Folk rock

Folk rock is a musical genre, combining elements of folk music and rock music. Originally the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and Canada in the mid-1960s. The sound was epitomized by tight vocal harmonies and a relatively "clean" (effects-free) approach to electric instruments, while the repertoire was drawn partly from traditional folk sources, but even more from folk-influenced singer-songwriters.

In a broader sense, folk rock includes later similarly-inspired musical genres and movements. The term is not usually applied to rock music rooted in the blues-based or other African American music or to music with non-European folk roots, which is more typically classified as world music.

Bob Dylan's folk rock album, Blonde on Blonde

The Roots of Folk Rock

John Denver's Platinum collection of folk rock ballads Poems, Prayers & Promises

Folk rock arose mainly from the confluence of three elements: urban/collegiate folk groups, singer-songwriters, and the revival of North American rock and roll after the British Invasion. Folk groups and sing-songwriters often were inspired by earlier "folk" pioneers such Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and other songsters of the labor movement of the 1930s and 40s.

The first of the urban folk vocal groups was the Almanac Singers, whose shifting membership included Guthrie, Seeger and Lee Hayes. In 1947 Seeger and Hayes joined Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman to form the Weavers, who popularized the genre and had a major hit with a cover of Leadbelly's "Irene", but fell afoul of the U.S. Red Scare of the early 1950s. Their sound, and their broad repertoire of traditional folk material and topical songs inspired other groups such as the Kingston Trio (founded 1957), the Chad Mitchell Trio, New Christy Minstrels, the Brothers Four, the Four Freshmen, and the Highwaymen. All featured tight vocal harmonies and a repertoire at least initially rooted in folk music and (often) topical songs. Individual acts such as Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Dave Van Ronk, Judy Collins, Odetta, and Joan Baez also helped lay the foundations of the folk music revival. Singer-songwriters such as Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs gained popularity in the mid 1960s. Finally, Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" scored a major hit on the pop charts when it was covered by Peter, Paul, and Mary in (date).

Yet, as writer Richie Unterberger observes:

In the early 1960s, any suggestion that the folk and rock'n'roll worlds would intertwine to create a hybrid called folk-rock would have met with utter disbelief from both camps. The folk community prided itself on its purity, which meant acoustic instruments and songs of substance; it regarded rock'n'roll as vulgar and commercial. Rock'n'rollers, for the most part, were utterly ignorant of folk traditions, and unconcerned with broadening their lyrical content beyond tried-and-true themes of romance and youthful partying.[1]

In the late 1960s artists such as Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstandt, and Emmylou Harris fused folk and rock themes to create numerous hit recordings. John Denver continued the trend with a softer sound that leaned more toward folk than rock. Crossover country artists such as Dolly Parton and Glenn Campbell brought a southern flavor into the folk-rock mix. By the mid 70s, the lines between rock, folk-rock, and country had become blurred to the point that many recordings and artists become difficult to classify.

Folk Rock Hits the Charts

The folk genre might never have intersected with rock music if it had not been for the impulse of the British Invasion. Songs such as "House of the Rising Sun" by Eric Burton and the Animals, "I'm A Loser" by the Beatles, and "Get Together" by the Searchers have been cited as important precursors to the folk-rock trend. The Byrds' cover of Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man," however, was the true trend-setter when it reached the top of the charts in 1965. Dylan himself went electric — much to the horror of folk purists — in 1965 with his Highway 61 Revisited album. Groups such as The Lovin' Spoonful, Simon and Garfunkel, and the Mamas and Papas were soon hitting the charts. Ex-folk acts such as Phil Ochs, Ian and Silvia, and Gordon Lightfoot adapted their styles to take advantage of the trend. The Beatles Rubber Soul album included several folk-oriented tunes and even the Rolling Stones got in on the act with Mick Jagger's version of "As Tears Go By." Scottish songster Donovan scored several original hits in the folk-rock vein, such as "Yellow Is the Color." By 1966 the folk-rock craze was in full bloom as even the Beach Boys scored a hit by covering the Kingston Trio's version of the folk song "Sloop John B" —which the trio in turn had learned from the Weavers.

In the United States, the heyday of folk rock was from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies, aligning itself approximately with the hippie movement. Cities such as San Francisco, Denver, New York and Phoenix became centers for the folk rock culture, playing on their central locations among the original folk circuits.

Such success in the country folk blend led to pioneering records for '60s folk singers like John Denver and Judy Collins.

British Folk Rock

This original folk rock directly led to the distinct, eclectic style of British folk rock (a.k.a. electric folk) pioneered in the late 1960s by Pentangle and Fairport Convention. Starting from a North-American style folk rock, Pentangle, Fairport and other related bands deliberately incorporated elements of traditional British folk music. At the same time, in Brittany, Alan Stivell began to mix his Breton roots with Irish and Scottish roots and with rock music. Very shortly afterwards, Fairport bassist Ashley Hutchings formed Steeleye Span in collaboration with traditionalist British folk musicians who wished to incorporate electrical amplification, and later overt rock elements, into their music.

This, in turn, spawned several other variants: the self-consciously English]] folk rock of the Albion Band and some of Ronnie Lane's solo work, and the more prolific current of Celtic rock, incorporating traditional music of Ireland, Scotland, Cornwall, and Brittany. Through at least the first half of the 1970s, Celtic rock held close to folk roots, with its repertoire drawing heavily on traditional Celtic fiddle and harp tunes and even traditional vocal styles, but making use of rock band levels of amplification and percussion.

Elsewhere in Europe and the Mediterranean

In Romania Transsylvania Phoenix (known in Romania simply as Phoenix), founded in 1962, introduced significant folk elements into their rock music around 1972 in an unsuccessful attempt to compromise with government repression of rock music. The attempt failed, and they ended up in exile during much of the Ceauşescu era, but much of their music still retains a folk rock sound. The present-day bands Spitalul de Urgenţă (Romanian) and Zdob şi Zdub (Moldova) also both merge folk and rock.

