and americana.

There's lots of genre tags thrown around that can become semi-interchangeable.

Wurthless wrote:

Honestly, that sounds like bluegrass to me. But it's definitely in that weird blurred area between folk, bluegrass and americana.

There's lots of genre tags thrown around that can become semi-interchangeable.

I was afraid you'd say something like that.  

So it's not just metal that has all these sub-genres that blur together.  OK I'm back to "stuff I like and stuff I don't"  

BTW, I only discovered that song when I started researching the Charm City Devils version of it and learned it was a cover tune.

Yeah, every genre has fans that are really particular, which leads to resorting to the endless unnecessary classifications. It kinda blows.

But it is totally useful to an extent.

I do find folk fans to not be as butthurt about someone labeling something 'incorrectly', though. I don't see people being like, "this totally isn't americana, you f*cking poseur. it's indie-jangle-folk-core." like metal fans tend to.

So now that I'm listening to it again, it's probably the mandolin and banjo that throw it into the bluegrass territory for you, right? That makes sense to me but I agree that song is definitely in a blurry area when it comes to genres.

But I don't really care because it falls in the "stuff I like" genre for me. lol!

And like I said before, I can listen to stuff like folk,bluegrass, American...whatever.

Usually before I give something like death metal or thrash the time of day. These genres usually meet my most important listening criteria: memorable melodies and decent vocals.

tohostudios wrote:

So now that I'm listening to it again, it's probably the mandolin and banjo that throw it into the bluegrass territory for you, right? That makes sense to me but I agree that song is definitely in a blurry area when it comes to genres.

But I don't really care because it falls in the "stuff I like" genre for me. lol!

Not just the mandolin and the banjo, but the way they sound/are played. There's folk with mandolin and banjo too. That's where it gets a little shady, lol.

That's the genre that makes the most sense. I don't really tend to think of things in terms of genres anymore, just "shit I happen to listen to" most of the time, haha. my tastes have branched out into a lot of stuff I didn't imagine I'd ever like.

Folk is probably my #2 genre.

Man of Constant Sorrow is an old traditional folk song, early 21st century. Bob Dylan has a great version of it. The Soggy Bottom Boys version is very much in the Bluegrass vein.

My favorite era has to be the Greenwich Village scene in the 60's--Dylan, Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, Tom Paxton, Kingston Trio, Janis Ian, Dave Van Ronk--and outside of that Woody Guthrie, Nick Drake, Pete Seeger. Sadly I allowed this genre to slide off my radar these past few years, but once in a while I'll pull something out. It's the songwriting, or the lyricism, that gets me with these guys, and how the songwriting is punctuated by minimalist instrumentation. Of course, there's not much that sounds better than acoustic guitar.

Though he's not exclusively folk, I have to throw Neil Young in there since the dude is my musical hero.

And that Westlin Winds is an amazing song!

I've always associated folk music with the 60's hippie generation and therefore never cared much for it. But that's just my hang-up. Never cared much for the banjo neither.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I've always associated folk music with the 60's hippie generation and therefore never cared much for it. But that's just my hang-up. Never cared much for the banjo neither.

You suuuuuuuure about that?

I'm a fan. Shawn Colvin's work got me in to the genre as a whole. Also among my collection:

The Brothers Four
The Kingston Trio
The Rooftop Singers
The Weavers
Joni Mitchell
Peter, Paul, and Mary
Pete Seeger
Simon & Garfunkel

These are the ones most beginners in the history of folk need to start off with.

corplhicks wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I've always associated folk music with the 60's hippie generation and therefore never cared much for it. But that's just my hang-up. Never cared much for the banjo neither.

You suuuuuuuure about that?

HA!! Nice try. That Pride & Glory album is my least favorite of Zakk's endeavors. Not so much for the banjo (not that it helps), but just the whole Southern Rock-vibe of that project. Zakk's a dude from Jersey, not the swamps of the Florida delta.

This is about as much banjo as I can take...


Two icons that can do no wrong in my book.

^^Ye have angered the Southern Rock gods, for there be none mightier than the thunder that be Pride & Glory!

Although I will concede that Zakk doesn't hold a candle to Steve & Kermit.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I've always associated folk music with the 60's hippie generation and therefore never cared much for it.

That's what I always associate folk music with. But I actually don't mind it too much. It's not something I go out of my way to listen to but if it happen to come on, I enjoy it.

Some cool names have been thrown around. I listen to a broad spectrum of folk; from classic stuff like Bob Dylan, Jackson C. Frank, Nick Drake, John Martyn, Pentangle, etc. I really like Irish/Celtic influenced folk material like Dick Gaughan, Planxty, and the Chieftains, as well as the (mainly) british stuff I listed earlier.
Psychedelic folk is fun too, like Comus, Tim Buckley, and The Incredible String Band.

Neil Young is one of my favorite artists, too. Really love the archival release Live at Massey Hall 1971.



The Tallest Man on Earth (Kristian Matsson) is my one of my favorite songwriters too. People compare him, pretty annoyingly, to Bob Dylan. But he's really come into his own, and even his early material still had a lot of personality, it was just more traditional/contemporary folk in style. I don't think the dude has a bad song.

