Here's a bit of American folk, or roots music, or whatever you want to call it.

You may know this song from O Brother Where Art Thou?  But you probably don't know this version.

Heart-wrenching.

Woah, that's fantastic. Never heard of him either.

Many thanks for that.

I grew up listening to these.

I'm a little distressed to realize in retrospect that they're almost entirely white men. :/

Peter, Paul, and Mary


Bob Dylan


Arlo Guthrie


Woody Guthrie


I'm having trouble finding a version with the protest verses, sung by Woody.
Here's Arlo singing another version - the missing lyrics are in the top comments below, at least:

(With a digression, 'cause that's what Arlo does ;p)

Peet Seeger


John Denver (and the Muppets)


Fred Small


I'll make a separate post for the Celtic and English folk from the Ren Faire and such...

--Ember--

Ah! Some others :)

Joan Baez


Harry Belefonte (and Muppets)



--Ember--

This is a wonderful ghost story by Victorian poet Charles Dawson Shanly set to music by Irish Uillean pipe player Davy Spillane. Added bonus is the video is clips from Princess Bride. Completely incongruous but so what? Best listened to with the lights down low and the fire blazing high.

Ren Faire and Celtic artists I grew up listening to at local concerts:

Heather Alexander (at the time)


Now he's Alexander James Adams

This one is, I admit, more at the Filk end.
It was written for the Furry community, but it's more generally accessible than most filk. ;)

Glen Morgan


Four Shillings Short


Margaret & Kristoph (Broceliande, also in Avalon Rising)

(Sorry about the audio quality here. It's one of my favorite songs, though.)

Avalon Rising



Tempest


Wicked Tinkers


--Ember--

For all you Wire watchers

I love that this is on the radio lately!




--Ember--

I grew up with Peter, Paul, & Mary, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Arlo Guthrie, too. 

(My mother went to college in NYC in the mid-60s, and saw all of them in little clubs in Greenwich Village.)

Except for "This Land is Your Land" (which every American learns in school as a child), Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger had to wait until college, when I hung out with a fairly radical crowd.

That's also where I learned about Phil Ochs.

Another in the long tradition of radical American folk music.

As for the Pogues, just saw them in New York on St. Patrick's Day.  (Which was an experience.)  Shane McGowan staggers on, sings a few songs, staggers off and lets the rest of the band play a few without him, staggers back on again.  But the new teeth are looking good. 

If we're talking about field recordings, I'm not sure if people are familiar with Smithsonian Folkways, the record label of the American public museum the Smithsonian Institution.

The number of recordings they've done is unimaginably huge -- everything from American Bluegrass to Colombian vallenato.  They have a lovely website here.  And one of the crown jewels is The Anthology of American Folk Music.  If the original version hadn't been released in 1952, we probably never would have had a Bob Dylan or Joan Baez -- or a modern folk movement at all.

Oh -- and are people familiar with Bruce Springsteen's recent folk work, The Seeger Sessions?

Here's a sample, including the famous work song once taught to every American schoolchild, "Erie Canal."

They were among the stack of records that Danny gave me recently, which was very generous of him. Apparently he doesn't want them anymore. 

You are unfortunately labouring under a misunderstanding. What you actually said was "These are great. I'm really pleased you're building a collection of field recordings - why don't have have all these Haitian field recordings I've got as well, they'd look great on your shelf." If you examine your memories carefully, you'll find this to be true.  

Evan - I only know one Phil Och's LP and that's "Pleasures of the Harbour" but that is absolutely magnificent especially the title track.

I lreally like field recording because they are a) cheap and largely under the radar and b) unique and full of amazing sonic surprises. I'll try up some sound clips from my favourite ones when I get 'em back off of GL (and I'll rp you some copies of the Haitian stuff you're given me as well, not a problem.

I love a bit of Folkways as well. Possibly my favourite record in the Universe is 6 Boys in Trouble - Street and Gangland Rhythms which is a field recording that is actually recorded in a New York reformatory (borstal) in 1959. 6 12 year old boys basically invent hip hop 20 years before it's existence.Clips here:

http://waxidermy.com/street-and-gangland-rhythms/

Sorry not very on-topica, I loves a bit of folk as well but more later.

