· Allison Krauss – not really into this too much, but a
good album with former Led Zeppelin front man Robert Plant [Raising Sand
(2010)]
· Abigail Washburn – folk songs with Bela Fleck on
incredible banjo duo [Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn (2014)]
· Amos Lee – singer songwriter adult music that has swam the river [Amos
Lee (2005), Supply and Demand (2006), Mission Bell (2011), Mountains of Sorrow,
Rivers of Song (2013)]
· Andrew Bird – quiet fiddle of folk singing at you from the shadow of a
barn door [Break It Yourself (2012), Hands of Glory (2012)]
· Ani DiFranco – female empowerment folk revolutionary [Up Up Up Up Up Up
(1999), Which Side Are You On? (2012), Allergic to Water (2014)]
· The Avett Brothers – My favorite modern band in this
genre. This is alt-country with heart of former Nirvana-loving
brothers with outstanding musicianship over banjo/guitar piano/cello bass/drums
or whatever is needed to let the heart sing and understand the concept of
family. [Country Was (2002), Carolina Jubilee (2003), Mignonette (2004), Live
Volume 2 (2005), Four Thieves Gone (2006), The Gleam (2006), Emotionalism
(2007), The Second Gleam (2007), I and Love and You (2009), Live, Volume 3
(2010), The Carpenter (2012), Magpie and The Dandelion (2013)]
· The Band – Bob Dylan’s backing band sews a late night southern
highway of mature rock-folk stories [Music from Big Pink (1968)]
· The Beach Boys – It’s all about Brian Wilson’s pathos
on Pet Sounds, the other stuff is fun but a cover-up of this man’s despair and
loneliness that I find enthralling. That is why they are
here. Harmonies that have never been duplicated. [Pet
Sounds (1966), The Greatest Hits Volume 1 (1999)]
· Ben Harper - high-voiced soul rock showing pain and heart and
massive talent [Welcome To The Cruel World (1994), Fight For Your Mind (1995),
The Will To Live (1997), Burn to Shine (1999), Diamonds On the Inside (2003), Live
From Mars (2001), Lifeline (2007), Get Up! (w/Charlie Musselwhite) (2013)]
· Benjamin Booker – folk/rock feeling heart with a touch
of blues [Benjamin Booker (2014)]
· Billy Bragg – British Dylan/Guthrie with an amp and a single guitar with
less blues and more of the folk protest to sing the power of unions [Must I
Paint You A Picture?: The Essential Billy Bragg (2010), Tooth & Nail (2013)]
· Billy Bragg & Wilco – Woody Guthrie homage side project of
two genre juggernauts [Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions 1-3 (2012)]
· Billie Joe Armstrong & Norah Jones – one time album of classic quiet fireside songs
by two otherwise engaged artists (Foreverly (2013)]
· Blind Melon – Shannon Hoon’s highly influential life cut short band of
depression and peering out from the egg of the universe [Best of Blind Melon
(2005)]
· Bob Dylan – Folk-icon, Blues-icon, Rock-icon greatest
singer/songwriter ever, has folk albums, blues songs, Christian albums, Country
albums and does what Bob wants to do, his voice going to an ashtray at this
point in his career is just another instrument. Whatever anyone wants or thinks
Dylan to be it is not about the audience and that is why I love Dylan. His observant commentator status to show us
what we are through the season of his life, not to ask us what we want first,
that is what makes Dylan unparalleled.
