Good folk music from unusual musicians.

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: GUEST,Jim I
Date: 21 Sep 04 - 03:34 PM

On an old LP of sea shantys Harry H Corbett (young Steptoe) does a rousing version of "Blow the Man Down", not a great voice but sounds very authentic.

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: matai
Date: 20 Sep 04 - 08:40 PM

No One has mentioned Counting Crows 'Big yellow Taxi' but it might be best left unmentioned, although it is my son's favourite from 2003.
Joan Baez turned Dire Straits 'Brother's in Arms' into a folk-song and if you finger-pick her version it sounds even more folky.

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Teresa
Date: 20 Sep 04 - 07:43 PM

Wowee, that version of "Black-leg miner" from bassic's link is incredible, IMO. Wish I could have that very version. The other stuff is very nice, too, but that one jumped out at me.

T

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Chris Green
Date: 20 Sep 04 - 07:15 PM

Eva Cassidy's version of "Dark Eyed Molly". God that girl could sing!

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 20 Sep 04 - 07:02 PM

JO STAFFORD had one of the best voices for pop material of the first two-thirds of the last century, but she did a lovely job on two folk albums with her husband and arranger, Paul Weston (and his orchestra). Her version of "My Home's In The Highlands", "Shenandoah", "Black Is The Color" and many others on her J.S. SINGS AMERICAN FOLKSONGS and her SONGS OF SCOTLAND are among my favorite performances ever----right up there with Pete Seeger and Frank Hamilton doing "Meadowlands" ;-)

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Bassic
Date: 20 Sep 04 - 09:57 AM

Here is a link to the Richard Thompson version of "Ooops" on NPR

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: muppitz
Date: 20 Sep 04 - 09:34 AM

Jasper Carrot's parody of "All around my hat", i.e. "All around my flat, I will wear my green wellies!
On a more sensible note, Lucy Kaplansky does a traditional song called Mary and the Soldier, and does a pretty good job of it too!

On the flip side of the coin, Ronan bloody Keating has covered "I Hope you Dance", and I personally despise it.

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 20 Sep 04 - 09:20 AM

Black Sabbath do a great version of 'Bright blue rose'

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 20 Sep 04 - 09:18 AM

Elvis Costello doing 'The Night Before Larry Was Stretched.'

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: GUEST,Cookieless M'GrathofAltcar
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 07:30 AM

Beethoven - Variations on Paddy Whack (Irish Jig)
Beethoven - Variations on Last Rose of Summer.

Grover Washington did a piece called Black is the Color BUT I've heard it and it is not the tune you might suppose it is. It sounds like a 70's porn film soundtrack. (Wah-Wah guitars, kind of Aldi-funk.)

Is "Dark Eyes" Traditional?
If so we can add Django to the list !

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: pdq
Date: 12 Sep 04 - 03:57 PM

Neil Young's "Captain Kennedy" from his album "Hawks and Doves" is one of my favorites.

I have been told that the melody was taken from an old English folk song but I have only someone else's word on that.

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Eric the Streetsinger
Date: 12 Sep 04 - 03:42 PM

Thompson was asked by Rolling Stone to present his list of the best songs of the millenium- which he very graciously did, including many medieval songs (in Latin!) in addition to a very few songs from this century. Rolling Stone didn't publish his list, so Richard put the songs together into a revue, which he performs every now and then (always solo acoustic!) his version of "Oops, I Did It Again" is included in the recording he made of those songs. Its pretty incredible, and shows you what even a piece of trashy pop music can be in the hands of a master musician. His guitar accompaniment is one of the most bizarre and rewarding short musical pieces I've heard in a long time! NPR had a streaming audio version of "Oops.." on their website, and its probably still available. Also included in the NPR set, by the way, is a wonderful version of "The Blackleg Miner", which has been one of my favorite labor songs for many, many years.
I was also thinking about Luka Bloom, who isn't "straight" folk, but who plays acoustic folk/pop- he's done covers of songs like "I Need Love" by LL Cool J, and "When Doves Cry" by Prince. He's also been known to cover U2, The Waterboys, and (!) Radiohead.
Back to the surprising folk music from unexpected sources- the Waterboys album "Room To Roam" has some wonderful stuff on it. Most of the lyrics are by Mike Scott, but the music is beautifully steeped in the folk music of Scotland and Ireland.

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: PoppaGator
Date: 12 Sep 04 - 02:15 PM

Genie (in response to your post of 5:05 pm last night): The pop hit record "Stagger Lee" was recorded by New Orleanian Lloyd Price, also known for another, even bigger, hit, "Personality."

The chord progression & melody for Price's "Stagger Lee" are completely different from most folksong versions (including, for example, John Hurt's). However, this particular "Stagger Lee" does come out of its own tradition of New Orleans boogie-woogie piano.

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Teresa
Date: 12 Sep 04 - 02:03 PM

Oh oh oh!!! How could I forget the late Richard Feynman, physicist and bongo player extraordinaire!!?? You can hear samples of it on Ondar's "Tuva Groove" from Back Tuva Future.   He also chants nonsense words and they include something like: "Orange Juice" ;)

I know there are longer recordings of it, too.

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Teresa
Date: 12 Sep 04 - 01:34 PM

Steve martin, the comedian, plays a mean banjo, but I've only heard it in bits and pieces.

Bonnie Raitt's recording of "Dimming of the day" sends chilles up and down my spine.

I'm trying to find the movie, but it was released in the 80s ... about a boy in China (maybe The Last emperor? The main theme is a Welsh hymn sung by a boys' choir ... maybe that sounded Chinese to some? But it is very beautiful.

T

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Whizz
Date: 12 Sep 04 - 12:50 PM

I have to say I quite like Boyzone's version of She Moved Through The Fair

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Sep 04 - 12:41 PM

was the missing monkee Michael Nesmith?

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: s6k
Date: 12 Sep 04 - 05:48 AM

did thompson seriously cover oops i did it again????????? omg !!!!

america by yes... they played that when i went to see them a couple of weeks ago!!

bob marley - redemption son = amazing

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Eric the Streetsinger
Date: 11 Sep 04 - 05:27 PM

On Peter Gabriel's album "Passion" there is a haunting version of
"Zaar", and old North African melody used for driving away the devil, and alot of Peter's later albums include rhythms and sounds sampled from recordings of African folk musicians.
Bob Marley was always great for music with a strong folk root!
How about that bizarre arrangement of Paul Simon's "America" by Yes?
(I know Simon's not a true folkie- but hey!) Or Aaron Copland's use of
the melody from "Simple Gifts" in his own composition "Appalachian Spring" Tom Wait's alway has a strong folk thread running through his music (i.e. "Waltzing Mathilda" "Time")
The opposite end of this thread might be "pop songs that make surprizingly good folk tunes. Take, for example, Richard Thompson's
acoustic solo version of Britney Spears' song "Oops- I Did it Again!",
or Robin Williams doing Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time"

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Genie
Date: 11 Sep 04 - 05:05 PM

Well, there was a version of "Stagger Lee" that was popular when I was in high school. I can't remember the guy's name who sang it.

And Tennessee Ernie Ford had a huge hit with Merle Travis's "Sixteen Tons" in the late '50s, before there was a clear distinction between "country," "folk," and "pop" music radio stations (at least where I lived in Illinois).

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Amergin
Date: 11 Sep 04 - 02:50 PM

Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead did several folk songs...along with blues songs...Pretty Peggy-O..Stagger Lee, Samson and Delilah, and many many others...

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Genie
Date: 11 Sep 04 - 02:41 PM

I don't know if it would be called a "folk song," but Sting's "Fields Of Gold" sound very much like one to me. If Sting were known as a "folk musician," I'm sure lots of folkies would embrace that song as an excellent "folk song." In fact, as it is, I hear lots of folkies doing it.
(Eva Cassidy's version of the song, BTW, is excellent.)

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: cobber
Date: 11 Sep 04 - 07:19 AM

Louis Armstrong's version of We Shall Overcome is one of my favourites and I actually quite like Bruce Springsteen's version of This Land Is Your Land. I agree with the earlier sentiment that music is music and it's mainly non-musicians who try to pigeon hole everything. I liked Johnny Cash's versin of the Long Black Veil better than Mick's though.

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: s6k
Date: 11 Sep 04 - 05:35 AM

led zeppelin do a lot, eg. nobodys fault but mine, travelling riverside blues - ok these are blues but they also do some folk song covers too.

Mark Knopfler is excellent, either with or recently without Dire Straits. His solo albums have all been folk/roots type of stuff, Sailing to Philadelphia is one of my favourite albums, with James Taylor and Van Morrsion guesting on Sailing to Philadelphia and The Last Laugh respectively.
Knopfler is very much into his folk music, and is left handed, yet plays   guitar right handed. There is much fingerpicking folk style guitar on his solo work, which can be seen on the DVD or video, A Night In London.

A very unexpected folk song i came across was from Chumbawamba (i get knocked down, but i get up again, youre never gonna keep me down) on their EXCELLENT album "anarchy" <-- very very underrated.
The song is called Homophobia, and the tune sounds as if it was taken from an old martin carthy song. Very unexpected from a band like chumbawamba

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: ThreeSheds
Date: 11 Sep 04 - 01:44 AM

I bet it was the one with the hat

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: RangerSteve
Date: 10 Sep 04 - 11:49 PM

I recently heard on the radio a recording by one of the Monkees, I forget which one, playing clawhammer banjo singing a traditional Appalachian tune: I Truly Understand That You Love Another Man. He wasn't bad. Anyone know which Monkee it was and if there's an album of him doing this kind of thing?

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Kent Davis
Date: 10 Sep 04 - 08:06 PM

I don't know if many of you associate Natalie Merchant, formerly of "10,000 Maniacs", with folk music. I didn't, but I do now. Her CD, "The House Carpenter's Daughter", released last year, includes: "Diver Boy", "Soldier, Soldier", "Bury Me Under the Weeeping Willow", "House Carpenter" (Child #243), "Owensboro", "Down on Penny's Farm", and Poor Wayfaring Stranger", all beautifully arranged.

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 10 Sep 04 - 05:39 PM

Kate Bush did a very nice version of The Handsome Cabin Boy on the flip side of the Hounds of Love single.

LFF

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: ThreeSheds
Date: 10 Sep 04 - 05:20 PM

Martin
Well there must be a reason for that what could it be

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Once Famous
Date: 10 Sep 04 - 10:34 AM

Uh, again not enough American folk music examples.

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 10 Sep 04 - 10:11 AM

Alan Price did a super version of ' Trimdon Grange Explosion '

eric

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Splott Man
Date: 10 Sep 04 - 07:48 AM

Van the Man has done a few, and Rod Stewart has a penchant for folk in the broader sense (isn't that Rod Clements playing mandolin on his earlier records?).

John Barleycorn by Traffic.

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 10 Sep 04 - 06:18 AM

Julie Murphy ( Fernhill vocalist) duetting with Robert Plant on Afro Celt's album Further in Time, the song 'Life Begin Again' also includes an extract from 'Marwnad Yr Ehedydd'...The Lark's Elegy.

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: M'Grath of Altcar
Date: 10 Sep 04 - 05:54 AM

She Moved Through The Fair has been used by Led Zeppelin ( Blackmountainside/White summer; Simple Minds Belfast Child)

An unaccompanied version of the song has been done by Sinead O'Connor.

And probably many others besides.

Mof A

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 10 Sep 04 - 05:54 AM

"Memories are made of this" ...
I still remember this song in it's German version "Brennend heißer Wüstensand" (Burning hot desert sand) sung by Freddy Quinn. It was the absolute hit over here in 1957.
When I worked with the regulation service during the National Lutheran Convention in Frankfurt, a hot dog vendor near my working place played it all the day, sometimes changing to the other side (16 tons? I'm not so sure today.)
A good musician can play any kind of music, except maybe 12-tone-music. So why not folk?

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 10 Sep 04 - 04:42 AM

Mick Jagger sang "The long black veil" on a chieftains album, not bad.

