Folky-rocky harmonizing music groups with male and female leads?

December 31, 2012 9:29 AM

Folky-rocky harmonizing music groups with male and female leads?

I love and want more folky-rocky harmonizing music groups with male and female leads taking turns, with amazing lyrics. Like (in no particular order) Eddie From Ohio, Hem, Nickel Creek, The Head and the Heart, Girlyman, The Civil Wars, The Weepies, the one Cry Cry Cry album, and the songs that Postal Service did with both Ben Gibbard and Jenny Lewis on vocals. (I also love male or female only harmonizing groups but am not looking for those recommendations right now).

So what else is out there that I should hear?

posted by wannabecounselor to Media & Arts (41 answers total)

Ida!
posted by lisa g at 9:32 AM on December 31, 2012 [3 favorites]

You may like Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (for example, Home), and the Decemberists (for example, Yankee Bayonet).
posted by ChuraChura at 9:35 AM on December 31, 2012 [2 favorites]

Buddy and Julie Miller.
posted by timsteil at 9:37 AM on December 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

Uncle Bonsai.
posted by treblemaker at 9:38 AM on December 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

Slow Club has some great harmonizing vocals.
posted by rhapsodie at 9:38 AM on December 31, 2012

You'll love Eastmountainsouth
posted by davebush at 9:39 AM on December 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

-The Swell Season
-Angus & Julia Stone
posted by livinglearning at 9:44 AM on December 31, 2012

A few years old but Allison Krauss and Robert Plant's collaboration on their album Raising Sand was so, so awesome. Here's one of my favorite tracks.
posted by lovableiago at 9:58 AM on December 31, 2012 [2 favorites]

von grey. local Atlanta group of four sisters, really talented. All female but you may still be interesred... About to hit it big.
posted by pearlybob at 10:03 AM on December 31, 2012

Would you be willing to consider older groups? The Weavers, from the 1940s-50s, have always been a favorite of mine.
posted by easily confused at 10:07 AM on December 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is a really nice version of What'll I Do arranged and sung by brother & sister Rufus & Martha Wainwright, with their parents, Loudon Wainwright & Kate McGarrigle. Extra great because you can hear how the kids' voices resemble their parents'. You can ignore the video- that's someone's vacation footage.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 10:08 AM on December 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

Perhaps you would like some country groups like Lady Antebellum (more of a polished pop sound) or Little Big Town (4 part harmonies, a little more down-home country rock) or duos like Steel Magnolia or Thompson Square.
posted by tracer at 10:09 AM on December 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

I forgot a great old-time/Appalachian style duo: Robin and Linda Williams. Very moving. Try "Across the Blue Mountains". A more quirky/eclectic folk duo is Small Potatoes but they have some nice lyrics and harmonies..
posted by tracer at 10:13 AM on December 31, 2012

Of Monsters And Men
posted by knile at 10:17 AM on December 31, 2012 [5 favorites]

Mike + Ruthy?
posted by you must supply a verb at 10:28 AM on December 31, 2012

Brown Bird for sure. Salt for Salt is one of my favorite albums right now.
posted by quiet coyote at 10:33 AM on December 31, 2012

Low. Stuff from their career prior to the song in the link is more minimalist; the album this song comes from is pretty noisy.
posted by LionIndex at 10:42 AM on December 31, 2012

Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks
posted by sacrifix at 10:47 AM on December 31, 2012

I was going to suggest Buddy and Julie Miller, and also the album Kasey Chamber did with her husband, Shane Nicholson. Sample: Rattlin' Bones. Words cannot describe the sheer awesomeness of this song.

Pro Tip: her solo stuff is crazy good, too. Barricades and Brickwalls.
posted by MexicanYenta at 10:55 AM on December 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

Spanky & Our Gang 1 2
The Free Design 1 2 3

Okay, maybe their lyrics aren't so amazing.

How about Yo La Tengo's quieter songs?

Fakebook, especially "Tried So Hard," "Can't Forget," and "The Summer"
"The Lie and How We Told It"
"Center of Gravity"
"You Can Have It All"
"Tears Are in Your Eyes"
posted by hydrophonic at 10:56 AM on December 31, 2012

New Pornographers
I'm From Barcelona
posted by humboldt32 at 11:00 AM on December 31, 2012

Scanning through my "heard recently on Radio Paradise" list, these seem like possibilities:

The Stray Birds — Twenty-Five to Life, Dream in Blue
Crooked Still — Undone in Sorrow
Hank Dogs — 18 Dogs
Nickel Creek — Reasons Why
The Audreys — Oh Honey
The Civil Wars — 20 Years
posted by Lexica at 11:15 AM on December 31, 2012

Here's another Buddy and Julie Miller song, which to me sounds quite a bit like the Civil Wars, stylistically. Dirty Water.
posted by MexicanYenta at 11:18 AM on December 31, 2012

Mount Eerie feat. Julie Doiron (ex: You Swan, Go On)
Iron & Wine (ex: Jezebel)
The Lumineers (ex: Ho Hey)
Damien Rice and Melanie Laurent (ex: Everything You're Not Supposed to Be)
The Civil Wars (ex: 20 Years)

A little less folky:

Lost in the Trees (ex: Red)

Not folky, but rocky:

Stars (ex: Take Me to the Riot)
posted by SugarAndSass at 11:35 AM on December 31, 2012

Check out White Horse. They're a husband/wife duo from Canada. On the iPad or I'd dig up a link, but a quick Google search will bring them up.
posted by pecanpies at 12:16 PM on December 31, 2012

Pharis and Jason Romero are folky duo that live in rural Canada and make their own instruments when they aren't playing music. Its Me Again Lord

posted by Captain Chesapeake at 12:31 PM on December 31, 2012

Mates of State, e.g. Get Better.
posted by aparrish at 12:34 PM on December 31, 2012

The Bobs.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 1:04 PM on December 31, 2012

When I saw the FPP, I immediately thought EFO, but of course they're your first example. That said, you might also like Sarah Lee & Johnny, e.g., Seven Sisters.
posted by maxim0512 at 1:24 PM on December 31, 2012

First Aid Kit. They're from Sweden.

Also, The Jayhawks.
posted by pipeski at 1:29 PM on December 31, 2012 [2 favorites]

They're much less on the "rock" end of things and much more on the folk / string band end, but from the examples listed, I think you'd dig Elephant Revival.
posted by brennen at 2:44 PM on December 31, 2012

The Dutchess and the Duke
Birdlips
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:03 PM on December 31, 2012

Owl in the Sun
posted by jonathanbell at 3:23 PM on December 31, 2012

Landon Pigg harmonizes with Mae Whitman on the song Gardenia. Just vocals, a ukulele, and sweet lyrics.
posted by kbar1 at 10:26 PM on December 31, 2012

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan
posted by dizziest at 11:04 AM on January 1, 2013 [1 favorite]

You might like my friends band http://www.mtwolf.co.uk/.
posted by Neonshock at 11:56 AM on January 1, 2013

The Decemberists' Hazards of Love has both male and female lead vocals, and all their albums have vocal harmonies.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 4:27 PM on January 1, 2013

Skinny Lister is a little known but amazing group. Fits right in. Wonderful stuff.
posted by dep at 5:16 AM on January 2, 2013

Try Salamander Crossing, and the female member's later endeavor Rani Arbo and daisy mayhem.
posted by kostia at 12:19 PM on January 2, 2013

I'd like to 2nd SugarAndSass's^ recommendation of Stars and add their video for Your Ex-Lover Is Dead. The singing back and forth thing is very much their schtick (and it plays out very nicely live).

Also, this might be a bit of niche-y Canadiana, and they only have one album (an EP), but the Coeur de Pirate and Jay Malinowski (lead singer of Bedouin Soundclash) collaboration Armistice is quite good in that respect as well, especially their song Mission Bells.
posted by urbanlenny at 1:47 PM on January 2, 2013

From the past, there's Ian and Sylvia.
posted by Wordwoman at 9:23 PM on January 2, 2013