Folk/Neo-folk

[Shadow of the Sun]

This is a thread for a discussion of folk and neo-folk music, which are both incredible genres. My two current favourite songs are neo-folk songs- Kneel to the Cross written by Sol Invictus, but I prefer the Agalloch cover, and Stay by Sol Invictus, which are both incredibly haunting songs, and Stay is rather black and morbid. I freaking love this genre!

I am now waiting for Amotis to turn up, because I cannot think of anyone else who is as much a fan of folk as we are.

[ZombieRockStar]

I need education in the modern folk scene. Really. I know a few artists, like Devendra Banhart, but not a lot, really.

Dylan is my idol, though. Well, one of them.

[Ted_Stryker]

The bulk of my folk collection is Nick Drake stuff. If you want to count Ani DiFranco as an alt.folk type, then I have a few of her albums as well. Not much else. I've got The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald in my iTunes collection. I used to own Summertime Dream but it got lost in a move.

That's about it for me.

[Amotis]

Yaaaay, folk thread.

Anyhoo, I like most all folk, including the extending the definition unto traditional music.

I also really enjoy the Nationalists movements of Classical music, where composers turned to their native folk music for melodies and such. A very cool period of time.

And Elliot Smith. (ends post 'cause he rocks)

[Shadow of the Sun]

Any Death in June fans? I got my hands on some of his songs and they are mighty impressive. I like how neo-folk is very dark, it is an excellent aspect of the genre.

Also, if any on this thread posts that they do not like Simon and Garfunkel (they count- they are folk rock), I will find a way to give people ebola or cancer over the internet. You have been warned.

[ZombieRockStar]

I also really enjoy the Nationalists movements of Classical music, where composers turned to their native folk music for melodies and such. A very cool period of time.

Whoo! Grieg! And Sibelius!

I suppose I could also mention Great Big Sea, with how they alternate between rock and the traditional Newfoundland music.

And I suppose Beck is interesting at times, but I don't really like anything of his beyond Mellow Gold.

[Amotis]

Beck is folk? Kinda...Iono, don't like him that much to worry about his genre.

And yeah, I loves those dude. I just bought a bunch of Grieg sheet music and it really is great. They are masters at nationalism.

If we're talking about classic rock folk stuff I like Peter, Paul, and Mary.

[ZombieRockStar]

Some of him. He has the whole rap/hip-hop fusion thing going on, which I don't really like. As I said, nothing beyond Mellow Gold. I put him under alt-folk.

Ooh! Classic hippie folk: Coven.

[Amotis]

Before I die I must go to the Cambridge Folk Festival.

[Nerzi]

Oooooh a thread on folk music!

Fairport Convention - Liege and Lief being their best album of course, Matty Groves and Tam Lin :smallbiggrin: and lots of other brilliant songs, but those two especially.
Dylan - gotta love Dylan, although I would certainly not class it all as folk
Pentangle - Let No Man Steal Your Thyme, love that song
Lots more random English folk bands from around that period.

[Ted_Stryker]

I'd say Sea Change is Beck's folkiest album. It's pretty mopey, but I like it a lot.

[Shadow of the Sun]

Goddamn I love Death in June. The songs Black Angel, Rose Clouds of Holocaust, The Mourner's Bench, Torture by Roses, Tick Tock and Fall Apart are all my favourite songs right now. The singer, whose name escapes me right now, is amazing, and the songs are all very haunting. I love this band. 5 out of 5 on the critic scale.

[Strengfellow]

Well i've been into stuff like Capercaillie, The Oyster Band, Rev Hammer, Red Sky Coven and the like since the early 90's.

Adjagas are a current favourite as are Sons and Daughters.

[Amotis]

Oohh, another artist to add to the pile: Andrew Bird.

Awesome vocalist/violinist/songwriter.

[FdL]

Oohh, another artist to add to the pile: Andrew Bird.

Awesome vocalist/violinist/songwriter.

He's very talented, an interesting listen too. He plays violin in "The Grotto" album by Kristin Hersh (no longer her latest since "Learn To Sing Like A Star" came out, I'm happy to inform:)) . The other muscian who plays in that album other than Kristin is Howe Gelb, so go figure. Pretty skeletal, sparse stuff, but that works better for the material.

Kristin Hersh doesn't make folk, but everyone who likes deeply personal songs full of emotion and intelligent arrangements in an acoustic guitar should check her out.
I'll edit this to post a couple of YouTube video links so you can sample her work.

[Tharj TreeSmiter]

I've never even heard of it, when I read the title I thought you were talking about neo-cons which would have been quickly banned (political).

I shouldn't be surprised I'm usually the last to hear about pop-culture stuff.

[Reinforcements]

I am ALL ABOUT the Chad Mitchell Trio. Songs about Scottish slang and Lizzie Borden rock my socks.

