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Description of Folk

 
The term "folk music" can encompass just about anything, from Appalachian balladry to Delta blues to itinerant musicians of the western Sahara to early hip-hop to hippie singer-songwriters. For our purposes, let's define folk music as acoustic-based traditional music that made its way from the British Isles to America (most famously the South and Appalachia, as well as less renowned locales like Nova Scotia) back in the days when there was no United States or Canada, just a bunch of smelly farmers. Over time this stuff mingled with traditional sounds from Africa, France and even Germany. It also crossed paths with parlour music, a 19th-century form of pop music. By the mid-20th century America was home to a number of folk traditions, including old time, Cajun music, country blues, gospel and bluegrass. Nearly all this stuff was and is made by and for working-class rural types using a combination of voice, guitar, percussion, banjo and other stringed instruments. All this, of course, changed after the folk revival and folk-rock explosion of the 1960s. Nowadays, folk music is as much a general mindset transcending class, color and geography as it is a set of identifiable genres.
 

Folk Key Artists

 
Alan Lomax

Alan Lomax's work with
field recordings and sound
preservation has made him
one of American folk's most
vital characters. In additio...

Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco's unique urban
folk is a combination of
punk rock and folk rock
with almost as many D.I.Y.
morals as Fugazi. Born in...

Bert Jansch

Jansch's stark
finger-picking has
influenced everyone who
ever looked to British folk
music for inspiration. The...

Bill Monroe

Monroe was one of the first
to popularize the Bluegrass
band paradigm of guitar,
acoustic bass, fiddle
mandolin, and banjo. The...

Billy Bragg

First inspired, then
disgusted by punk's
quasi-Leftist posturing,
Bragg sang from where
Woodie Guthrie and Phil O...

Bob Dylan

Whether he's playing folk,
country, rock or blues, Bob
Dylan always channels
songs that are timeless. Bob
Dylan legally changed his...

Burl Ives

The big daddy of American
folk was a beloved
multimedia star of records,
radio, movies and cartoons.
Best known for the childr...

Charlie Poole

Charlie Poole is one of
America's most influential
old time musicians; his style
shaped Bill Monroe in
particular. Charlie Poole a...

Dave Van Ronk

Van Ronk is known for his
deep grumble, raspy singing
and obscure knowledge of
hillbilly jug-band standards.

Doc Watson

Doc Watson is an
enormously influential
flat-picking guitarist, banjo
player and singer who made
a big dent on Americana....

Fairport Convention

A quintessential British Folk
Rock band, they electrify
old English lore with
fantastic guitar playing and
vocal harmonies. On the g...

Indigo Girls

Their pristine and luminary
vocal harmonies make
crowds hoot and holler.
Each song has a totally
different energy. The Indi...

Jim Kweskin

Getting their start in the
Cambridge coffeehouse
scene, the Jim Kweskin Jug
Band were popular in the
folk revival. Not an icon li...

Joan Baez

She was the bright shining
star of the Political Folk
revival of the early 1960s,
interpreting classic folk
songs with Dylan. This leg...

John Fahey

Fahey's versatile sound
draws on everything from
Indian ragas and Native
American melodies to folk
and blues. On his first alb...

John Hartford

Most people know Hartford
for "Gentle on My Mind," but
he is a massive influence on
country-folk and
progressive bluegrass. Ha...

Joni Mitchell

When it comes to folk music
and women's music in the
twentieth century, Joni
Mitchell stands as the
preeminent trailblazer. Jo...

Leadbelly

Generally considered the
first blues artist to have a
substantial white audience,
Leadbelly combined folk
and blues. Leadbelly is am...

Nick Drake

Drake wrote beautifully
demure British Folk songs
and played a guitar in
tunings that sounded like an
acoustic orchestra. To thi...

Odetta

Odetta Gordon, the first
black political folk singer,
influenced many others to
pick up an instrument in
melodious protest. After f...

Pete Seeger

Known for his songwriting,
politics and five-string banjo
playing, Seeger has been a
key figure in folk music
since the '30s. Pete Seege...

Ramblin' Jack Elliott

The narratives of Elliott's
songs branch out into
patchwork quilts of stories
and rich accounts of
hoboing and laboring.

Simon & Garfunkel

With a bubbly guitar sound
and hesitant, hushed
vocals, Simon & Garfunkel
became a defining folk duo
of the '60s and '70s. Paul S...

The Carter Family

The Carter Family's
Appalachian mountain
music has been a titanic
influence on country,
bluegrass and folk. One of...

The Chieftains

The Chieftains' fresh, vital
interpretations of traditional
Irish folk have wowed
international audiences for
decades. Your parents' P...

The Kingston Trio

Chart-topping, buttondown
folk trio who are actually
hipper than you remember
and smart enough not to
hide their squareness. Th...

The Roches

The Roches are folk-pop
sisters known for their
celestial melodies, warm
studio mixes and ethereal
harmonies. The sisters' bi...

The Weavers

Too old for letterman
sweaters, the Weavers
were a clean-cut folk troop
with looks and songs as
square as the Kingston Tri...

Townes Van Zandt

Townes Van Zandt was a
Texas songwriter who
specialized in twangy,
melancholic musings. Critics
hailed him a genius. Whoe...

Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie is folk music
personified, plain and
simple. Even more than
Dylan, he's the genre's
icon. Guthrie wrote one o...

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