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: mooman
Date: 10 Sep 04 - 04:33 AM

I rather like Mark Knopfler's "Sailing to Philadelphia", especially as sung by Tom McConville with the Great Northern Roadshow. Not that Tom is unusual (except unusually good) but the tradional feel of that excellent song says something good about Mark Knopfler.

Peace

moo

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: ThreeSheds
Date: 10 Sep 04 - 04:26 AM

Was that the same night that he did 8 miles high I cant remember. Are you planning to do a flamenco version of 76 trombones?

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 10 Sep 04 - 03:26 AM

Hey Andy, how could you forget that night when Ged played "Purple Haze" on his Northumbrian pipes in your shed?

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: ThreeSheds
Date: 10 Sep 04 - 03:19 AM

I know its turning the thread on its head more like unusual music from folk musicians but I was truly amazed to hear Norma Waterson do a version of John Martyns Solid Air

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 10 Sep 04 - 02:12 AM

There's the Sinead O'Connor CD from a year or two ago. A terrific choice of material, though some of the musical settings don't do much for me. Surely there has been a thread about that CD?

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: lucky_p
Date: 09 Sep 04 - 10:36 PM

"The Water is Wide" by Eva Cassidy. Flawless.

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Kent Davis
Date: 09 Sep 04 - 09:32 PM

Nirvana's "Unplugged in New York" has an intense acoustic version of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?"( also known as "In the Pines").

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Grab
Date: 09 Sep 04 - 07:22 PM

Mark Knopfler wrote a tune called "Marbletown" (on "Ragpicker's Dream"), which is just voice and single acoustic guitar, and is a classic bit of original blues. OK, he's into roots stuff, but that song is still unexpected.

In a similar vein, "Never going back again" by Lindsay Buckingham for an original folk-inspired tune.

Graham.

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Once Famous
Date: 09 Sep 04 - 03:33 PM

The Tokens were hardly known as folk musicians when they had the big hit with The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh).

Was Trini Lopez a folksinger when he did his strumming electric guitar versions of If I had a Hammer and Lemon Tree?

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Once Famous
Date: 09 Sep 04 - 03:28 PM

For quite a while I have performed a "pseudo-folksong," that was certainly not traditional by any means, but what originally done in a very folk style in 1957 by.....................Dean Martin.

"Memories Ae Made of This" does sound very folky and was recorded with just two guitars and upright bass. If I am not mistaken, Terry Gilkyson of the folk group The Tarriers was one of the guitarists. He was in fact one of the song's writers.

So I guess this does fit the subject of this thread to a T.

Dean Martin could handle a folk song quite well and the same with many country songs.

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 09 Sep 04 - 02:40 PM

I have the Charlie Haden CD too, Alonzo..

Jerry

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Alonzo M. Zilch (inactive)
Date: 09 Sep 04 - 02:02 PM

This morning on Folk Roots/Folk Branches, Mike Regenstreif contrasted versions of "Black Is The Color Of My True Loves Hair" by Joan Baez and by Jane Bunnett, a jazz saxophonist.

I have a CD by Charlie Haden & Hank Jones called "Steal Away," which is gorgeous jazz versions of traditional folk songs and spirituals.

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 09 Sep 04 - 01:52 PM

How about Bobby Darin doing If I Were A Carpenter?

Jerry

Subject: RE: Good folk music from unusual musicians.
From: PoppaGator
Date: 09 Sep 04 - 01:38 PM

Many many many blues-influenced rock groups (not just Led Zep) have recorded blues numbers with traditional roots -- e.g., the Allman Brothers' "Statesboro Blues," as just one example.

Then there's the Grateful Dead, most of whom were originally folk players who started out as a jug band. Much of their repertoire consisted of public-domain folksongs and composed "singer-songwriter" numbers from the Folk Revival years, such as Bonnie Dobson's "Morning Dew," Libba Cotton's "Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie," lots and lots of Dylan, etc.

I can't recall the Grover Washington number either, but mention of it reminds me that James Rivers, the great New Orleans modern-jazz saxophonist, likes to play a tune or two on the bagpipes at most of his gigs.