Icon. [Bob Dylan (1962), The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963), The Witmark
Demos: 1962-1964 (1963), The Times They Are A-Chanin’ (1964), Another Side of
Bob Dylan (1964), Bring It All Back Home (1965), Highway 61 Revisited (1965),
Blonde On Blonde (1966), John Wesley Harding (1967), Nashville Skyline (1969),
New Morning (1970), Self Portrait (1970), Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid
(1973), Planet Waves (1974), Before The Flood (1974), The Basement Tapes
(1975), Blood on the Tracks (1975), Hard Rain (1976), Desire (1976), Street
Legal (1978), Slow Train Coming (1979), Saved (1980), Shot Of Love (1981),
Infidels (1983), Real Live (1984), Empire Burlesque (1985), Knocked Out and
Loaded (1986), Down In The Groove (1988), Oh Mercy (1989), Under The Red Sky
(1990), The Bootleg Series Volume 1-3 1961-1991 (1991), Good As I Been To You
(1992), World Gone Wrong (1993), MTV Unplugged (1995), Time Out Of Mind (1997),
The Essential Bob Dylan (2000), Love and Theft (2001), Modern Times (2006),
Live 1975: The Rolling Thunder Revue, Bootleg Series Vol. 5 (2002), No
Direction Home: Bootleg 7 (Movie Soundtrack) (2005), Bob Dylan – Tell Tale
Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol 8 (2008), Together Through Life (2009), Tempest
(2012), Dylan 1973 remastered (2013), Another Self Portrait (1969-1971: The
Bootleg Series Vol 10 (2013), The Basement Tapes-Raw (The Bootleg Series, Vol
11) (2014), Shadows in the Night (2015) ]
· Brandi Carlile – Indigo-girls-esque singer songwriter
with heart and amazing voice who can belt it and grab your heart [Brandi
Carlile (2006), The Story (2007), Live At Benaroya Hall (2011), Bear Creek
(2012)]
· Brian Wilson – The soul of the Beach Boys solo follow up to Pet Sounds
[Smile (2004)]
· Bruce Springsteen – Sex, heart, and mind in the most
driven man in music. Springsteen is
unrelenting in doing three hour revivals in his sixties with a catalog maybe
only Dylan can rival. He can let it
loose with a full band, but get just as dark, if not darker on the working
man’s life with a harmonica and an acoustic guitar. Dylan and Springsteen each took Woody Guthrie
to complementary pinnacles. Nebraska and
the Darkness on the Edge of Town, The Ghost of Tom Joad albums go deep, others
rock out with the message further in the background. Greatest live shows I
have ever witnessed. Icon. [Greetings
From Asbury Park, N.J. (1973), The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street
Shuffle (1973), The Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978), Born To Run (1983),
Nebraska (1984), Born In The USA (1984), The River (1985), Human Touch (1992), Lucky
Town (1992), In Concert/MTV Unplugged (1993), The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995), Tunnel
of Love (1987), Tracks (1988), Blood
Brothers (), Chimes of Freedom (2000), The Rising (2002), The Essential Bruce
Springsteen (2003), Devils & Dust (2005), Live In Dublin with the Sessions
Band (2007), Magic (2007), Working On A Dream (2009), The Promise (2010), Wrecking
Ball (2012), High Hopes (2014), American Beauty (2014)]
Live
Albums with the E Street Band: Hammersmith Oden, London England (1975),
12/31/1975 Upper Darby, PA (1975), 8/9/1978 Cleveland, OH (1978), Live
1975-1985 (1986), Live in New York City (2001), Magic Tour Highlights (2008),
2/1/14 Johannesburg South Africa (2014), 2/26/14 Brisbane Australia (2014),
4/24/14 Raleigh, NC (2014), 5/13/14 Albany, NY (2014), 5/18/14 Uncasville CT
(2014)
· Carolina Chocolate Drops – African spiritual folk on a southern
porch [Genuine Negro Jig (2010)]
· The Civil Wars – male/female dual singer enchanting
folk duo [Barton Hollow (2011), The Civil Wars (2013)]
· Cory Branon – country guitar player much better live solo than w/ a
band in a studio [the no hit wonder (2014)]
· Counting Crows – Poetic-loneliness folk/rock I spent
many nights on my teenage bedroom carpet writing bad poems while listening to
their early stuff. [August and Everything After (1993), Recovering The Satellites
(1996), Across A Wire: Live in New York (1998), This Desert Life (1999), Hard
Candy (2002), Films About Ghosts (2004), Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings
(2008), Underwater Sunshine (2012), Somewhere Under Wonderland (2014) ]
· Dan Pothast/ The Stitch Up- singer/songwriter of heart-filled rock
stories, awesome human [Eyeballs (1999), Attitude Adjuster (2007), Eat the
Planet (2008), Watch Where You Walk (2011), Around the World (2012), My Living
Room (2014)]
· The Decembrists – Northwestern writer-thesaurus
folk/rock full of poetic and theatrical stories [Castaways and Cutouts (2002).
Her Majesty The Decembrists (2003), Picaresque (2005), The Crane Wife (2006),
Hazards of Love (2009), The King is Dead (2011), We All Raise Our Voices To the
Air Live (2012)]
· Doc Watson – greatest picker banjo folk icon [The Essential Doc
Watson (1990)]
· Drive By Truckers – alt country whisky-folk rock [Go-Go
Boots (2011), English Oceans (2014)]
· Eddie Vedder – solo projects of Pearl Jam’s front-man slowed down
w/heart [Music For the Motion Picture Into the Wild (2007), Ukele Songs (2011)]
· Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes – alt/country wandering adult gypsy-esque
folk/rock [Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes (2009), Here (2012)]
· Elvis Costello – A British Paul Simon w/ less folk,
great composer of music. There is so
much of his catalog I still need to explore.
