The Folk Thread.
 

This month's Wire has a great 'Primer' on Psychedelic British Folk from the 1960s-70s. All wonderful stuff, of course, but anyone with a desire to cup their left ear and add some thoughts, further recommendations to this most unfairly maligned of genres would be nice. And please abandon the urge to post youtube clips of Mulligan and O'Hare, just this once.

Anyway, to get us all in the pagan mood, here's some prime Incredible String Band:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XOyiDIUhbAE

Still not convinced? How about this clip from the best British film ever made?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=42zkSLC0I2o

Thank you demonrail, I'm really interested in getting into new folk and I've been visiting the folklore center recently.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Eu77tX7uDvc

Dang.

Folk Music is the shit. I always wanted to be a folk singer but I only know about 4 chords in standard tuning, thus confining myself to 'punk'. :(

you can always learn DANNY. I always wanted to find someone that played the banjo so I can collaborate and start a small folk group

Modernize Folk Music Danny.
Can I say Woodie Guthrie.

Currently listening to this, which was an album John Peel put out on his Dandelion label, back in the day.

Bridget St. John, Ask Me No Questions.






This one's also got some great stuff on it:

I have a banjo!

Folk purists would run a mile from it, but everyone should see this prime slice of British Folk Rock at least once in their life.

Richard Thompson and Dave Swarbrick of Fairport Convention opening the whole genre wide open in 1970. Brilliant. Check the woman changing her baby mid-song in part 1.

Part One:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=H4_QnaqCQp0

Part Two:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bGVqMK_wZtA

Part Three:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=y72WTqlB01I

Part Four:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bqtcv1mYZ48

Part Five:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=malDzOSl1pQ

Part Six:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aNI5lvQFmtc

Needs to be heard:

John Martyn, I'd Rather Be the Devil.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VYCG5wZ9op8

Folk for the 25th Century.

try...a.tad..of..herman..dune

Because everyone knows you neded more than three chords to write a folk song... ?! RETARD!

I saw them at Belfort and they sucked. They're boring and they're hippy clichés.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIvUjexgvak

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2arEUEAWck

He wasn't British but he played with Danny Thompson for a while so that's not completely off topic, Tim Buckley:

Once I was: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHkxjtExbPg

I never asked to be your mountain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDjAGM-3LVg

Hey, no reason to restrict things to the British. I like the 60s-70s Brit folk scene, but that's just me.

Excellent Tim Buckley sample.

And no one sung Dylan's Percy's Song better than Joan Baez:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOKz6WgbXRw

The British guitar hero arguably starts here:

Davy Graham.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFB6xj1xHnM

Bert Jansch playing Graham's 'Anji'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqjUWJtH88c

Anyone wot likes "acid folk" should check out the Comus retrospective CD - nice, gloomy acoustic strum rumblings.

Yes, that is a great CD Melly. Truly evil.

I have plenty more chat logs to embarrass you further, Stephen.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tjAKJ3z0BdU

Doesn't necessarily count, but Ani Difranco blows me away.

And after about 21 years of torture from my dad's interest in Buffy Saint Marie, I grew a fierce appreciation for a lot of her material.

Now that the buffalo's gone, codeine, My country 'tis of thy people you're dying, and the magnificent God is alive, magic is afoot (a poem by leonard cohen, sung with lots of rad effects).

I love this thread and can't wait to hear some of this other crap I haven't heard.

Ani DiFranco is not folk music to these ears.
I draw a fairly strong line between "folk" music and "singer/songwriter" music, personally.

It's true. anything played unaccompanied on an acoustic guitar is now considered 'folk'. It's moved from becoming a social concept to a purely stylistic one.

Fair enough. I wouldn't call it folk music either, under those terms.

Actually I wouldn't call it folk music at all, I only mention it because it because it's influenced by folk music more than any other singer/songwriter stuff. Her style of playing and touring is very folky. She lives on the road basically, and seems to spend a lot of time hanging out with folk musicians and learning new techniques to expand on her music. I think there is definately a difference between her and most singer/songwriters, and it's based in her folk influence, but for sure she's not a folk singer.

