Folk Music

I am not drawn to folk music. I don't know much about it so maybe if i knew more about it, i would apprciate it more.

Please tell me more about it and list three of your favourite folk songs.

It occurs to me that the way some of you feel about pop music is the same as I feel about folk music. Maybe its just a lack of knowledge/awareness of the good stuff.

Define Folk Music Please . As you understand it , Because over here on the cold ,dampo, wild and windy side of the pond I feel that our definition of Folk is different to thine.

In England a Folk song is probably anything from about, ooooh the Tudor Times 1500s, that has survived in a tune and had lyrics put to it that involve a young maiden arising with the dawning of the sun and the screech....excuse me...the dulcet tones of the lark, venturing forth from her chamber and possibly either having to milk a cow or look pale, intersting and vulnerable. Depending on her status and position in society. The toffs generally being the pale and vulnerable looking ones. Then usually at some point in the song . they "sally forth " regardless of whether they are a Miriam or a Priscilla "Sallying" is done and a swain (usually turning out to be a swine , or at least a bit of a cad) is met with and a bit of bashful folderol and hey nonny nonny nonsense is indulged in. This usually involves the maiden not being a maiden any longer by the
end of the song . Or , sometimes and more interestingly if the woman is a Lady and married to a jealous Kniggit a manhunt ....often ending in a tragic demise of the swine ...swain...cad results.
Or songs about being recruited ,going off to war with a hip hoozaar and then finishing with a lament about "Well that was a bit crap, nothing like it said on the tin and I've had me legs shot off and 'I've to goo oowut on they strreyuts and beg'.This has gone on for about 400 years.

Whereas in the USA it seems that folk music is from about 1967, involves an acoustic guitar, a neck braced harmonica loads and loads of narcotic substances and a definite disinclination to do any sort of fighting and stay at home and shag anything that moves. With Flowers involved. Would that be fair ?

Edit: Apparently not fair without the inclusion of songs about murder because you don't love me or suicide because you don't love me or murder/suicide because you don't love me. Bridges and knives were often included. So,love, possibly unrequited , pointy sharp things and great heights and damp or sticky endings.
Thank you Doug W for pointing this out . He hasn't yet , but will later in the thread. It's a sort of a time warp continuum thing.A Pair Of Ducks or similar.

Google the term "folk music" or look it up in wikipedia and see what you come up with. I grew up in the 60s and 70s and Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Simon and Garfunkel, Woody Gunthrie, Cat Stevens, etc, etc, etc were what I listened to. Different times and different geographic regions will yeld different choices. There is no real answer other then it is different then rap, disco and punk.

I don't know that I can offer you any particular insight - if it's not your thing then it's not your thing and that's completely fine (obviously). On the other hand, since you seem willing to give it fair shot, I can try to do the three songs thing, maybe with some commentary...

1. Who Knows Where The Time Goes - Sandy Denny - An acoustic BBC radio session version. This just absolutely leaves me in bits every time I hear it. Her voice is amazing. She was pretty rock'n'roll for a folkie -guested on Led Zep 4. She came to a somewhat tragic end which somehow makes the lyrics seem all the more poignant (to me anyway).

2. Blackwaterside - Anne Briggs - some fairly hardcore trad folk (Roud 312). A typical story of sex and lies - haunting.

3. Scarborough Fair - Martin Carthy - It would seem almost remiss not to include this. This is my favourite version - less fussy than the counterpoint version by Simon & Garfunkel.

Edit: One more for luck...

4. Train Song - Vashti Bunyan - The Godmother of Freak Folk, apparently. UU member Scott Rogers posted a great cover of this recently (in links and videos I think).

What kind of folk music are you asking about? There is also a lot of folk music that comes from all over the globe that is worth listening to. For example, my own interest in Irish music.

There was a guest on the Ukulele Site's podcast this last week...with Tobias Elof, who is a ukulele player from Denmark, and his playing clearly had influence of the folk music of that region...wonderful stuff (and I'll be buying an album or two).

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Okt0bw_Bk

The best definition of folk music is music played by FOLKS (people). A LOT of Pop, Country, and Blues is Folk music.

We are all Folk musicians around here. I think the "intent" of the Folk music label is to describe music that Folks played for themselves, family, friends and neighbours before music became BIG business.

I call myself a Folk Musician and my repertoire covers from classic folk to pop to blues and even some rock.

Thinking bout it, maybe you can add that its music that can be played by non professional players who aren't absolute experts. Orchestral/Chamber music and Jazz music is ruled out because of the proficiency required.