[When I Was Cruel (2002), The River in Reverse w/Allen Toussaint (2006),
The Best of Elvis Costello (2007), Wise Up Ghost w/the Roots (2013)]
· Fiona Apple – deeply torn female acoustic vocalist in relationship
ashes [The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords
Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do (2012)]
· Fountains of Wayne – slower nerd rock sort of fun that I
outgrew [Fountains of Wayne (1996), Sky Full of Holes (2011)]
· The Gaslight Anthem – Springsteen-influenced American
rock/folk [The ’59 Sound (2008), American Slang (2010), Handwritten (2012), The
B Sides (2014)]
· Gillian Welch – bewitching folk songstress – (The
Harrow & The Harvest (2011)]
· Glen Hansard – recent find from Yoga class, emotive rip your chest open
of one human intimately baring self in the presence of another – [The Swell
Season (2006) Rhythm and Repose (2012)]
· Hank Williams – country/alt splitting icon on the
foundation of where country starts through that bullshit bubblegum pop
Nashville out, if you can’t find Hank Williams/Johnny Cash in the sound then that’s
pop, it ain’t country, it’s a commercial. [American Legends No 18 – (1996), 20 of Hank
Williams Greatest Hits (1997)]
· The Head and The Heart – emo folk/indie rock [The Head and The
Heart (2011), Let’s Be Still (2013)]
· Hurray for the Riff Raff – bluegrass New Orleans folk feminine
voice rolling down the end of the Mississippi river strumming a mini-revolution
[Small Town Heroes (2014)]
· Indigo Girls – dual-singer college–educated folk/rock storytellers [Indigo
Girls (1989), Swamp Ophelia (1994), Come On Now Social (1999), Rarities (2005),
Playlist: The Very Best of the Indigo Girls (2009), Staring Down The Brilliant
Dream (2010)]
· Jack Johnson – cute-album I found from being a dad, I am not a big fan
of the rest of his stuff, but this album is good for young parents
[Sing-A-Longs & Lullabies For the Film Curious George (2006)]
· Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – former Drive By Trucker Americana side
project alt/country solo style [Here We Rest (2011)]
· Joe Henry – folk storyteller adult and raw [Trampoline (1996)]
· John Lennon – Rock n roll is solo stuff cover songs of Chuck Berry,
Fat’s Domino and Sam Cooke, Plastic Ono Band is one of the best albums of all
time at exploring the story of the human condition. The song God sets why Lennon had to be on his
own. Imagine might be the single most
important song in modern music history at diving in how to stave off human
extinction. Icon [Plastic Ono Band (1970), Imagine (1971), Rock N’ Roll (1975),
Power to the People (2010)]
· John Prine – an alt-country sort of Bob Dylan-postal worker story
teller who can write great story songs [John Prine (1971), Prime Prine (1976),
In Person & On Stage (2010)]
· Johnny Cash – The icon of alt-country of the downtrodden dealing with
real-life and living it fully loving and questioning God tearing him in two
being with his demons and desperately searching for redemption in a God he is
not sure is even listening. The America
albums near the end of his life are like finely aged whisky. The torment, the conflict, the human
imperfection of Johnny Cash are gorgeous. Icon [Blood, Sweat and Tears (1963), Johnny
Cash Sings The Ballads of the American Indian: Bitter Tears (1964), Orange
Blossom Special (1965), Sings the Ballads of the True West (1965), At Folsom
Prison (1968), At San Quentin (1969), Ragged
Old Flag (1974), 16 Biggest Hits (1999), Johnny Cash Collection (2003), Country
Legend (2004), The Legend of Johnny Cash (2005), American Recordings (1994),
American II: Unchained (1996), American III: Solitary Man (2000), American IV:
the Man Comes Around (2002), America V – A Hundred Highways (2006), American
VI: Ain’t No Grave (2010), Out Among The Stars (2014)]
Joni Mitchell – classic isolated quiet female voice
[Blue (1971)]
· Justin Towns Earle – Son of Steve Earle, young guy with
amazing acoustic guitar skills and can write real-life lyrics and tell you
about smoking crack in Brooklyn and attempting love and better [Yuma (2007),
The Good Life (2008), Midnight at the Movies (2010), Harlem River Blues (2011),
Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way you feel about me now (2012), Single Mothers
(2014), Absent Fathers (2015)]
· Langhorne Slim – fiddle rock folk with a playful voice
slapping a knee sing along to acoustic quiet [(The Way We Move (2012)]
· Laura Marling – British folk singer with songs of
loneliness and poetry [Alas I Cannot Swim (2008), I Speak Because I Can (2010),
A Creature I Don’t Know (2011), Once I Was An Eagle (2013)]
· Leonard Cohen – darker brooding Dylan-style with
thicker songs and haunting voice from a monk-like mind [Songs of Love and Hate
(1971), The Essential Leonard Cohen (2002), Live In London (2008), Old Ideas
(2012), Popular Problems (2014)]
