Favourite Folk Singers ?

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: GUEST,Lutz Eikelmann
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 12:55 PM

Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Lonnie Donegan are my favourites.

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: GUEST,Bill the Collie
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 10:52 AM

Kate is not at present our greatest singer.

She's not at all bad, though!

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Aidan Crossey
Date: 16 Jul 01 - 08:01 AM

KitKat ...

I'm with you ... some people DO think she's disingenuous ... I've had "heated debates" with a few. I think they're missing the point. I think she comes across as she comes across because she comes across as she comes across. I don't detect any side to her at all. She's a a breath of fresh air!

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: KitKat
Date: 16 Jul 01 - 07:55 AM

To Derrymacash Sorry I didn't pick up your reply to my Kate Rusby question - haven't logged on since Friday. How can people criticise Kate for being Yorkshire? Perhaps they think she comes across as a little disingenuous. She seems genuine enough to me - and whenever I ring her mum to order another CD, she is so natural and friendly, i can't help but admire them as a family. Kate was interviewed on Radio 2 recently and she was as great as ever, even with a really sore throat after touring. Pat

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: KitKat
Date: 16 Jul 01 - 07:48 AM

Thanks Dorrie, for reminding me - how could I have forgotten to mention the incomparabel voice fo Eva Cassidy? Don't always like her choice of material, but what a voice!

Pat

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 07:10 PM

I think the Anonomous Guest is silly, and I am quite happy to use my real name to say that, (John Evans).Has anybody noticed that Anonomous Guest has not conyributed to any of the musiv threads?.john

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Amos
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 06:36 PM

I am partial to the excellent singing of Anonymous Guest, myself...

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: jaze
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 05:59 PM

Joan Baez

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: ard mhacha
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 04:47 PM

Mary Garvey, Nice reminder, Anne Byrne was around in the early 60`s and I still have her on cassette singing The Foggy Dew as good as I have ever heard it sung. I knew Derrymacash was having us on,Mairead is Trionas sister and a better singer. Slan Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: mg
Date: 14 Jul 01 - 06:59 PM

Sue Postans and Jill King of Vancouver B.C. Mary Benson of Portland. Linda Rondstadt. Chris Roe of Seattle. Anne Byrne of Ireland. Mauro O'Connell. Now there is the makings of a good chorus. Gordon Bok, Tom Jackson for men, Paddy Hernon. mg

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Dorrie
Date: 14 Jul 01 - 06:49 PM

i'm joining this thread late but- Kate Rusby of course Norma Waterson Eva Cassidy

are my obvious choices

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Celtic Soul
Date: 14 Jul 01 - 05:45 PM

Grace Griffith. She's local here, and has the most ethereal, haunting, and beautiful voice. I highly recomend her to any outside this area that may never have heard of her. If you can get ahold of anything by her or Connemara, do! :D

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Brían
Date: 14 Jul 01 - 05:12 PM

I forgot 2 other great woman singers:

Elizabeth Cronin

Nóra Ghriallais

B.

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Aidan Crossey
Date: 14 Jul 01 - 04:50 PM

Ard Mhacha ...

I haven't actually come across Mairead Ni Dhomhnaill, but you'll notice I gave Triona a namecheck above ... there are a few tracks on the tape you sent over ... I'll listen more closely. (You'll see that previously I have commended Dolores Keane.) Eleanor Shanley I'm not over-struck on, sorry. So there you go ... balances the oul' scales (I refer to the Shane saga).

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: ard mhacha
Date: 14 Jul 01 - 02:14 PM

Derrmacash, c`mon,what about Dolores Keane and a wonderful singer in both Irish and English Mairead ni Dhonmhall. Have you heard Elenaor Shanley, beautiful. I love the women, I think you are having us on. Slan Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Aidan Crossey
Date: 14 Jul 01 - 02:14 AM

Stiofain ...

Apology noted ... however, see my previous thread above. Give some of those tracks a listen.

Slan leat.

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: CRANKY YANKEE
Date: 14 Jul 01 - 02:01 AM

ME

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 14 Jul 01 - 01:23 AM

Why is it that a simple question can make people argue! "why dont you like female singers?"
"why dont you like foreign singers?"
My favourite singers are both sexes and all nationalities please dont argue!

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Brían
Date: 13 Jul 01 - 11:27 PM

I chose male singers because that is what I like, and the singers who I emulate with my own singing.I think most of the ones I picked would of been offended if they heard they were considered "anglophones".

Her are some women I enjoy:
Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh.
Róise Bean Mhic Grianna(Róise na nAmhrán)
Mary Travers(La Bolduc)
.
Brían.

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: GUEST,Denise:^)
Date: 13 Jul 01 - 10:04 PM

Interesting that Stiofáin writes that he doesn't care for female singers... A friend and I were noticing the differences in our collections of recordings--

She had nearly all male singers. I had nearly all female singers.

She grew up in a household with 2 brothers; her mother died when she was a teenager. Her father and brothers didn't treat her very well--made her feel that she was insignificant, her opinions weren't important, etc.

I grew up in a family with 2 sisters; we were always taught that we could do or be anything we wanted to--and we did!

Any significance? Who knows--but we thought it was interesting!

Denise:^)

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Haruo
Date: 13 Jul 01 - 09:52 PM

Margaret Hill (who recorded a lot of my favorite British folk songs in Esperanto, her folk LPs were Kantanta mia bird' and Floroj sen kompar') and Mike Stern (who writes good new left-liberal-Christian protest stuff à la Seeger).

Liland

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: CET
Date: 13 Jul 01 - 08:36 PM

Janice:

As Doug says, the idea was to name our favourite singers. The ones I named are simply the ones that spring to mind most immediately, the reason being that I do mostly listen to the music of Britain and North America. However, that's not the extent of my listening. I could have added La Volee de Castors, a young Quebec group, who are the best singers of any of the current Canadian folk musicians that I have heard. Then there's the singer for Mamadou Diabate's group (sorry, can't remember his name, but I heard them play recently). Ladysmith Black Mambazo of course. Actually, the best singing of the roots or folk variety that I have ever heard was from a small male voice ensemble that I heard in hotel in Zagreb in 1997. Apparently they had just released a CD and had come in for dinner. They were all sitting around a table and just started singing. Ever since I've been looking for recordings of Croatian male voice groups, with no luck so far.

Edmund

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: DougR
Date: 13 Jul 01 - 02:01 PM

Janice, I didn't see at the beginning of the Thread, a requirement that the performers be limited to a particular region or a specific part of the world.

We are asked to name our favorites. Who are yours?

DougR

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: GUEST,Beany
Date: 13 Jul 01 - 01:26 PM

I like loads of singers like Joni Mitchell, Len Graham, Nic Jones, Kevin Mitchell, etc etc etc BUT I must say I heard Graham O'Callaghan recently perform in Sussex and Rob Harbron accompanying him his voice is really special and his arrangements and delivery is so deep.

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Stiofáin
Date: 13 Jul 01 - 01:03 PM

Hi Derrymacash,

agreed, I shouldn't have put it this way. It's just a personal feeling, not a valid argument.

Yet it's still true - female singers don't touch me for some reason...

Cheers, Stiofáin

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: chip a
Date: 13 Jul 01 - 01:02 PM

Janice,

I didn't know there was going to be a lecture. I'm hurt that I wasn't told.

Really now, I put people on my list who I like to listen to. I really don't care if they're green and breathe through gills! I don't get to N.Y.C. too often. 1970 was the last time. I likes what I likes. Simple as that.

If I'm supposed to like your kinda stuff in order to be correct, then I guess I just ain't correct. Different strokes, huh?

Chip A.

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: GUEST,Janice in NJ
Date: 13 Jul 01 - 12:29 PM

Why is nearly all of this discussion focused on ANGLOPHONES, and not just Anglophones, but on the stars of the admittedly limited folk scene of North America and the British/Celtic Isles? Right here in New Jersey and across the river in New York there are folk musicians who would knock your proverbial socks off, but their native language is Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Urdu, Russian, Greek, Turkish, or any one of several dozen others. And there are nearly as many whose native tongue is English, but flavored with the spice of Africa, the West Indies, or the Orient. Oh, you say that's world music, not folk music. Pardon me, but I missed that part of the lecture.

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: chip a
Date: 13 Jul 01 - 09:49 AM

Oh yeah, I forgot Heddy West, Buffy StMarie, Jean Ritchie, Jonny Cash and,well, shoot, there's just too many. Depends on my mood. I guess my wife is my current female favorite.

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: kendall
Date: 13 Jul 01 - 08:46 AM

How can anyone make such a statement? You must have heard ALL of the women singers in the world! Of course, it is your right to express such an opinion, but, I wish you could hear Peg Alois, Caroline Paton and Kat Logan to name a few.

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Sarah the flute
Date: 13 Jul 01 - 05:56 AM

Best of the boys - DICK GAUGHAN Best of the girls - DELORES KEANE

No Contest!!!