Anthony

Three folk song recommendations ... wow ... only three!!

Where can one start?

How about "Folk Songs I Like to Play With Ukulele Accompaniment"

Pretty Polly - an old English murder ballad that has found it's way into American folk culture

Sweet William and Lady Margaret - unrequited love, bad dreams and ghosts. Another old English ballad that has found it's way into American folk culture

Sloop John B - we all know this one, don't we? - from the Bahamas

I could probably write for an hour or more on this subject and have hardly scratched the surface. Folk music, in many of it's facets, has been a greater or lesser part of my life since forever ... and I was listening to it on the wireless before then.

Dig around, find some artists you like, get into their music, expand your horizons to other artists ... come back in 10 years and ask "Where next?"

YMMV, but enjoy the journey :music:

jollyboy said:

I don't know that I can offer you any particular insight - if it's not your thing then it's not your thing and that's completely fine (obviously). On the other hand, since you seem willing to give it fair shot, I can try to do the three songs thing, maybe with some commentary...

2. Blackwaterside - Anne Briggs - some fairly hardcore trad folk (Roud 312). A typical story of sex and lies - haunting.

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... and just to show there's no hard and fast performance of any song, Blackwaterside again, sung by Anne Briggs, but this time with Bert Jansch on guitar ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsLv1C3TbWE ... to die for!!

Bert also performs this song with Pentangle ... it's different again ... that's what folk music is all about. There's thousands of songs performed in dozens of different ways and none of them are "wrong" ... :music:

Folk songs usually tell a tale of some sort, would be performed by (often amateur) musicians travelling around the country from town to town, in the days before radio.

Country music used to be very similar in the U.S. - some would call it Folk, artists like Woody Guthrie, on up to Dylan, etc.

Check out groups like The Spinners, Steeleye Span, etc.

I find Folk music generally restful to listen to, though I don't listen all that often, it's just another type of music.

kypfer said:

... and just to show there's no hard and fast performance of any song, Blackwaterside again, sung by Anne Briggs, but this time with Bert Jansch on guitar ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsLv1C3TbWE ... to die for!!

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Thanks for posting this - another cracking version I absolutely concur that Bert Jansch is a someone to check out if you're exploring folk music.

kypfer said:

Three folk song recommendations ... wow ... only three!!

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I agree - just three is tough.

kypfer said:

Pretty Polly - an old English murder ballad that has found it's way into American folk culture

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On the subject of murder ballads I'm gonna put a vote in for Nick Cave. He recorded a whole album of them and it's definitely worth a listen if you're after something a bit alt.folk I like his version of Henry Lee (with PJ Harvey). But, then again, I like this version too

I think i might have misunderstood the answers because from my first quick reading i thought oh lots of these posters don't even care for Folk music. So i started a thread to make sure i got poeple who love folk music answering. Now i'm going back over this thread more slowly and listening to all the songs youv'e given me and so i'm sorry for reading too carelessly as it seems you all do love folk music after all.

Anyway coming back to delete the original contents of this post and rewriting it, I'm summing up a bit:
folk music is frequently accoustic music, can overlap with other genres sometimes and probably draws on the traditional music of its region and is not generally made to compete in the commercial mainstream and is usually simpler than other forms in the non-commercial genres such as jazz and classical. So it doesn't see itself as avant-garde, high brow or "serious" music but music for the everday man as articulated by the person above who said its the sort of music you play for friends neighbours etc.

I don't know if that covers it but those are some of the common factors I've picked up from your answers.

CeeJay , Sa fact that oim Strine - a sheila, from down under! Oi live on a big oisland, girt boi sea.

I'm not aware of any Australian folk music tradition. I don't think Click Goes the Shears cuts the mustard.

I"m working through your list Jollyboy.. The first song makes me think - ah folk is accoustic music.... but I could hear some irish riffs in it. It riff is the right word. back in a bit...

The train song is quite nice to my ears. I don't like the top two at all. And yes that fits with my understanding of folk music. Scarborough Fair on the other, I've always liked.

I like this version though unfortunately as you'll see its interrupted with lots of tv show stuff which spoils it quite a bit.

Choirguy, So far I listened to the one instrumental piece. I am pleased to say that i picked up the clawhammer picking method. I didn't pick up the regional influence though. I guess you have to have some familiariety with it to identify it - I would never have guessed there was a scandinavian influence even though I have actually travelled through Scandinavia for two months and even found myself at a local folk music event one day. But yes I get it that his is not classical and not really anything else i recognise either.