· Lucinda Williams– country folk female who can hang her own in
a bar room, dirt road, or a flower garden [Essence (2001), World Without Tears
(2003), Lucinda Willams (), Blessed (2011), Down Where the Spirit Meets the
Bone (2014)]
· The Lumineers – new folk band sailing with a boxcar
heart [The Lumineers (2012)]
· Monsters of Folk – gang of folk like The Band with a bit
of indie-country [Monsters of Folk (2009)]
· Mumford & Sons – British folk explosion on the world
stage with lyrics that hit the heart and pull at your humanity. Saw them open for the Avett Brothers at Jazz
Fest, the clarity of Marcus Mumford’s vocals is stellar [Sigh no More (2010), Deluxe
Companion (2011), Babel (2012), The Road To Red Rocks (2013)]
· My Name is John Michael – outstanding lead singer with excellent
musicianship from New Orleans, rock, horns, even a garbage can [The People That
Come and Go (2009)]
· Neko Case – New Pornographers front woman’s folk solo work [ (Things
get worse the harder I fight, the harder I fight the more I love you (2013)]
· Neutral Milk Hotel – indie/alt folk [In The Aeroplane Over
the Sea (1998)]
· Noah and the Whale – British Counting Crows [Peaceful, The
World Lays Me Down (2008), The First Days of Spring (2009), Last Night on Earth
(2011)]
· Of Monsters and Men – Icelandic indie/folk [My Head is an
Animal (2012)]
· Old Crow Medicine Show –ragtime bluegrass folk hoot-nanny
[O.C.M.S. (2004), Big Iron World (2006), Tennessee Pusher (2008)]
· Paul Simon – singer/songwriter icon, the Puerto Rican Bob Dylan who
can command the world stage and embrace complex songs that appear effortless, embracing
global sounds. Icon [Graceland (1986), Negotiations and Love Songs 1971-1986
(1988), You’re The One (2000), The Essential Paul Simon (2010), So Beautiful or
So What (2011), Live In New York City (2012])
· Peete Seeger – Legend of protest folk in the Woody Guthrie tradition
[the Essential Pete Seeger (1978)]
· Phil Ochs– protest folk singer with a bit of humor and quiet style [I
Ain’t Marching Anymore (1965)]
· Ray LaMontagne – Seen the underbelly of life, emotional
left for dead folk/blues that has seen the darkness and come back and will hold
up a mirror for your own [Trouble (2004), Till The Sun Turns Back (2006),
Gossip In the Grain (2008), God Willin’ & The Creek Don’t Rise (2010),
Supernova (2014)]
· Robert Plant – former Led Zeppelin front man sings hippie country
otherworldly folk songs [Now and Zen (1988), Band of Joy (2010), Lullaby And
The Ceaseless Roar ()]
· Rodriguez – Hispanic homeless man folk making stories [Searching For
Sugar Man (2012)]
· Roy Orbison – troubadour of arias of the highest order with just
classic love songs [The Very Best of Roy Orbison (2006)]
· Ryan Adams– folk rock solo singer with backing band not as good as Ray
Lamontagne, no blues but has his moments but not great [Ryan Adams (2014)]
· Ryan Bingham – former bull rider alt/country knuckle up with a middle
finger Johnny Cash influenced Americana rock that will occasionally drop an f
bomb, puts his blood in his music [Mescalito (2007), Roadhouse Sun (2009),
Junky Star (2010), Tomorrowland (2012), Fear and Saturday Night (2015)]
· Sara Jarosz – Americana folksinger who I kind of set down and haven’t
fully explored[Follow Me Down (2011)]
· Shovels and Rope – rollick folk duo with country foot
stomp joy [O’Be Joyful (2012), Swimmin’ Time (2014)]
· Simon & Garfunkel – iconic folk duo, where Garfunkel is
tolerated [Sounds of Silence (1966), Parsely, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme,
(1966), Bookends (1968), Bridge Over Troubled Waters (1970), The Best of Simon
& Garfunkel (1999)]
· Steve Earle – American country turned folk with a drug problem like a
tidal wave singing heavy guitar early country to better later life lyric-folk [El
Corazon (1997), Transcendental Blues (2000), The Definitive Collection (2006),
The Low Highway (2013)]
· Sturgill Simpson – a barroom modern version of Waylon
Jennings that goes deep dark [Metamodern Sounds in Country Music (2014)]
· The Tallest Man On Earth – solitary folk gray songs [There’s No
Leaving Now (2012)]
· Timothy Seth Avett as Darling – side singer/songwriter project of
co-front man of the Avett Brothers [The Mourning, The Silver, The Bell (2006),
Killing The Headlamps (2009), To Make The World Quiet (2009)]
· Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman – post project for Rage Against the
Machine guitarist, Occupy Wall Street politically conscious rock/folk [World
Wide Rebel Songs (2011)]
· Tom Waits – barroom Bukowski icon of folk, blues, rock, jazz
on par with Dylan in many ways with a later-life guttural voice that is
animalistic, sensitive, and an other-worldly garbage heap of humanity’s flaws
and best attempts to indulge in pornography, body parts and booze in the
operatic cutting blade that is love.
