Reddit mentions: The best contemporary folk music

1. I am a husband and father of one handsome little man. I am an engineer. I play ultimate frisbee. I used to play video games, but I gave that up to pursue a side business of selling things on Amazon.
   
   
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|name|Connor Garvey|
|about artist|Connor Garvey's songs are like placing folk-funk guitar & ukulele, soulful vocals, and paradoxical metaphors in a juicer- you've never tasted it before, but it's intriguing and delectable so you have to keep drinking. His clever rhythmic guitar and ukulele foundations provide a medium for his most prominent instrument, his voice. His songs draw the attention of the whole room with humor, daring honesty, and grace. ([more on last.fm](http://www.last.fm/music/Connor Garvey))|
|album|Where Ocean Meets Land|
|track|Monster|
|images|album image, artist image|
|links|myspace, track on amazon, CD on amazon|
|tags|folk, acoustic, live|
|similar|Loyola, Jason Spooner, Peter Stuart, Max Milligan, Lindsay Jane|
|metrics|lastfm listeners: 1,188, lastfm plays: 6,786, youtube plays: 4,070, radd.it score: 5.25|


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Ok, I love Crass, but it's also very obvious that they're pretty inaccessible to anyone not used to screeching feedback and shittily-recorded, sometimes completely-incomprehensible british accents. But goddamn, their lyrics are so damn amazing. It is the most impassioned, inflammatory, insightful and relevant poetry I'm familiar with. So to everyone who loves awesome atheistic, anti-opression lyrics but isn't attracted to caustic, abrasive punk noise I'm recommending picking up this. This guy restructured Crass songs into floaty, easily-understandable folk-ish songs. It's pretty awesome, and I'm already recommending it to people who I suspect wouldn't like Crass, but can damn well appreciate the brilliance of their lyrics.

There are tons. First, there's only 1 actual album, Grace. Other official releases include:

• Live at Sin-e both in a short EP form and the multi-disc full set that's linked.
  
• Sketches (For My Sweetheart the Drunk) which is mostly stuff from early sessions of what would have been his second album.
  
• Songs to No One 1991-1992 which is material from before the release of Grace. Some earlier versions of stuff that ended up on Grace, then some other songs that are not available elsewhere.
  
  Then there's a number of live CDs and DVDs that pretty much all have a cover song or two that isn't available elsewhere. Beyond that there's probably another.. oh 40 or so different covers or very different versions of his songs floating around the net. My Jeff extras folder has nearly a hundred tracks in it. Highlights for me include the four songs by Tim Buckley, his father, that he performed at a [tribute event](http://fuelfriends.blogspot.com/2006/07/jeff-buckley-channels-his-father-st.html(, his reading of the Poe poem Ulalume from the cd Closed on Account of Rabies, and Satisfied Mind (though they pretty much all are wonderful).

I hate suggesting a "Best of..." album, but really this one is so good:

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Leonard-Cohen/dp/B00000256G

Linking to Amazon because YouTube only has it in a playlist.

That album is fantastic and serves as a great introduction to his early acoustic material.

If you like that stuff I'd probably suggesting moving onto Songs of Love and Hate.

I'm coming to the realisation that my 'best of' list is getting very long.

Albums, eh? Just albums? OK then.

• Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg's performance of Vivaldi's seasons
  
• Jennifer Warnes - The Hunter
  
• Yes - Close to the Edge. Or maybe Fragile. Or The Yes Album.
  
• Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
  
• Rory McLeod - Angry Love
  
• Tom Waits - either Closing Time or Alice
  
  Jeez, haven't I hit Pink Floyd or Taj Mahal or Black Sabbath or Fiamma Fumana or Karen Pernick or Laurie Anderson, or Leonard Cohen or The Mavens or...
  
  OK, just one more that I can't leave without mentioning by name:
  
• Ferron - Shadows on a Dime

do they have to be prog?

Conan the Barbarian soundtrack by Basil Poledouris - possibly the best soundtrack I've ever heard.

The Bones of All Men by Phillip Pickett and Richard Thompson - like a medieval rock band

and just for fun, The Art of the Bawdy Song by the Baltimore Consort

Closest thing you'll find to Dylan is Woody Guthrie. And even that's not entirely accurate. I'd recommend this album. Bob is in a class by himself.

However, if you're feeling that "great songwriter who can't sing a lick" vibe, I'd second the recommendations of Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, and Townes Van Zant. (I think all those albums are on Spotify, BTW.)

There's an album by The Brobdingnagian Bards called Memories of Middle Earth. The instrumental tracks are perfect for a whimsical but epic Tolkien tone. Skip the vocal tracks. http://www.amazon.com/Memories-Middle-Earth-Brobdingnagian-Bards/dp/B00009M775/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331588661&sr=8-1

Boru's Ghost, Hound of Cullan. Original composition Celtic fusion, haunting yet upbeat. http://www.amazon.com/Hound-of-Cullan/dp/B0041RZ4EK/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1331588688&sr=1-1

I also strongly recommend Omnia's Crone of War for a slightly darker adventuring and battle sound. I like to call them Angry Pagan Music as when they sing it is about the scary gods and things that go bump in the night. But the instrumentals are daring, enchanting, and atmospheric. Also their piper is fantastic. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=Omnia+crone+of+war

Hope this helps.

Some that I can listen to from beginning to end:

• Willie Nelson - Redheaded Stranger
  
  
• Blonde Redhead - Blonde Redhead
  
  
• Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
  
  
• XTC - Skylarking
  
  
• Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane over the Sea
  
  
• Daft Punk - Alive 2007
  
  
• DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
  
  
• Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen
  
  
• Chameleons - Script of a Bridge
  
  
• Slowdive - Souvlaki
  
  
• New Order - Substance
  
  
• PJ Harvey - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
  
  
• Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup

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You should try Memories of Middle Earth

I think it's a nice complement to the official score.

Leonard Cohen thanyouverymuch. Once roomed with two football players who couldn't go to sleep unless Cohen songs were playing. You can get started here

For similarish sounding music but with less covers, try The Bones of All Men

That shirt is hard to miss on the cover :P. I looked it up on amazon. Lol