I wouldn't exactly call Neil Young a folksinger, but...I'd say he's somewhat tenuously connected to the folk music movement, in that he, and some of the bands he was in, often appeal to people who say they like folk music.

Neil was most directly inspired by Bob Dylan, who is or is not a folksinger...depending on which side of the bed you got out of this morning. Dylan is not exclusively anything at all, of course, and he has never claimed to be "a folksinger" (quite the contrary, in fact), but I would concur with Jack the Sailor that he carried the Woody Guthrie tradition forward magnificently.

Back to Neil. He's a number of things. Folksinger is not the first that comes to mind. He's a pretty good songwriter, a truly weird but sometimes appealing singer, a country-rock musician, a rocker, a stoner, an anti-fashion statement, a well-known Canadian export...

Anyone who claims not to know who he is must have been hiding under a stone for the last 40 years.

I'd say that about 5 or 6 per cent of him is a folksinger.

- LH