We listen online to this show from BBC Radio Wales then use the playlist to chase up anything which takes our fancy - it’s where we first heard of Show of Hands , a “mighty” band.
Do Simon and Garfunkel count?
I vote for Loreena McKennit, the Chieftans, and Gaelic Storm (the latter played the steerage band in Titanic.)
I have cd’s of all those groups. Try the American Irish group Cherish The Ladies.
Songs that got thumbs up on my Eva Cassidy channel at Pandora.com:
“Fields of Gold” and “True Colors” - Eva Cassidy
“Everybody Loves a Lover” - Francis Black & Kieran Gross
“Elizabeth” - Catie Curtis
“Rain” - Marj Snyder
“Rusty Old Red River” - Toni Price
“Shady” - John Phillips
Check out Ian & Sylvia. Two of their best-known songs (they wrote them) are “Four Strong Winds” and “Someday Soon.” (Here they’ve acquiesced to Judy Collins’ popular version of the song; I prefer the original version as sung by just Ian and Sylvia, with some different lyrics.)
Check out New Grass Revival. Sam Bush on mandolin, Bela Fleck on banjo, Pat Flynn on guitar, and John Cowan on bass. Lots of their stuff here. I suggest “Good Woman’s Love” (showcasing John Cowan’s vocals) and “Seven by Seven” (showcasing their instrumental prowess - it busts loose about 1 1/2 minutes into the tune).
I second Ian and Sylvia . I saw them in person a few times.
Then Phil Ochs.
Dave Van Ronk
Early Bob Dylan
Buffy Saint Marie
Woody Guthrie
Ewan MacColl
Pete Seeger
Ramlin Jack Elliot
Does Devendra Banhart count as folk?
Great Big Sea’s album The Hard and the Easy has some great traditional stuff on it. One of our favorites. (And two–count them, two songs about horses falling through ice.)
We heard Neal and LeAndra on NPR one night, and fell in love with them. We have a couple of their albums. I would highly recommend them to anyone. It’s not folksy, but has that feel, if you know what I mean. Their website is http://www.nealandleandra.com/home/
Another vote for John Prine.
Also, I highly recommend the Mermaid Avenue CD’s. The daughter of Woodie Guthrie found a box of old song lyrics that Woodie wrote and never got a chance to record. There was no music to go along with them at all, so she took the box to folk singer Billy Bragg and asked him if he wanted to set them to music. He agreed, but wisely decided that Woodie was Americana (Bragg is from Europe), so he enlisted Wilco into the project. They split up the songs, wrote their own music, and put the tracks down on two CDs, both of which are absolutely wonderful.
Here’s some youtube videos of sample tracks from the CDs: