Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with folk

How do I find new music I like?

goingonit — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 18:13:21 -0800

I am in my mid 30s and coming to terms with being An Old, but it would still be nice to find new artists to listen to. Is there a way to do this that will find me stuff I like that's more curated than streaming services? I last paid attention to new music in a regular way about a decade ago and I was a fan of indie, folk, and Americana type stuff from the aughts (think The Shins, Stars, Regina Spektor, Andrew Bird, Punch Brothers, The Decemberists). I am glad that a lot of these artists are still recording and touring but how do I expand my horizons? Music podcasts were a thing; are they still? Are there radio stations I should be streaming? Or do I just stream music and wait to find stuff I like that I haven't heard yet? Happy for any and all recommendations.

Looking for a song about trees

jedicus — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 09:47:47 -0800

Several weeks ago I heard a country / folk-ish song about trees on KDHX. I believe the singer was a man. The gist of the song was that the singer was describing a variety and number of trees growing in a place (on a hill, maybe?). Unfortunately I can't remember any of the specific numbers or trees, and it's proving very difficult to search for. From the style and production quality I would guess the song was recorded relatively recently. I don't remember what day it was or when exactly or else I'd try KDHX's playlist search.

Songs for an invisible choir

argybarg — Mon, 10 May 2021 17:03:15 -0800

For an event, I'm going to build a whisper dish and have a distant choir be strangely audible at a single spot. Help me choose a song for the choir to sing. I'm going to be part of an outdoor jubilee/art event — think of a rural Burning Man, with Li'l Abner overtones. I'm making a whisper disc, which is a setup with two giant parabolic reflectors so someone's very quiet voice from far away can be clearly audible at the focal point of the reflector. See here for an example.

The name of this little attraction is The Choir Invisible. You stand on the spot and, from nowhere, hear people singing (the other disc will be faraway and camouflaged).

Okay, that out of the way, I'm curious about folk/gospel/hokum/etc. songs about The Great Beyond, or being far away, or anything else that an invisible choir would be singing about. I'm wide open to suggestions. Puns are welcome.

Because of the format and theme of the event, it must be roughly old-timey music, so please no pop/contemporary songs no matter how juicily apt they may be. Thanks.

Do you know this folk/bluegrass song?

mr_bovis — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 07:55:41 -0800

All the lyrics I have from a song on the college radio station the other day are these (or something similar): "Wrapped in the banner of your love" and "I was naked until you wrapped me in the banner of your love." What song is this? Maybe helpful details?
- College radio station means it's probably a new-ish song
- The style is folk / bluegrass
- The style is most definitely not the religious fervor that Google says these lyrics apply to
- There is acoustic guitar throughout
- The vocalist has higher-pitched, female-sounding voice
- Those lyrics are in the chorus, and the line "wrapped in the banner of your love" is repeated multiple times in succession at the end

Thanks for your help.

Songs of the snark

Sheydem-tants — Sat, 06 Mar 2021 08:36:55 -0800

Looking for songs with sardonic, pithy lyrics that contain deep truths, folk / traditional Western European preferred. Peter Bellamy's setting of Rudyard Kipling's Big Steamers is one of my absolute favorite tunes to sing right now, and I want moar. Sorry for the Spotify link but I couldn't find a YouTube link ready to go.

What do I love about it? It's a bit theatrical (dialogue between two characters), the consonants are an old-school stage actor's dream, and it's tongue in cheek while at the same time it points to a Deep Truth of imperialism. (I'm not in favor thereof, but to me the lyrics don't support it so much as say "this is the way it is now.")

Languages: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, maybe German. (Eventually I can see myself moving into Weill / Brecht but for now I'd prefer to stick with a language I can read.)

Can a Mandocello be tuned and played as Octave Mandolin?

ygmiaa — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 15:46:01 -0800

I'm looking for an octave mandolin but found a mandocello with a guitar-like body that I like more than the octave mandolin. Could I get a mandocello and tune it to an octave mandolin or are the body and strings not meant for that? Thank you.

anyone here from Jamaica knows what a yange or yenge woman is?

glasseyes — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 04:45:20 -0800

Does anyone know what it means or can point me to the song or to a way to improve my search? This phrase is in what I've been told is one of the oldest known Jamaican folk songs. I've not been able to find mention anywhere online of either phrase or song. I Googled, did a word search through Jekyll's Jamaican Song & Story, checked youtube, listened to folk compilations, checked google translate for Yoruba, Hausa, Akan (and Twi) and Swahili looking for a possible origin word. Google doesn't even know the word in either version. Could have a Maroon connection.

Looks for books featuring women + folk tale/myth retelling

sugarbomb — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 13:58:26 -0800

I've found a formula that really works for me in fiction: strong women characters + a retelling of mythology or folk tales. Some good examples include Circe by Madeline Miller and Spinning Silver and Uprooted by Naomi Novik. What else should I try? Other elements I'm into but are of secondary importance to what I listed above: witchcraft (women coming into their power), a story that weaves together separate narrative threads mid-way through the book, and longitudinal looks at people's lives. I'm not into hetero romance so much, but I'll put up with a little bit of it if I must. I don't want it to be the main event. Whatcha got?

Playlist: This one's for the girls!

TrishaU — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 12:44:22 -0800

What are your recommendations for songs by women, for women, celebrating girlhood? Country music is my favorite, but all things sisterhood will work. Old standards, coming-of-age, DTMF ballads, looking back on a life well-lived. Girls are doing it for themselves.

What was this 2000s folky/Indie song?

ldthomps — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 19:15:05 -0800

I'm trying to remember a song that I used to hear on WERS in Boston in maybe the late 2000s or early 2010s. It seemed singer/songwriter, and was sung by a man. It was more folky "guy with a guitar" than much of the Indie music of the time - it seemed a little anachronistic on the Indie college station, but it got a lot of airplay. It was about how with the kids moving back home the house was getting crowded and he wanted a little alone time with "mama". The chorus was something like, "C'mon mama, sneak out your bedroom window, and we'll act like kids again". I feel like this should be more google-able.

want to buy a bamboo or wood flute not made for giants

amtho — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 22:02:35 -0800

I have owned a lovely bamboo flute in the key of G for years and years. I'm having a super hard time finding another one. The idea flute would be:

- a simple cylinder of wood or bamboo with holes in it
- well-tuned in a common, easy key (G, D, C)
- a type that asks you to blow across it (transverse)
- small enough for my small girly hands to work
- not very expensive (but no firm price is set - if it's not too expensive, I could buy multiple flutes in different keys)

I ordered a flute off Amazon, but it turned out to be suuuuper long - I can't really cover all the holes at once - and tuned to the key of C#. So, it sounds gorgeous but I can't even play an octave, and if I could, I couldn't play with anyone really.

It was also $17! I was hoping for $20-$30, but it's OK if that's totally unrealistic (Here it is. It's much prettier than the photo, too).

I tried the Old Town School of Folk Music here in Chicago, but they only have Native American flutes that you blow end-on.

I loved my little G Bamboo flute because it was, I don't know, 14"-16" long? And easy to transport. It had some tuning oddities, but it was fine for how I used it.

Easy Russian songs for English speakers

danceswithlight — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 12:22:13 -0800

My small, informal folk singing group sometimes does songs in non-English languages. As a native Russian speaker, I'd like to teach them a simple Russian song. The question is, does one exist that is simple enough? The ideal "song" (or ditty, chant, round, lullaby, children's song, part of longer song, etc.) would be 3-8 lines long, with easyish pronunciation. This is not a for a performance, just a once-every-two-weeks gathering of people who like to sing. The only criteria are that it has to be easy (enough) for English speakers, and sound cool when the group does learn it.

Options I've thought of:

Oi Moroz Moroz - just a few simple lines and a nice repetitive structure, BUT right away you have to pronounce both moroz and moroz' and I think that might make it a no-go

Katyusha - great melody, but no chorus, and every other word has the "y" vowel (though if people just say "i" or "ee" the words are still comprehensible, so maybe okay)

It's not the wind that bends the branch - easiest pronunciation of anything I've found, but it's a horribly depressing song, and again a great melody but no chorus

Anybody have experience with this?

Grimdark Folkies

pH Indicating Socks — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 18:56:09 -0800

It's a rainy night in Long Beach, and I'm looking for more music like the albums Nebraska by Bruce Springsteen or To Bring You My Love by PJ Harvey -- or songs like "Masters of War" by Bob Dylan, or "Needle in the Hay" by Elliott Smith. Bum me out please!

Roadside attractions in Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri?

EmilyFlew — Tue, 08 Jan 2019 05:53:07 -0800

My husband and I are planning a road trip in the spring, roughly between Kansas City, Wichita, Tulsa, maybe Oklahoma City, and Fayetteville. We are roadside attraction and folk art enthusiasts. What shouldn't we miss? Past favorite stops have included the House on the Rock (of course), Watts Towers, and The Forevertron. We are slightly less interested in the more commercialized stops such as Rock City and The Thing but happy to consider them. "World's largest" things are also welcome. We're happy to drive hours out of our way for a good attraction.

Definitely already planning to go to the Blue Whale of Catoosa! And, of course, to the major sights like Crystal Bridges. We've done some searching of Atlas Obscura and Roadside America, but haven't come up with as many things as I would have thought would be in the area.

If you know of anything else we should definitely check out in the area, tell me that too!

Looking for a medieval legend about Jesus!

mrmanvir — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 01:33:02 -0800

There is presumably a "medieval European legend of how Christ was chased by his enemies. In that story, Jesus blessed the animals who helped him and cursed those who hindered him as he fled from his persecutors." I think that, from his helping and cursing, those animals came to have some of their defining characteristics. Does anyone know of this legend???

Rage Anger - Trying to Find an Obscure Album from the 90's

BigBrownBear — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 06:08:03 -0800

I am trying to find an album I must have gotten in the mid 90's. I think the band may have been from the Philadelphia area but not certain of this. If I remember correctly the album had a sepiatone cover. The music was largely acoustic guitar and very bizarre. I guess what would have been an early form of "freak folk".

For the first track on the album there is a spoken word comment about how CD's are so much work, in the past you would listen to the first side of a vinyl and then, if you were really hell bent on it, smoke a joint and flip the other side.

I can only really remember the first song which involved the singer screaming "Rage, Anger, Rage, Anger" and there was a verse that went "I don't like spinach. I don't like spinach. Spinach is your friend, but spinach does not taste good." Or at least that is what I roughly remember.

I've looked in all kind of song lyrics and band archives without much luck. Thanks!

Folk-punk recommendations

no regrets, coyote — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 13:44:36 -0800

I really like the new Titus Andronicus album ("A Productive Cough"), which I can best describe as "Folk-punk" or maybe "backyard punk hoedown". What else would I like along these lines? The Pogues are the only band I can think of off the top of my head. Springsteen's Seger Sessions isn't punky, but I definitely like it for the same reason (rocky takes on folk songs, folky takes on rock songs). Obviously late 60s Dylan is the granddady of this genre.

I like bands like Mumford & Sons (clappy-stompy folk revival types) well enough, but I think I'm looking for something with a bit more of an edge.

I'm definitely not looking for punk-goes-acoustic gimmicky stuff.

Thanks!

Folk horror recs?

celestine — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 17:09:14 -0800

The Wicker Man (1973) is one of my favorite horror movies, and I'm interested in further exploring the genre of "folk horror". What movies/books do you recommend?

Keep them hard times really far away from my door?

8603 — Sat, 23 Sep 2017 08:58:52 -0800

Is Stephen Foster out of the question today? I am trying to learn to play guitar, which has made me confront what I kind of knew all along: "Camptown Races" and other Stephen Foster classics are from minstrel shows. Obviously I don't want to play any song from a minstrel show. What about, say, Randy Newman's remake of "Old Kentucky Home"? I've got a feeling it's out, too. Thank you for your thoughts.

Help me re-find this music video: Beardy guy rolls his truck in slow-mo.

D.Billy — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 07:20:20 -0800

The visual was a (maybe kinda chubby) bearded guy driving an old-ish pickup truck, I think at night, with the camera perspective is looking in through the windshield. And as he's singing the truck crashes / rolls over in slow motion. The music style was probably indie folk / roots, along the lines of The Head and the Heart and that ilk.

Can you identify this folk singer from the mid-90s?

pretentious illiterate — Sat, 17 Jun 2017 16:57:13 -0800

Sometime in the early to mid 90s, a folk singer came to my town and performed, and I bought his album. I remember only a handful of facts about him, and a few lines from the songs. Can you identify this musician? This was in Massachusetts, in the mid-90s. He came to my Unitarian Universalist church, but his music was not overtly religious. He was young-ish and had a black beard. I want to say that his name was Ben. I bought his tape. It was red.

Here are the songs of his I remember:

There was a pro-gay-rights song about the removal of homosexuality as a diagnosis from the DSM, and it talked about a protest (which the internet tells me actually happened in Sweden, but I don't remember that in the song) in which people demonstrated the absurdity of pathologizing homosexuality as an illness by calling in "gay" instead of sick to work. The line I remember was, "They all called in gay!" He kind of shouted it.

There was also a song about two young lovers. The man is referred to as a "gypsy" (sorry) because he wanders in and out of the town, but the girl leaves a light in the window for him.

I think there was also a song I think was called "These hands," about his dad, very slow and melancholy. It went like this:

These hands that crack with winter cold
these hands that tell me I grow old
these hands that wear the weathered lines of age
...
I see him after thirty years
a man my age with doubts and fears
a man...

That's all I can remember. He might have been SUPER local but every once in a while the hands song gets stuck in my head so it'd be fun if someone could identify it. Thanks everybody!

Pete Smith, English folk singer

Emma May Smith — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 15:36:58 -0800

Does anybody have further information about the Lancashire folk singer Pete Smith? Pete Smith sings two songs on the folk record Deep Lancashire, which was issued in 1968:
Beg Your Leave (6:00)
Ten Per Cent (32:30)

I regard his singing as one of the most beautiful English voices I've heard sing (up there with Ewan MacColl and Alex Glasgow) and would love to hear more. Can anybody give any information about him or point to any more songs of his which are available?

Literally anything is welcome.

Protest Music Recommendations

books for weapons — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 18:34:26 -0800

I'm not sure how I ended up with a copy of Ear to the Ground, but I find myself listening to it quite frequently these days. Can you recommend similar political protest-y albums or histories? Every week union organizers assemble at the office tower across the street from my apartment and make some jubilant noise for a few hours. I usually end up humming It Isn't Nice by Malvina Reynolds for the rest of the day, which inevitably leads to listening to the whole of Ear to the Ground. I want to know more of this civil-rights era political folk music! Help me vary up my playlist.

At the same time—as the result of a MetaFilter post—I've been listening to the Jerry Springer Podcast. They sometimes get into the history of this sort of folk/roots music, which is fantastically engrossing for me, so if you've got recommendations of books, other podcasts, articles, &c that talk specifically about this kind of music and what it meant (and maybe what it even still means and who is continuing to make it!) throw those in too!

My music tastes are stuck in 2004. Find me new music to love!

PhoBWanKenobi — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 16:47:09 -0800

I used to really love being up on new music, but I got old, got boring, had a kid, and got out of touch. I'm getting kind of sick of my music collection and would love to find some new tunes. My music tastes are largely a former indie kid cliche. Neutral Milk Hotel, the Mountain Goats, Bright Eyes, Ben Folds, the White Stripes, the Weakerthans, Arcade Fire, The Shins, Hefner, the Postal Service, Belle and Sebastian. When I was twelve I was obsessed with the Beatles (I'm a John fan, if that matters) and I'm still a sucker for British music--I really like Badly Drawn Boy and Queen and Frank Turner and David Bowie. On the other hand, my favorite band ever is Tullycraft. I prefer music with a punk or glam or folk edge that isn't overproduced, and I like upbeat-sounding music. Pretty much every song I've ever given a thumbs up to on pandora is in a major key tonality. I really love concept albums (Band of Horses, Janelle Monae), have a soft spot for Andrew WK and love smart, tricky, intricate lyrics. I like the kind of stuff that's played on Little Steven's Underground Garage, usually. The last band I got obsessed with was the Thermals, but that was at least four years ago and I have no idea what's happening with music now. I tried listening to google play's summer 2016 indie playlist and was bored senseless.

Tell me what to add to my summer mixed tape, metafilter! Help me fall in love with some new music.

Can you tell me the name of this traditional Irish air?

lore — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 07:41:46 -0800

Here's the first part, pretty much the only part I can remember precisely: http://audio.loresjoberg.com/unknown-air.mp3 A long time ago I learned the above song on tinwhistle. Now that I'm learning fiddle, I'd like to play it again, but I don't remember the entire tune or the title.

I don't have much info other than it's a traditional Irish tune (where "traditional" may mean "in the traditional style" or a song that's legitimately very old). Being an air, other recordings may use a very different rhythm than I did.