Folk music is typically an acoustic form that utilizes only guitar and voice; often celebrating country traditions & history.
Nick Drake’s Pink Moon is an album of folk music that perfectly captures an atmosphere of serene magic, featuring distinctive guitar fingerstyles and themes ranging from loneliness to wonderment.
Carter Family
Since 1927, The Carter Family have been performing and recording music from southwestern Virginia. Representing southeastern musical traditions, their music had a tremendous influence on bluegrass, country and southern gospel genres as well as folk revival in the 1960s. Sara Carter played autoharp as well as singing while A. P. Carter fiddled and sang; Sara’s sister-in-law Maybelle Carter produced one of its most celebrated guitar styles during that era.
Ralph Peer of Victor Talking Machine Company discovered them when he realized there was a market for hillbilly singers and old-time country music. Peer brought them to Bristol England to record for his label; their first recordings came out that same year – making history! 1927 marked The Carter Family as country music pioneers – earning them their nickname: ‘The First Family of Country”.
Their music combined traditional country, gospel and blues elements in an iconic American soundscape; featuring tight harmonies and innovative picking styles as part of its character. Popular hits from their repertoire, including “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” and “Keep on the Sunny Side”, remain beloved today.
Although the Carter Family disbanded in 1943, their music continues to influence musicians today. Many musicians, including country star Johnny Cash and folk musician Doc Watson were greatly inspired by them and took inspiration from Maybelle Carter’s guitar playing – his flatpicking technique became popular among modern country performers and many folk musicians have since added electric instruments into their sound while remaining true to its roots; many also sing in English while emphasizing regional authenticity in their performances.
Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs was an artist of many talents; singer-songwriter-poet who captured the zeitgeist through song. Never quite making it big in mainstream pop music, Ochs remains influential on the folk scene to this day and his influence can be felt among musicians like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine who echo Ochs’ haunting expressions of displaced anomie.
After his first two albums, Ochs was already considered a professional has-been; nevertheless, he tried his hardest to make an impressionful statement with his third attempt: Phil Ochs’ Greatest Hits. Unfortunately, it proved unsuccessful commercially.
Ochs’ album seemed as though he had taken all his best songs from previous albums and repackaged them for a new audience, yet still managed to retain its quality despite having an unassuming name and being far removed from what had become his trademark, socially conscious protest music.
Now it is enlightening to listen back to this record and realize its striking dissimilarity from Ochs’ earlier work, with songs rooted more firmly in everyday struggles of ordinary people and with more relaxed production values and smoother narration by Ochs’ narrator voice.
Phil Ochs would release one last album before his death. Although he had many hit records throughout his career, these final recordings serve as a powerful testament to how great of a songwriter he was and the profound effect that his songs had on political affairs in the ’60s.
Harry Belafonte
In 1956, something truly unprecedented occurred in America: a Black artist managed to top the Billboard Top-Albums chart for 31 weeks with one of their own songs – Harry Belafonte was that artist; his legendary career as singer, actor and civil-rights activist tends to get more recognition than his earlier musical accomplishments; yet these accomplishments helped establish folk music as an influential genre after World War II.
Belafonte was already an acclaimed musician when he released Calypso in 1957, yet this record solidified his place as a cultural icon and opened doors for future musicians. His signature reinterpretations of traditional Caribbean songs was an enormous hit – not to mention contributing to New York’s folk revival through clubs such as Village Vanguard.
Folk music may seem distant to modern culture, yet its influence continues to have an effect. Folk has been used to support social causes and political agendas as well as for personal reflection and growth – in fact many use folk as an outlet to reduce stress and anxiety in daily life.
Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger represent an important link between early folk music and current protest movements: their songs conveyed the sense of community and hope felt by many workers searching for better lives. Yet today it seems we have lost some of this communal spirit when it comes to music: perhaps streaming services have reduced our ability to connect with each other or perhaps artists have stopped singing about collective betterment as passionately.
Joan Baez
Joan Baez was one of the leading lights of the folk music boom of the ’60s, lending her vocal talents to a range of traditional songs and artists. An active activist, Joan utilized her fame to perform free concerts for civil rights groups and protest anti-Vietnam War demonstrations; even going as far as to refuse federal taxes which went towards war expenses (an action which cost her her fortune).
Baez was born in Staten Island, New York of Mexican and Scottish ancestry. Growing up with an image of herself as an ugly Mexican, her life transformed after witnessing one of Pete Seeger’s concerts; that experience motivated her to pursue singing professionally, quickly becoming popular on college campuses and folk festivals alike.
Joan Baez first came into prominence with her 1960 LP Joan Baez, which demonstrated her immense versatility as an interpreter of various forms of folk music – traditional ballads and blues, gospel, lullabies, Carter Family songs by Woody Guthrie, ethnic folk classics from both America and non-America and other forms. Additionally, Joan was adept at performing contemporary songwriters’ works; Child Ballads from 1963 and One Day at a Time from 1970 displayed many contemporary folk anthems which made their mark on American and non-American folk scenes respectively.
Baez first came to Nashville during the late ’60s to record David’s Album – a country-influenced set dedicated to her husband David Harris who was imprisoned on draft resistance charges – before turning her attention back towards Dylan songs with 1968’s Any Day Now: two LP set that saw her join forces with musicians from his Blonde on Blonde album as backing musicians.
Judy Collins
Judy Collins made waves in the folk music movement of the early ’60s with her unwavering grace, rich catalog of critically acclaimed albums and busy touring schedule. Her unique blend of lyrical beauty and rugged sensitivity set her apart from many of her peers.
Colorado native Rachel Rose began her professional music career at 13 as a 13-year-old piano prodigy dazzling crowds with Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos. However, after discovering folk revival songs by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger that spoke directly to her soul and seduced her away from classical music towards guitar playing and searching for emotional truth through lyrics.
At first, she performed in regional clubs and coffeehouse circuit venues before signing with Elektra Records in 1961 and recording A Maid of Constant Sorrow as her debut. It established her as a tastemaker within the Greenwich Village folk scene while broadening her repertoire to include social poets such as Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs, as well as contemporary musicians Tom Paxton and Sandy Denny’s acoustic folk-rock music; she even covered Stephen Sondheim’s Send in the Clowns as one of her top-five hit singles on pop charts that year!
Folk singers can serve as advocates for those unable to speak up, whether on issues of peace, labor, civil rights and racial equality or environmental protection. Collins’ music reflected this vision. In 1966 she introduced an undiscovered Canadian poet-musician named Leonard Cohen – then arriving in New York searching for publishing deals – who became one of her close collaborators.
Collins continues to expand her extensive catalog with new releases at age 81. Winter Stories, her collaboration with Norwegian folk artist Jonas Fjeld and Chatham County Line’s master bluegrass musicians, features lively lead vocal turns, stunning duets, and her incredible harmony singing skills.