Best Folk Song writer ever

Subject: RE: Best Folk Song writer ever
From: CupOfTea
Date: 27 May 08 - 12:49 AM

If yer looking for a "folk song writer" perhaps a way of parsing it out is: who is the known author who has the most songs that other folks have thought was "Trad?"

Works of Robert Burns, Si Kahn, Pete Seeger, some of the Scottish and Irish writers in a traditional vein have had that misattribution. In some cases when newer songs (especially from the other side of the Atlantic) are performed by singers who also do a good line in the very old songs, that the "trad" gets assumed by listeners not aware of the actual author. I particularly got a kick out of being earnestly told that "The Scotsman" was a very traditional song, and couldn't possibly have been written by an American bluegrass guy...

Songwriters who have multiple works written in my lifetime that I believe will live on "in the tradition:"
Woody Guthrie
Pete Seeger
Eric Bogle
Gordon Bok
Phil Ochs
Sidney Carter
Tom Paxton
Andy M. Stewart
Tommy Sands

Subject: RE: Best Folk Song writer ever
From: topical tom
Date: 26 May 08 - 11:11 PM

I agree totally with kendall's list though I personally would not have chosen Gordon Bok.

Subject: RE: Best Folk Song writer ever
From: GUEST,iancarterb
Date: 26 May 08 - 11:07 PM

Gargoyle has the answer right, and there's only one right academic answer to the explicit question. If you know who wrote it, it probably hasn't passed into oral tradition yet, and likely hasn't wandered through variants in 8 languages by people who nver heard the radio. Such songs can't be common in English any more.
My preferred variant on the implicit question is 'the best writer of songs that SOUND like folk songs,' and I have never heard anyone better at that than Stan Rogers. Gillian Welch is the best still living and writing in English that I'm familiar with.

Subject: RE: Best Folk Song writer ever
From: the button
Date: 26 May 08 - 11:02 PM

Not just any old "anon." The anonymous hacks who turned out broadsides in the 19th century (often acting as unwitting collectors of traditional songs), giving us 95% of the folksongs we have today.

Then the other anons got hold of them, stripped away some of the flowery verbiage, and added some truly beautiful melodies.

Subject: RE: Best Folk Song writer ever
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 26 May 08 - 11:01 PM

Subjective as this thread is my vote would be for Stan Rogers.

Subject: RE: Best Folk Song writer ever
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 26 May 08 - 10:42 PM

Your thread is PURE

B. S.

As Kendal has noted:

ANONYMOUS!!!

This person is not only the BEST but also the most prolific.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Joe - we now have "above" and "below"....how about another "exclusive" section for those with MC roots to the 90's...the newbie-diaper-stench is distressing to the nerves.

Subject: RE: Best Folk Song writer ever
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 May 08 - 10:29 PM

I think the best songwriter of the last 50 years is Bob Dylan...if I have to pick someone. That doesn't mean I think he's the best "Folk Song" writer, because that label doesn't really fit him. He went beyond that. He's just the best songwriter, period.

Subject: RE: Best Folk Song writer ever
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 26 May 08 - 09:53 PM

1954

Subject: RE: Best Folk Song writer ever
From: Banjovey
Date: 26 May 08 - 09:49 PM

McColl

Subject: RE: Best Folk Song writer ever
From: olddude
Date: 26 May 08 - 09:45 PM

bogle, Seeger, good choices so is burge. I agree the best are handed down from generation to generation. How many versions of "granfathers waltz are there, hundreds or thousands because, they were granfathers waltz ... but we tend to tribute the music to an author maybe not the correct one but someone made it famous or brought it to the eye of the folk world, so I put them in that category whoever the they are. How about woody guthrie

Subject: RE: Best Folk Song writer ever
From: kendall
Date: 26 May 08 - 09:21 PM

I don't mean to plow up a snake here, but seems to me that folk songs are not written. They are handed down through the oral tradition from generation to generation.
One of the oldest songs is The Fox. That one goes back to the 12th century, and no one knows who made it originally.

Now, if you want to talk songs written in the folk genre' by singer songwriters, I'd go for,Pete Seeger, Utah Phillips, Tom Paxton, Gordon Bok and Eric Bogle.

Subject: RE: Best Folk Song writer ever
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 26 May 08 - 09:17 PM

I'm with Joe. The best songs are the ones that last not because of who wrote them, but because they are good songs - and the old traditional songs have stood the test of hundred of years.

Yes, there are lots of good folks writing good songs today - I enjoy singing them. But I think the best of them are those who have deep roots in folk culture and tradition.

Dan

Subject: RE: Best Folk Song writer ever
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 26 May 08 - 09:07 PM

olddude-I'm not sure Foster thought on his songs as folk songs, it just so happened that way. Anon fits the bill perfectly. My vote goes to Irving Burge who wrote many of the calypsos made famous by Harry Belefonte.

Subject: RE: Best Folk Song writer ever
From: Joe_F
Date: 26 May 08 - 09:00 PM

Anon.

Subject: Best Folk Song writer ever
From: olddude
Date: 26 May 08 - 08:50 PM

Ok to start a small discussion, if you had to pick the single greatest folk song writer who ever lived, known or unknow what is the first one to come to mind.

Stephen Foster perhaps? Dylan? Who