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Gervase
Date: 13 Jul 01 - 04:52 AM

Depends what mood I'm in, I suppose - whether it's maudlin and introspective or pissed and loud....
Anyway, here comes a random discharge from my musical blunderbus:
Assorted Watersons and Carthys of various generations,
Dave Webber and Anni Fentiman,
The Wilsons,
Mickey MacConnell,
The Voice Squad,
Don Shepherd,
Chris Gorniak,
Moira Craig,
Geoff Higginbotham,
The McGarrigle Sisters,
Nic Jones,
John Tams,
Kate Rusby,
June Tabor,
Maddy Prior
Bob White,
Alan Garden

and, bloody hell, dozens of others that I've heard in clubs and sessions over the years and whose names are either forgotten or never learned - people who can lift the heart, inspire and move without the need for amplification, mixing, studio trickery or gizmos. I love unaccompanied singing, harmonies and the beauty of the human voice.
Which is why, in a probably pretentious and self-indulgent way, my list includes some unsung heroes - friends and acquaintances often from way back who happen to have or had wonderful voices and ways with words.
Like Rod Shearman, bless him.

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Aidan Crossey
Date: 13 Jul 01 - 04:01 AM

Jaysus!

The first half of the post was goin' alright Stiofain, but then you had to insult half the world's population with that misogynistic second paragraph. To dismiss female singers as focussing only on the technical is absurd. I take it you haven't heard Norma Waterson, Kate Rusby, Margaret Barry, Sandy Denny, The Johnstons' girls, Triona Ni Domhnaill, Cathy Jordan (a name I left off my original list), Dolores Keane, etc, etc, etc.

Check out Dervish's versions of "Lone Shanakyle" or "For Ireland I Won't Tell Her Name" or "An Spailpin Fanach" and then come back here and say hand on heart that Cathy Jordan's focussing on the technical aspects of singing. (Admittedly her singing is superb technically ... but she goes way beyond the purely technical.)

Or listen to Triona Ni Domnnaill sing "Pretty Peg" or "Derry Gaol".

Or Dolores Keane sing "Galway Bay".

Or Kate Rusby sing "Who Will Sing Me Lullabies?".

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Stiofáin
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 08:10 PM

My favourites are Andy Irvine, Andy M. Stewart, Martin Carthy, Shane MacGowan, Luke Kelly. Hank Williams and Johnny Cash for folk of the colonies ;)

Never did like female singers very much - usually they don't touch me. Female singers usually do focus on the technical aspects of singing too much and neglect the feel and don't dare to "live out" a song.

Stiofáin

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Suffet
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 07:10 PM

i presume erica's favorite boy poet is e.e. cummings.

--- steve

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Brían
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 04:51 PM

Cathal McConnell, Len Graham.

Brían.

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: DougR
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 04:36 PM

Funny, I \'ve thought of Emmylou more as a country than a folk singer. Regardless, she is really good and a classic beauty.

DougR

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: chip a
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 04:21 PM

O.K., Emmylou is way up there on my list. And if I ever get tired of looking at her, I understand she can sing too!

Chip A.

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Erica Smith
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 04:14 PM

favorite girl folksinger: emmylou harris

favorite boy folksinger: townes van zandt

--erica from america

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: chip a
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 11:34 AM

JOAN BAEZ (!) Tom Paxton, Tom Rush, Hoyt Axton, Ledbelly, Woodie Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie, Mississippi John Hurt, John Lee Hooker, Phil Ochs, Bill Broonzy, Dock Boggs, Harold Payne (local and dead!), Burl Ives, Roscoe Holcomb, Clarence Ashley, Betty Smith, Bob Dylan (and yes, I like his voice), Peggy Seeger......Wow! There are so many. Well, that's some of them anyway.

Chip A.

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: kendall
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 10:49 AM

I'm in love with Mary Black. Her rendition of Rose of Allendale is the best I have heard. Of course, I'm sure there are some whom I have not heard.

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Aidan Crossey
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 10:23 AM

Well , I've heard her get stick in some circles for "not being traditional enough" (cos she writes her own songs) or for being too "backward looking" (cos she doesn't write all her own songs). There's also been a few rumbles in this forum about how Radio 2 plays a lot of Rusby, which verged on the "she's too popular".

I've also heard a lot of people knock her "stage Yorkshire" act. I've heard her perform live a couple of times and I've never found that aspect remotely galling. I think she comes across as a genuine human being, so that when she sings a song like "Who Will Sing Me Lullabies", the story behind which I'd heard before I heard the song, I found myself with a lump in my throat the size of a beach ball. (And as I was on a crowded rush hour tube I had to swallow that lump down and pretend I had a speck of dust in my eye.)

I can't even begin to imagine what quality in her voice your husband finds twee. (I find a few of her songs twee ... not her voice ... but am prepared to accept them because, at the end of the day, we're not perfect and everybody's allowed to make a few wrong moves every now and then ... particularly when they are able to redeem themselves so easily.)

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: KitKat
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 09:38 AM

Does Kate get a lot of stick? Why? I've only ever heard praise for her and I think she is terrific. My husband thinks her voice is a bit twee, but then he likes some seriously weird stuff...

Pat

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Aidan Crossey
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 08:13 AM

Add to my list of yesterday (which again proves how flawed these efforts can be) Ron Kavana, Tracey Booth (ex-Sons of the Desert) and Kate Rusby whose "Little Lights" surpassed all my expectations. I know she gets a lot of stick from people, but she doesn't deserve it. More power to her!

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: KitKat
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 07:55 AM

I'm surprised to see how many favourites are really old, or even gone! I suppose I must tend to listen to people who are alive and still performing. My present favourites are: Kate Rusby, Mary Black, Dolores Keane, Dave Burland, Nic Jones, Alison Krauss (who is, I suppose, strictly speaking, country rather than folk - I find the lines are very blurred with American artists.)

Pat

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: pavane
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 07:43 AM

john in hull - Joni Mitchell only charged a dollar and a half to see them - the 25 dollars was an update for inflation when someone revived the song, with an inferior version (as often happens). Why people try to remake classics is beyond me - it rarely works. (Madonna/American Pie, leaving out half the song, is just one example)

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Suffet
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 07:33 AM

OK, I'll talk about early influences on me, people who helped me early in life develop into a folksinger.

First, there was my mother, a sometimes jazz singer who appeared in the 1930s under the name Marion Shaw. Musically, she was a Billie Holiday wannabe, and she hated what she called "hillbilly music." But for some weird reason that's the stuff I wanted to hear, so she would sing "The Wabash Cannon Ball" and "Sixteen Tons" for me while accompanying herself on a ukelele. Other songs she would play for me were "Meet Me in Saint Louie, Louie," "Toot-Toot-Tootsie, Goodbye," "Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey," "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Irene, Goodnight," and "So Long, It's Been Good to Know You." Only later did I learn that some of them were considered folksongs while others weren't. But the reality is I learned them all in a folkloric process.

Next, there was Oscar Brand. That's because he had this really great folk music program on the radio in New York City all the while I was growing up. He still has it.

Then there was Pete Seeger. Again, I first heard him as a child, and he kept on reappearing throughout my life. Most recently he showed up at a Woody Guthrie Song Swap and Jam Sesion I led in Hartford, Connecticut, this past January. Like Oscar Brand, Pete was always there.

Also when I was a child, there was this woman named Charity Bailey on television. She played the piano and got a whole pack of kids around her to sing and make music. I thought she was the coolest lady on TV.

A bit later were the various counselors at Camp Towanda, in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, who would teach us all sorts of songs. The one I remember best was a fellow named Bob Seiden who played piano. Bob could get anyone to sing, any time, any place. That really impressed me.

Next were my folksinging friends I used to hang out with as a teenager while other kids our age were into sports and rock-n-roll. I guess today the school guidance counselors would take special notice of us, but back then no one did. Among these friends were Ken Paley, Paul Friedman, Alan Greenfield, Michael Spiegel, and sometimes Ellen Moslin, mentioned in an earlier message.


--- Steve

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: kendall
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 07:03 AM

OK, but, I will only name the ones who FIRST influenced me. Buryl Ives, The Weavers, Gordon Bok and The Patons.

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 01:47 AM

Yes I like Joni Mitchell, My favourite is were she sings "They take all the trees and put the in them in a tree museum, then the charge you 25 bucks just to see them"

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: GUEST,Aoife
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 01:35 AM

Joni Mitchell, most definately.. who else combines such style and mood with elements of trad folk roots?

Subject: RE: Favourite Folk Singers ?
From: toadfrog
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 12:35 AM

The thread reads like the question was, "who is your favorite "contemporary" folk singer or "folk revival" singer. How about

Huddie Ledbetter (whom I think no one has mentioned);

Mance Lipscome (ditto)

Ewan McColl (no argument there)

NLCR collectively,

And (if we are going to include an Irishman) Sean Mac Donchadha

But I would like to hear, sometime, anybody even remotely in a class with Leadbelly. There just aren't any.

Best disks, Leadbelly with the Golden Gate Quarted (remastered); The Lark in the Morning, and American Folk Songs for Children (Pete, Mike, Peggy and Penny Seeger.