I like a lot of indie folk stuff too, though I realize it's likely not gonna be anyone's thing here, lol.

muckie wrote:

I'm a fan. Shawn Colvin's work got me in to the genre as a whole. Also among my collection:

The Brothers Four
The Kingston Trio
The Rooftop Singers
The Weavers
Joni Mitchell
Peter, Paul, and Mary
Pete Seeger
Simon & Garfunkel

These are the ones most beginners in the history of folk need to start off with.

Joni Mitchell I really love. I like some Simon & Garfunkel but I prefer Paul Simon's solo material.
Haven't heard of the first 4 names you threw out. I'm familiar with Peter, Paul, and Mary but have never seriously listened to them. And Pete Seeger I never knew where to start with.

I know two Peter, Paul and Mary songs:  Puff The Magic Dragon (no drug metaphors there at all...) and Leavin' On A Jet Plane.

Isn't "Paul" Noel Paul Stookey who also made a mark in the Christian music industry back in the day?

I don't really like Simon & Garfunkel's music but there's no denying they were great songwriters together. I know more of their songs than I'd care to admit...high school band directors back in my day were fond of using their music.

I like all kinds of folk music, being from an Irish family I was raised with it. I also love some metal with strong folk elements like Agalloch, Primordial and the very mighty Saor.

 

But more in keeping with the tone of this thread I dig Father John Misty, Simon & Garfunkel, Joan Baez, Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Suzanne Vega.

Also regular rock bands with folk elements like The Levellers, Flogging Molly & Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians. I also completely loved Bright Eyes I'm wide Awake it's Morning album which was pretty folky.

Love the Levellers!!  But I always put them more in the "Irish-rock" category with Great Big Sea, Oysterband, Black 47 and such.

tohostudios wrote:

Love the Levellers!!  But I always put them more in the "Irish-rock" category with Great Big Sea, Oysterband, Black 47 and such.

Yeah but a lot of 'Irish rock' is just Irish folk & rock, I wouldn't ever dream of calling them a folk band. A bit like this album which I forgot.

And if we're going to talk about metal bands with strong folk influences you can't leave out bands like Elvenking or Korpiklaani.  



Actually, the infusion of folk elements into rock is one of my favorite genres. I have a TON of stuff like that. From punk to metal.

Wurthless wrote:

muckie wrote:

I'm a fan. Shawn Colvin's work got me in to the genre as a whole. Also among my collection:

The Brothers Four
The Kingston Trio
The Rooftop Singers
The Weavers
Joni Mitchell
Peter, Paul, and Mary
Pete Seeger
Simon & Garfunkel

These are the ones most beginners in the history of folk need to start off with.

Joni Mitchell I really love. I like some Simon & Garfunkel but I prefer Paul Simon's solo material.
Haven't heard of the first 4 names you threw out. I'm familiar with Peter, Paul, and Mary but have never seriously listened to them. And Pete Seeger I never knew where to start with.

I only have Greatest Hits collections for most of these artists at the moment, but let me tell you. Pete Seeger and the Weavers played a lot of public domain, traditional folk songs. They were more like museum curators than actual songwriters, though they did pen a few notable ones with "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" being their signature, at least for Pete (who was in The Weavers along with Guthrie). I however, prefer the Kingston Trio version of that song. The one on Pete's Greatest Hits is acapella and only one and a half minutes long.

You'd be right to associate the folk movement with hippies. I must mention that the modern folk movement of the 60s was based on romanticism: fascination with back-to-basics simplicity (writers often used acoustics, good vocals and simple chords), as well as the history of how folk musicians worked together in communities before things supposedly became industrialized and 'corrupt'. Then you'll see how it managed to gain traction with the hippies, though this is sort of a revisionist interpretation of what folk and its history were really about by those who had actively established it prior to the 60s counterculture. Pete and his gang were notable by using this philosophy to create an entourage and also, the fact that there were no standardized recordings of many of these songs prior to Seeger's popularity. Being public domain works coincided with his 'everybody should share and be one' beliefs. After all, he did identify as a communist. His beliefs aside, I have some romantic tendencies to be able to sympathize with at least a few of those tenants of the folk movement, though at times I feel a lot of it was hokey. That being said, punk tried to be political in an overly abrasive, crude way, but you got to hand it to the folk musicians for accomplishing a similar cause without the need for savagery.

Boris2008 wrote:

I like all kinds of folk music, being from an Irish family I was raised with it. I also love some metal with strong folk elements like Agalloch, Primordial and the very mighty Saor.

 

Saor is really awesome stuff. I got into that album when you recommended it a while back.

Anytime I get in a black metal mood I usually go for Panopticon, Saor, Wolves in the Throne Room, early Ulver, etc. All that atmospheric, folk influenced stuff. Traditional black metal leaves me cold usually. I really dig Primordial too, I should've assumed you like them, haha. I was about to namedrop them before I realized you listed them.

Keeping on topic with more traditional folk music, I didn't share any Tim Buckley. Dude's voice was something out of this world. And his music went from simple late 60s folk to avant-garde, psychedelic jazz influenced folk rock in the blink of an eye.





I like his son Jeff Buckley's album Grace a lot too, though I don't think I'd consider him folk. More like alternative singer/songwriter, or something along those lines. He performed the definitive version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah".

.