AndieZ said:

I"m working through your list Jollyboy.. The first song makes me think - ah folk is accoustic music.... but I could hear some irish riffs in it. It riff is the right word. back in a bit...

The train song is quite nice to my ears. I don't like the top two at all. And yes that fits with my understanding of folk music. Scarborough Fair on the other, I've always liked.

I like this version though unfortunately as you'll see its interrupted with lots of tv show stuff which spoils it quite a bit.

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Apparently Denny's Scottish grandmother was an early influence so a little Celtic lilt makes a fair bit of sense.

As far as folk being acoustic. As several others have mentioned folk is a wide-ranging genre. Part of the problem is that the term 'folk music' really is a definition of cultural context rather than an indication of any definable quality of the music itself. There is plenty of non-acoustic folk - folk-rock is a big old thing all by itself. An experiment would be to assemble a bunch of Dylan fans and then ask which is better? - acoustic Bob or electric Bob. Then sit back, grab some popcorn and enjoy the fireworks

Personally I tend to like the acoustic stuff. There is a mournful, reflective quality to stripped down acoustic folk that I enjoy connecting with. I would say that it's often not particularly happy music and thematically can get quite dark. I think I find it cathartic (maybe it's like blues for white people - but then again,of course, blues is folk music - and I happen to love blues too). I have always found listening to music to be a way to tap into different emotional states (getting a bit deep here). In my youth I had quite a lot of anger and listened to a lot of loud angry music. It's entirely possible that I am somewhat emotionally repressed being a) male and b) English

That's another good version of Scarborough Fair you posted. As also mentioned earlier a characteristic of traditional folk is that the exact origins of songs are usually long forgotten and any one version is just as valid as any other. There's no room for snobbery about 'original recordings' and the songs are free to evolve and mutate and thus hopefully retain some appeal

Edit: Something else I like is the narrative element - the folk ballad form is basically, after all, a story with a tune behind it.

CeeJay said:

Whereas in the USA it seems that folk music is from about 1967, involves an acoustic guitar, a neck braced harmonica loads and loads of narcotic substances and a definite disinclination to do any sort of fighting and stay at home and shag anything that moves. With Flowers involved. Would that be fair ?

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CeeJay,

It would not be fair to leave out the other folk category in the USA which involved either murder because you don't love me or suicide because you don't love me or murder/suicide because you don't love me. Bridges and knives were often included.

Many kinds of "folk" music here in the colonies:
American roots like Amazing Grace or "I'll Fly Away"
The labor movement like "John Henry" or "This Land is Your Land"
Early 60s from Dylan and Paxton
The later mainstream Mamas and Papas and Peter, Paul & Mary
And a host of others....

Most of the time, folk music kinda makes me feel like this :

FOLK music is still alive. ANY time you sit in your lounge and play music for yourself or your family or friends you are playing "Folk" music. Now if you would normally sit around home and play a guitar plugged in for your family then electric guitars are a folk instrument but generally its an acoustic instrument you would play.

Listing where Folk music has been is fine, honestly, but folk music isn't defined by where it has been. Its what it is and where its going. Folk music is literally Peoples music. Historically there is much music from various cultural backgrounds that is called "Folk" music. Folk music WAS the POPULAR music of its day when there wasn't TV or Radio and people played music at home.

Music that people play for themselves at home is the best definition of Folk music that I have heard. If you still play music at home, and I assume that we all do then we are ALL Folk musicians.

Anthony

anthonyg said:

FOLK music is still alive. ANY time you sit in your lounge and play music for yourself or your family or friends you are playing "Folk" music. Now if you would normally sit around home and play a guitar plugged in for your family then electric guitars are a folk instrument but generally its an acoustic instrument you would play.

Listing where Folk music has been is fine, honestly, but folk music isn't defined by where it has been. Its what it is and where its going. Folk music is literally Peoples music. Historically there is much music from various cultural backgrounds that is called "Folk" music. Folk music WAS the POPULAR music of its day when there wasn't TV or Radio and people played music at home.

Music that people play for themselves at home is the best definition of Folk music that I have heard. If you still play music at home, and I assume that we all do then we are ALL Folk musicians.

Anthony

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I can't come at calling myself a folk musician. Even if you are right. Shouldn't the music be homegrown too? What if you are playing commercial music at home? Or classical or jazz? It sorts of make the word folk music fairly meaningless to me. I mean if folk music is just people playing music at home then all that irish music that people identify as folk would seem to belong to another genre. I mean folk is a genre of music, is it not?