[Amotis]

Since no one mentioned the fathers of american folk music, I will.

Woody Guthrie (And his youngin'; Ramblin' Jack Elliot)

Leadbelly

Pete Seeger

[Bearofbadnews]

I'd have to say Joanna Newsom is my favorite. Any lovers/haters out there?
Iron and Wine, sort of sleepy indie folk.
The Insect Trust and Anthology of American Folk Music for my older picks.

And Bob Dylan.

So basically, Weird America! Yay!

[ZombieRockStar]

There are a lot of Irish folk groups out there tos well that I totally forgot to mention. Slainte (actually American), The Irish Rovers (who do great Irish pub songs), and the Brobdignagian Bards of course, all of whom cover traditional Irish ballads and are great overall.

As well as the greats of Canadian folk: Stan Rogers, John McDermott, and Gordon Lightfoot (well, English-Canadian folk, there's also Gilles Vigneault for French-Canadian). Canadian folk is great, the moody combination of the old world and the new, especially when they sometimes mix in First Nations (native) themes and motifs.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Before I die I must go to the Cambridge Folk Festival.

Been there. It's really not that big. They have like, three tents and five hotdog stands.

It's quite good though, they don't always manage to get enough decent bands booked though.

I never got this "Neo-Folk" title. I mean, there's plenty of new folk stuff but it's just folk. None of the worthwhile folkbands rely entirely on traditional songs. It's nothing like Electric Folk/Folk Rock is it?

I never did like Steeleye Span. The stuff they inspired always seemed to blow them out of the water for me.

[Amotis]

Acutally it is. Neo folk is using stuff like folk melodies, chords, chord pregressions, themes, moods, and lyrics, and making it a modern way (which means electric instruments, sampling, field recordins, etc). Under the Neo folk genre are stuff like acid folk (kinda like psy rock but more minimal and less noisy), noise folk (like noise rock but with folk rocks, like Animal Collective or Thurja), doom folk (a very cool genre, deals with drone and atmosphere), and New Weird Amercaia (which is basically what it sounds like). Not all new folk now is just folk revivals, people are using folk roots and going everywhere with it.

[FdL]

Hmmm...The side of folk that is entirely dedicated at reproducing old standards doesn't seem very interesting to me...What Amotis is talking about makes a lot more sense.

[Shadow of the Sun]

Yeah, Neo-folk is derived from post industrial music. It is generally substantially darker than folk, probably an industrial touch. It has synths, samplers (not a lot of these in the bands I listen to) and electric instruments. Listen to some Death in June- I do not like some of their stuff, but the good stuff, while strongly resembling folk, has some differences. I love it.

[ElfLad]

Do Simon & Garfunkel count as Folk? Because I really like them and Bob Dylan, but that's pretty much it.

[Nerzi]

Dunno if they count as 'folk', I like 'em though :)
...My itunes classifies their album 'Tales from New York' as rock

Arlo Guthrie, 'ALice's Restaurant Masacree' amuses me greatly (yes I get the message too), and whilst that individual song probably shouldn't be classified as anything really (I dunno, I'm no music expert, I just listen to what I like the sound of) I enjoy his other more folk-y stuff muchly too.

Cause you know muchly is a word. :P

[Shadow of the Sun]

Simon and Garfunkel are folk rock, so yes, they are folk.

[Amiria]

Sol Invictus are great but I don't like the newer stuff. Too complicated, too many different noises.

[Lord_Reanicus]

Ah yes, Edvard Grieg, Norway's Pride!

But in modern folk I prefer Lumsk and Gåte, wonderful music! A good combination of folk and rock, without reducing the folk.

[/URL]Lumsk - Trolltind (http://Lumsk%20-%20Trolltind)
Lumsk - I Lytinne Två (http://Lumsk%20-%20I%20Lytinne%20Tv%C3%A5)
Lumsk - Dunker (the amv thing really doesn't fit, but the song is great! (http://Lumsk%20-%20Dunker%20%28the%20amv%20thing%20really%20doesn% 27t%20fit,%20but%20the%20song%20is%20great%21)
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3IISdM9IQs"]Gåte - Så Attende (http://G%C3%A5te%20-%20S%C3%A5%20Attende)

[Shadow of the Sun]

Sol Invictus was best in their middle period of folk noir, but I still like their new stuff.

[FdL]

Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice's Xiao playing right now, Amotis. I have to say I like this. More than Animal Colective. Great background music for listening at night.
I have some Skygreen Leopards and Flying Canyon that I haven't listened yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

[Amotis]

Yes, I really do enjoy them. A lot of my friends don't, or are bored by them, but I really do like them.

Another artist I recommed for you (and anyone else), if you haven't heard of him, is Six Organs of Admittance. Awesome guitar work, I base my acoustic playing style off of his.

[Jorkens]

Oooooh a thread on folk music!

Fairport Convention - Liege and Lief being their best album of course, Matty Groves and Tam Lin :smallbiggrin: and lots of other brilliant songs, but those two especially.
Yes, it's great isn't it. I'm quite into a lot of Richard Thomson's solo stuff too (and keep meaning to check out the stuff with Linda).

Martin Carthy is Good, as are Planxty and the Bothy Band and the Boys of the Lough. But for some reason I find a lot of modern bands doing traditional stuff a bit dull - it all sounds a bit comfortable and smug somehow. I think there's still great stuff to be done with traditional tunes, but I've yet to hear anyone recent who really does it for me. Also there's a bit of a tendancy to cover perfectly reasonable performances with massive amounts of digital reverb to add 'gravitas' that they don't really need...

Does John Fahey count as folk?

In the broader sense of folk, I've recently been getting into Paavoharju, Tunng and the Ralfe Band.

[FdL]

Jorkens, I agree with you, it can become a rut. Unlike Fairport Convention and that scene. I'm more interested in the material with Linda and Richard in the band, the classic stuff.

I don't care much for any celtic band for the same reasons, they tend to rely too much on traditional material.

Amotis, which Six Organs album do you reccomend?

[Amotis]

School of the Flower is top on my list. So is Dark Noontide and The Sun Awakes if you can't find the former.

[Hazkali]

YAY! A thread on folk music! It's amazing how many of us folkies come out of the woodwork given the opportunity...

Definitly Fairport Convention becuase I go to the Cropredy Festival every year- 10 minutes from where I live! woot!

Favourite Fairport song? Got to be "Too Close to the Wind".

Steeleye Span and Maddy Prior are both good as well.

Seth Lakeman is a genius- Freedom Fields is sooo beautiful and I'm seeing him on Saturday! Another woot!

Ewan MacColl is good, quite passionate songs about working-class life.

:smallsmile:

Heaven is a summer's evening, cider and fiddles...

[Dragonrider]

I repeat myself on this way too many times but...I'm totally in love with the music of Cat Stevens, which is folk-rock.
I just found a Seals and Crofts CD (old stuff both!) that I just started listening to. Haven't heard enough to decide whether they're worthy of favorite status.
Great Big Sea is good.
And another artist that I haven't seen mentioned is Artisan, a British a capella group. They're really good...we saw them live at a Penn State arts festival when I was about eight, and they made a big impression on me.

[Amotis]

Lakeman's pretty good. I find most of his stuff to be too...clean? Produced? Something like that. He's talented, sure. But I don't get any real moving from him. Sounds like radio rock set to folk instruments sometimes.

[Adlan]

Bellowhead are quite a nice band, as is the odd vaugley folk rock political and non sons of Billy Bragg

[Amotis]

Billy Bragg is cool I guess. I remember when he and Wilco did a bunch of Woody tunes in Mermaid Ave. (pt1 &2). That was a cool concept but only a few gems on the albums. Too bad.

[Jorkens]

Bellowhead are quite a nice band, as is the odd vaugley folk rock political and non sons of Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg is tops. Not least for the version of Unisex Chip Shop he did with Bill Bailey at Glastonbury...

[Jorkens]

Jorkens, I agree with you, it can become a rut. Unlike Fairport Convention and that scene. I'm more interested in the material with Linda and Richard in the band, the classic stuff.

I don't care much for any celtic band for the same reasons, they tend to rely too much on traditional material.
It's not so much the reliance on traditional material - there are still great versions of the Atholl Highlanders or Gypsies or whatever to be done - I think it's more about the rut that they've got into playing it. I think a lot of recordings of older traditional musicians had a sense of excitement about the tunes - either because they'd only recently discovered them or because they'd only recently found a national audience willing to listen to them - whereas for modern bands the tunes are fairly standard stuff and the audience is always going to be about the same folk audience so there's much less excitement and ambition and fire in the playing...

[Closet_Skeleton]

Lakeman's pretty good. I find most of his stuff to be too...clean? Produced? Something like that. He's talented, sure. But I don't get any real moving from him. Sounds like radio rock set to folk instruments sometimes.

He's over exposed. He's not bad, in some ways he has potential. He's just not up to scratch with the attention he's given.

[FdL]

Listening to Espers right now, the self titled album. Pretty good.

[Hazkali]

I saw Seth Lakeman live at the weekend! He was brilliant, I would seriously reccomend it Amotis, I mean for £12 it's probably the best concert I've been to, and "Kitty Jay" was awesome!

[Amotis]

Don't really have access to his concert...but I can see him being good live as my main problems with him being with the over production and the unnaturally plastic vocals and instruments.