FOLK MUSIC

I feel like I haven't made a topic in a little while so I thought I'd open up a discussion about Folk music.

For some reason music which is influenced by nature has always been quite interesting to me, I really like the sound in terms of instrument usage, lyrical content and just the overall atmosphere. However, I don't enjoy much VIKING/FOLK METAL though because it's kinda different imo and more similar to power metal than anything (so cheesy).

Foreign language stuff is also quite cool, particially Swedish or European in general. I don't know quite why but the whole paganistic heritage is awesome imo. Like the other night when I was interviewing Lars I spent like three hours afterward just looking up Icelandic people who believed Trolls and Goblins are real heh.

I'm by no means a professional on this genre, in fact I'm realitively new to it. So feel free to post your own recommendations as I only have a few!

Anyway

Here are just a few of my favorite Folkish Bands.

Of course there is Indie folkish stuff like Iron and Wine/Surfjan

This is a beautiful song.



Agalloch

Pretty cool American band I have just started listening to a bit, although not a traditional folk band they do have folk influences/themes.



He is striking the skull of a deer to make that noise. So Atmospheric.

This song isn't very Folk sounding but I really like the acoustic solo midway.


Otyg

This is one of my favourite vocalists first bands, he plays prog metal now but when he was younger he made two pretty cool Folk music albums with this band and some demos.
All of the stuff is pretty bad quality and kinda hard to get into but I like it


(I don't know what the fuck that noise is at the end)

Here is an unreleased song: (a bit more rock sounding)

Show us your dad!

The stuff I like it a bit less country than this singer/songwriter type stuff but it is still interesting.

Reminds me alot of James Taylor. ​!

The closest I have to Folk music is Nelly Furtado's Folklore...but she's considered a pop artist so I don't know if that counts or not. Still, it was a very good album.

My favorites from it where Island of Wonder and One Trick Pony.

so is this basically about neo folk or folk music?

'cause i have some norwegian folk music that was recorded in the 60s that's mostly fiddles and harmonicas and songs about trolls

but if you mean these HEH ROCK/FOLK bands then im completely clueless (mostly because i cant stand that kind of music)

I like folk music, but I don't have any at all, but these guys are pretty cool. They're from Mongolia or Siberia or something and they do throat singing and stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVkJ1Bf-QzU

Also Bert Jansch is aweome, but I wasn't familiar with any of the songs on youtube.

I also have a Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys album which is pretty fun when I'm in the mood.

Bright Eyes' newest album (I think its his newest), Cassadaga, is really good. I just saw couch mention bright eyes so I thought i'd mention a specific album.

Nick Drake dude. Seriously, pretty much the best singer-songwriter and folk artist I know.

Other than that, I do enjoy quite a lot of folk although how much of it is PURE FOLK I dunno. Like Afura, I am not into folk/viking metal at all but Agalloch is unique and pretty awesome, though I'm not too much into their oldest stuff. Their newest release The White EP is actually not very metally and quite good so I can recommend that to anyone who likes some folk tunes.

I would also recommend Tenhi, they are this great Finnish folk/neofolk band. They sing in Finnish so if foreign vocals bother you it might not be your cup of tea but the vocalist is good and the vocals can be pretty sparse sometimes. Here is a song:


Another recommendation would be a band called Espers, they play folk with psychedelia mixed in. Their stuff probably isn't as instantaneously catchy as most folk is but it's really nice! I would definitely recommend them if you are into stuff like Six Organs of Admittance, which is another great psychedelic folk band. I couldn't find a youtube video of any song off Espers II but all their albums are good and this a very good track too:


Iron & Wine is great too, both the lo-fi records and his newer stuff. I have fairly many artists in the vein of Iron & Wine or Sun Kil Moon although I don't really listen to them too regularly. Anyway, there's plenty of folkish stuff I listen to (some not so often though) but those are the best ones which I can think of right now but I can post more later.