Americana/Folksy Thread

Have you listened much to First Aid Kit, @westermac? Being Swedish they probably don't count as Americana, but I would say they are folksy. There is something special about sibling harmony, and FAK make really nice use of this. I think their albums are worth a listen for any Simon & Garfunkel fan. Another somewhat similar group is The Staves. I haven't gone super deep into their catalog but really enjoyed The Way Is Read, which they recorded with a chamber group called yMusic.

 

I quite like Nick Drake, Iron & Wine and Ray L.

I'd recommend:
-Amber Rubarth
-Civil Wars (they only made 2 albums before splitting)
-Whitehorse, self titled album is more folk while Leave No Bridge is closer to rock/Folk but still good
- Mumford and Sons.. probably leans more towards rock but folk influenced (the cover of the Boxer is awesome)
- Kaki King, instrumental guitar heavy

 

Iron and Wine
Caamp
Phosphorescent
Joshua Hedley (country)
Redding Hunter
Beirut

 

Pat Wictor
The Weepies
Shel
Brandie Carlile
Crystal Bowersox
Emily Elbert
Kemp Harris
Leon Bridges
Rhiannon Giddens
The Empty Pockets
The Oh Hellos
The Violet Blues

 

Some recommendations off my current playlist:

Indigo Girls - Poseidon and the Bitter Bug (an all time favorite album of mine)
Jane Taylor - The Live Album (another favorite)
Mary Coughlan - excellent new 2018 live album.
Blue Rose Code
Green Peppers
The Jayhawks
Joyce Moreno - 50 (jazzy Brazilian folk)

 

Hello, fellow Americana lovers. Check out J.S. Ondara’s new album Tales of America. This one is an early contender for my top 10 of 2019.

 

I can't stop playing this new release, Songs of Our Native Daughters

 

Shovels and Rope has a new album out. Personally I prefer their more folksy sound from their earlier albums with O' Be Joyful as my fave but this is not bad:

 

Josh Ritter is an amazing singer/songwriter. He has a new album dropping next week. You can preview it at NPR:
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/18/7135...dF1HhmXRhxhC2-FD1xENZQX3kO54sV0TO6Sm09fztaKGI

 

Album: Close Ties by Rodney Crowell. Nice to see John Paul White again after The Civil Wars broke up. Here's hoping for many more years of music from some of my favorite artists like Rodney Crowell, Roseanne Cash and Emmylou Harris.

 

It’s nice to run across this thread. Thanks for the great posts everyone. Here are a couple of tracks for fans of Gillian Welch. Kristin Hersh’s song, which attracted a lot of attention for having Michael Stipe singing along with her, is great. I’d almost prefer it, though, if she were singing alone:



Here’s a gem I heard on the radio while driving many years ago. The moment it finished I had to pull over and write down its name:

 

Some more recent stuff: Vera Sola has a great voice and some excellent songs on her impressive first album. I read that she plays all the instruments herself:



Lastly, one of my favorite artists from the past few years, whose album Strangers has to be one of the best but least well known of this past decade (is there an album of the decade thread on sbaf yet?!):

 

Might have already been shared but I found this today via Qobuz's best of Americana/Folk 2019 playlist, an I quite liked it



It's a little Post Rock-ish too

 

I saw Vassar Clements play many times. He is sorely missed and the definition of a country gentleman.

 

Hell yes, on the Caamp album. Love it and thanks for the post. They remind me of Mumford and Sons...but better. A little slower than MAS.

 

Big Thief released 2 amazing albums in 2019, building on an already incredible body work.

 

Love Big Thief. Other favorites in this genre (I did scan the thread, apologies if any are repeats)

 

I was listening to Devendra Banhart - Celebration today, and getting chills and tears. Shit I love music.