Early voice is personal jazz soft and intimate that is still find in
later songs like the skin under a scar.
If you think what the hell is this; he sounds like a monster, keep
listening. Yes, Waits is the monster
within us, a beautiful horrible amazing monster. Icon [Closing Time (1973), The
Heart of Saturday Night (1974), Nighthawks At the Diner (1975-live), Small
Change (1976), Foreign Affairs (1977), Heartattack
And Vine (1980), The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of From The Heart
(1982), Swordfishtrombones (1983), Rain Dogs (1985), Frank’s Wild Years (1987),
Big Time (1988-live), The Early Years Vol. 1 (1991), Bone Machine (1992), the
Black Rider (1993), The Early Years Vol. 2 (1993), Mule Variations (1999), Blood
Money (2002), Alice (2002), Real Gone (2004), Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, &
Bastards (2006), Glitter and Doom Live (2009), Bad As Me (2011) ]
· The Traveling Wilburys – super group including Bob Dylan, Tom
Petty, George Harrison, and Roy Orbison side project [The Traveling Wilbury’s
Collection Vol 1 to 3 (1988)]
· Tweedy – another side project of Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy with
his son folk rock [Sukierae (2014)]
· Valerie June – beautiful Tennessee blues country voice for late night
hours [Pushin’ Against A Stone (2013)]
· Vic Chestnutt – folk country () [West of Rome (2004)]
· Wanda Jackson – veteran Americana storyteller taking
one last drink at the bar [Unfinished Business (2012)]
· Waylon Jennings – barroom whisky country man like a
plugged in what Hank would have done trying not to fuck it up [Superhits
(1996), Ultimate Waylon Jennings (2004)]
· Wilco – pathos rock/ heavy Beatles-influenced former alt-country twang
and loneliness overwhelming reaching out to the world loneliness [A.M. (1995),
Being There (1996), Summerteeth (1999), Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002), A Ghost Is
Born (2004), Sky Blue Sky (2007), Wilco (2009), The Whole Love (2011)]
· The Wild – Spirited unity folk/rock protest and come together music
from Atlanta, also led by an owner of an awesome Springsteen tattoo [Set
Ourselves Free (), A Collection (2011), Dreams Are Maps (2013)]
· Willie Nelson – country/alt legend with enough Johnny
Cash punk for me [Phases and Stages (1974), Red Headed Stranger (1975), Teatro
(1998), Super Hits (1994), Heroes (2012), Let’s Face The Music and Dance
(2013), Band of Brothers (2014), December Day: Willie’s Stash Vol 1 (2014)]
· Woody Guthrie – The man that started it all of the
alt-country/punk/singer songwriter genre full of boxcars, the dustbowl, World
Wars II, poverty, prejudice, injustice, and simple pleasures peeling back the
curtain of the system itself in the most beautiful protest music. Fuck
America the Beautiful. Woody is the
foundation of Dylan, Springsteen and Johnny Cash, Icon [This Land is Your Land:
The Asch Recordings, Vol. 1 (1997), Muleskinner Blues: The Asch Recordings, Vol
2 (1997), Hard Travelin’: The Asch Recordings, Vol. 3 (1998), Buffalo Skinners:
The Asch Recordings, Vol 4 (1999) – all of this is from around the 1940’s
]
Compilations
· Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of
John Prine – (2010)
· Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark –
Together At The Bluebird Café (2001)
· Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan
Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International (2012)
· Dead Man’s Town: A Tribute to Springsteen’s
Born in the USA, folk version tribute album (2014)
· Inside Llewyn Davis Original Soundtrack folk
music from the film (2013)
· Crayon Angel: A Tribute to the music of Judee
Sill (2009)
· Folkways: A Vision Shared A Tribute to Woody
Guthrie and Leadbelly (1988)
· Walk the Line [Original Soundtrack]
(2005)
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