Other fusions of folk and rock include New Flamenco (Spain), the pop-oriented forms of North African raï music, and in the music of The Pogues and the Dropkick Murphys, both of whom draw on traditional Irish music and punk rock.

Turkey, during the 1970s and 1980s, also sustained a vibrant folk rock scene, drawing inspirations from diverse ethnic elements of Anatolia, the Balkans, Eurasia and the Black Sea region and thrived in a culture of intense political strife, with musicians in nationalist and Marxist camps. See Music of Turkey.

Another folk rock band is Gåte from Norway who combines Norwegian folk songs (Stev) and rock.

Folk rock artists

All of the performers listed here had or have both significant folk elements and significant rock elements in their music.

Singer-songwriters

A number of singer-songwriters are associated strongly with folk rock. Among those who started out strongly identified with folk music but later incorporated rock influences in their music, or vice versa, are:

• Eric Andersen
• Joan Baez
• Gene Clark
• Leonard Cohen
• Judy Collins
• Donovan
• John Denver
• Bob Dylan
• Tim Hardin
• Gordon Lightfoot
• Joni Mitchell
• Van Morrison
• Fred Neil
• Phil Ochs
• John Phillips
• Shawn Phillips
• Tom Rush
• Paul Siebel
• Paul Simon
• John Stewart
• Alan Stivell
• James Taylor
• Richard Thompson

In addition, others (usually of at least a slightly younger generation) seem to have mixed both elements from the outset of their careers:

• America
• Jonatha Brooke
• Jim Croce
• Jonathan Edwards
• Arlo Guthrie
• Mark Knopfler
• Indigo Girls
• Don McLean
• Willis Alan Ramsey
• Gillian Welch
• Joel Sprayberry
• Bruce Springsteen
• Matt Costa
• Neil Young

Singer-songwriter Paul Simon, as one half of Simon & Garfunkel, was a transitional figure between a Dylanesque singer-songwriter and the folk rock vocal sound.

Canadian singer-songwriter Nathan Bishop performs both folk and rock instrumentation and leans on both the lyrical and narrative traditions in his songs.

1960s North American folk rock vocal groups

These bands were associated with original North American "folk rock" sound, drawing to some extent on traditional folk music, but to a greater extent on the work of folk-influenced contemporary songwriters, such as Bob Dylan or the Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan.

• The Band
• The Beach Boys
• Brewer & Shipley
• Buffalo Springfield
• The Byrds
• Crosby, Stills & Nash
• Ian and Sylvia
• The Lovin' Spoonful
• The Mamas & the Papas
• Simon & Garfunkel
• Peter, Paul & Mary, transitional between urban folk vocal groups and folk rock
• The Turtles, whose first hits were in this genre, but who headed off in other musical directions

Other U.S. bands of this era

There were also significant folk influences in the music of several other North American bands of this period who were not generally identified with the folk rock label.

• The Grateful Dead
• Jefferson Airplane
• Love
• Moby Grape
• Sonny and Cher

Numerous artists and bands normally considered in the rock or pop category also had hits in the folk-rock genre, including" Bobby Darin (If I Were a Carpenter), The Rolling Stones (As Tears Go By) and others.

British and Irish folk rock

Chad and Jeremy Peter and Gordon The Searchers Marianne Faithfull.

• Capercaillie
• The Dream Academy
• Sandy Denny
• Eclection
• Fairport Convention
• Fotheringay
• Fleetwood Mac
• Alan Stivell (Breton)
• Five Hand Reel
• Gryphon
• Hedgehog Pie
• Horslips
• Jack The Lad
• Jethro Tull; not all of their music has folk elements, but Songs from the Wood, Heavy Horses and Stormwatch are clearly of this genre.
• Lindisfarne
• Malicorne (French)
• Magna Carta
• John Martyn
• Ralph McTell
• Oysterband
• Pentangle
• Planxty
• Renaissance
• Steeleye Span
• Richard Thompson
• The Levellers
• The Strawbs
• Tricks Upon Travellers

The Incredible String Band

• The Corrs
• The Waterboys

The Canadian bands Spirit of the West and Great Big Sea are also more associated with this sound that with the earlier North American folk rock.

The Canadian band Celtae are fusing two folk traditions, that of Cape Breton and Newfoundland with a broad definition of rock that includes elements of hard rock, funk, and jazz while retaining the original flavour of the traditional music.

A similar impulse (but a very different sound) can be found in bands who mix traditional Irish music with punk rock. The prototype of this approach might be Thin Lizzy's heavy-metal-inspired 1973 version of "Whiskey in the Jar"

• Dropkick Murphys
• The Pogues
• Flogging Molly
• $wingin' Utter$
• Neck

A recent book, "Electric Folk" by Britta Sweers (2005) concentrates on Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span. Another recent book "Irish Folk, Trad and Blues: A Secret History" by Colin Harper (2005) covers Horslips, The Pogues, Planxty and others.

Present folk rock includes bands such as Aaron Sprinkle, The Tossers, The River Bends, One Star Hotel, Tegan & Sara, Bill Mallonee, The Lost Dogs, Wilco, Son Volt, Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers, The Jayhawks, David Wolfenberger, Over the Rhine, The Greencards, Denison Witmer and many more.

• Gordon Lightfoot (Canada)
• Harry Chapin

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Folk Rock Discography
• Unterberger, Richie. Eight Miles High: Folk-Rock's Flight from Haight-Ashbury to Woodstock. Backbeat Books, 2003. ISBN: 0879307439

External links

• Paddy Rock Radio, Celtic rock.

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Credits

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