 

As far as I'm concerned, folk music from anywhere is game, but yeah, might be worth its own thread if there's much of a particular category.

-------------
Folk music and Protest music are overlapping categories, right?
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Evan, I love that Springsteen vid! :D

I don't think I learned Eerie Canal in school.... I think I learned it because I grew up reading my Mom's copy of Rise Up Singing.

It does bug me that he doesn't open is $%^(* mouth when he sings, though. *laugh*

--Ember--

I was lucky enough to see Springsteen perform with his band from the Seeger Sessions in NY -- absolutely amazing.  Regardless of whether you like his music, Springsteen is a consummate performer, and will kill himself to give his audience the most amazing show possible.  (Back in the day, 4+ hour shows were routine.)

But I'm from New Jersey, where loving Springsteen is obligatory.

Evan said: But I'm from New Jersey, where loving Springsteen is obligatory.

*laugh*

I guess it's not obligatory here in California, but I don't know very many people who don't like at least some of his music, and I don't know anybody who sees a reason to malign him (which is more than I can say for most popular musicians, really).

--Ember--

This was used by Kubrick in Barry Lyndon

Not enough Wicker Man on this thread.
Corn rigs
Poor Sgt.Howie
NSFW
Why isn't this part of the National Curriculum?

Ouch!

A couple of shanties. First from Moby Dick

Yarr! Consider my timbers shivered and my mainbrace spliced.

Slightly different version of the same song (I think) by Leadbelly

Cor, I used to love the Chieftains. Had a few of their records (that indicates how long ago). Thanks for reminding me how good they are genlob. The Wicker Man soundtrack is unassailably quality - goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway).

"Cut some capers, man! Use your bladder!"

@Gef. I remember catching part of some random tv show, by chance, years ago that featured Paddy Moloney playing the Uileann pipes at the midwinter solstice from the interior of Newgrange. Soooooo beautiful. I would be one very happy bunny if I could find that clip again.

This sounds uncannily like the melody from Summer Is Icumen In.
We will burn him, we will roast him...

Gid Tanner & The Skillet Lickers:


Chicken in the bread tray, scratchin' out dough.

And one of my favorites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-GN-BP_Qlk

...some sublime guitar pickin'

 

Most of my folk taste gears towards early American. I get all riled up on this topic and can't resist editorializing.

Dock Boggs was a coal miner from Kentucky, I believe. His early recordings have this terrific eerie atmosphere. Sugar Baby got under my skin years ago and was one of the first songs I learned to play on banjo:
http://youtu.be/m5zW2CWJmdU

This is a recording that Mike Seeger made when he tracked Boggs down in the 60s. His voice was mellower but just as world-weary. "Oh Death" is an old standard of the old-time genre, and Dock's version is definitive for me.
http://youtu.be/KIYNoH99Guc

I really like Jolie Holland's interpretations of early Americana. She's very aware of its roots in English and Celtic musics and its relationship to the numinous or supernatural. Thus, her take on Yeat"Wandering Aengus":
http://youtu.be/DOijf_92ZFs

This is one of my favourite songs, maybe ever. Frantic, intricate piano playing.


I'm also in love with the a capella ballad tradition. The Ozark and Appalachian balladeers recorded in the early 20th century are part of a musical tradition that reaches back hundreds of years and thousands of miles. Texas Gladden's voice breaks my heart:


Dillard Chandler, too.
http://youtu.be/SYsQlgB5WqY

Incidentally, I'm really enjoying exploring the Dust to Digital label. Their catalogue incredible. I'm stopping now, before I get carried away.

Is this where I should post some of my favorite Filk, or should that be its own thread?

-E-

Thanks for the Dillard Chandler -- very interesting to compare "Cold Rain and Snow" to the Grateful Dead version.

In fact, it might be interesting to compare (more or less) modern versions of quite a few popular songs to their earlier folk versions.  For example:





or





or





(Personally, I think filk would go better in its own topic.)

(okay - I'll go start one, then...)

-E-

Here's one about my home town. It was also used as the theme for the UK cop show Z Cars and is to Everton Football Club what "You'll Never Walk Alone" is to Liverpool FC.