Well, like I said when I posted some Fairport Convention stuff, most purists would hate it. For me, the really interesting stuff came out of an attempt to open up what folk could become. Ani DiFranco isn't folk in the sense that someone like Ewan McCall was, but that just shows how things move-on/transform themselves.

Tunng are a British band doing some really interesting stuff that could hardly be described as 'traditional':

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cfLjRjDlskQ

Interesting guitar technique :cool: I love early John Martyn.

four words
woody guthrie
the pentagle
i love folk. either american primitive or late 60's british.
is john fahey allowed into this discussion?
he is one of my heroes...

A great 10 minute mini-doc looking at Britain's current 'New Folk' scene:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wurzo1w19JQ

I love Pentangle.
Some of their stuff is definitely more folk-rock, some has a bit of jazz influence as well. "Cruel Sister" and "Solomon's Seal" are two favorites for me with them. Love many a Jansch and Renbourn solo LP as well.

I wasn't implying that folk had to be purist/trad to be considered "folk" earlier; I just think some artists are far more singer/songwriter than folk and just because something is acoustic guitar/voice-based doesn't mean it's "folk." Now, I can't stand Ani Di Franco, but I love Nick Drake and I would place him in more of a singer-songwriter category than a folk one as well.

Some folk stuff I love, some very far-out and some closer to trad:

Stone Breath (some of the very best this country has offered up in the past decade)

Certain Current 93 LPs, "Thunder Perfect Mind" and "Earth Covers Earth" in particular

Comus - First Utterance

Stone Angel - S/T

Midwinter - S/T

Robbie Basho - The Grail and the Lotus

Jan Dukes DeGrey - Rats and Mice In The Loft (stretching a bit, but awesome)

The 2nd and 3rd LPs by Judy Collins are really really great; filled with agony and death. Don't let what happened to her later on get in the way of these two great albums!

Edit:
I enjoy so much of this stuff it's hard to come up with a short list!

why not?

Really interested in that strand of folk. Haven't heard any, but it does seem fascinating.

Is this representative of that stuff? Because if it is, it's wonderful!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=F9q1FomLS...elated&search=

A great resource:

http://www.theunbrokencircle.co.uk/

The Current 93 style is heavily influenced by albums like "First Utterance" by Comus and "Golem" by Sand. The vocals will either make it or break it for you, but I love this stuff. Pretty dramatic though.

Indeed yes, thanks for sharing.

it just seemed weird that nobody mentioned him yet.:cool:

I'm gonna go ahead and yet again plug the works of Paul Metzger here. He has a couple of new LPs in the works, both of which are fucking fantastic.

^ Oh fucking hell yes. Totally!

Espers - Meadow (great American "new folk" band that remind me a lot of Fairport):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pfvsLFPjBBc

If you haven't heard "Albatross" by Judy Collins it's a shame. This is the prettiest song ever.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nalgvOfKB8w

"Diamonds and rust" by joan baez

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=r2iJ4MnnbFM

I don't listen to a lot of folk all the time, but there are certain songs by folk artists that stand out as absolutely incredible to me, and these two are indisposable.

They're also really famous, and you've probably heard them, maybe are bored of them, but just in case.

Here's Buffy Sainte-Marie playing a mouth bow. I can't believe how beautiful she was! Considering her voice I'd have thought she'd look like a goat :p

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=krx2Mo...elated&search=

Codeine's on this myspace page. It is fantastic. (And of course Bury my heart at wounded knee, which I think is laying it on a bit thick)

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...dID=623 82963

"My country 'tis of thy people you're dying"

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tl08n8_b3Sw


Her current interest seems to be in computer graphics:

Iron & Wine
Iron & Wine
Iron & Wine
Iron & Wine
Iron & Wine
Iron & Wine
Iron & Wine
Iron & Wine
Iron & Wine

Green Carnation really pick up on the more pagan/goth elements of folk. Includes some ex-members of Black Metal Folkists In the Woods:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ka0q8jeaw4g

Unfortunately they're fairly awful.