Folk music you will love

Folk

style / mood

Editor's Picks (see more)

TOM HANSON: Everything Takes Forever
Despite how cliché it might sound, from the very first bar to the very last, Everything Takes Forever mesmerizes its audience like catnip, never once letting go long enough for the listener to catch his breath. Take a little Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen but make them write dream pop, blend in Nick Drake but turn the dial towards lush atmospheric backdrops, plug in Cat Stevens-type vocal warmth and resonance then lift your eyes to a darker psych folk landscape where Peter Mulvey could slowly empty his thoughts and you're in the right vicinity. These songs are simultaneously dark, textured, sparse and lush, liquidy and weightless. Don't let it surprise you if the album both breaks your heart and mends it in the same listen; these songs are made from those bittersweet emotions like laughing through tears or somehow seeing the exquisite beauty of your own pain. Simply put, if you only buy one folk or rock album this month, this should be it.
CD price: $9.99 / MP3 price: $7.99
COLIN MCGRATH: Window Seat
The first time you pop in a disc with childlike anticipation, a little bit on the edge of your seat, there’s either an immediacy to the music that grabs you or it goes in one ear and out the other. Colin McGrath fits into the former category: he has a way of crafting songs that pull you in one level at a time (rather than hitting you over the head with the beginning of a song), and crafts his emotional build with a most tender and yet forthright touch. And similarly, despite the number of times a music junkie can pop in a new album, be engaged with the instrumental parts only to be disappointed with the mismatched vocals, living with an album like Colin’s, where the first entrance of his voice hits such a perfect tone of conceptual resonance, is a reminder of how rare it actually is to find such perfect compatibility between singer and songwriter, whether both are the same person or not. So while his listeners are first engaged by his vocal quality, drawing from bits of Greg Brown to Paul Simon, Jackson Browne to Nick Drake, the wonder and integrity doesn’t end there. McGrath’s knack for instrumentation makes one ponder his background; from violin harmonics to charango to prepared and toy piano, his musical sense of space is reminiscent of an orchestrator. McGrath’s use of color and tessitura suggests thoughtful consideration of instrumentation, beyond what the majority of songwriters are willing to ponder: that of instrumental conversation, sonic space, and the ability to change a textural color with an effect that, while it isn’t audible, shifts the tone without question. At the same time, McGrath has a solid singer/songwriter approach and result. These are solid songs, often playful and light as well as intellectual and profound. Window Seat more than earns its esteemed place as an editor’s pick for male folk.
CD price: $14.00 / MP3 price: $9.99
OLD SCHOOL FREIGHT TRAIN: Live In Ashland
Despite the fact that music is made ever so convenient and accessible these days through various digital media, seeing a band live will never stop being the epitome of an organic musical experience for both the band and the audience. Just as fans will rave about the thrill to see a band live, most musicians will tell you that performing before an audience brings the music to life in profound ways that a studio recording humbly aspires to meet. Live in Ashland captures this magic: the magic of one of the nation’s most notable acts on the acoustic music scene. Old School Freight Train, from Charlottesville, Virginia has been creating quite a stir among various circles from acoustic jazz to folk to progressive bluegrass. Mixing these genres together with a laid back, casual approach, held to its traditional influences by its old-time instrumentation of mandolin, fiddle, upright bass, guitar and vocals, the epidemic quality of OSFT has already been spotted by the mandolin master, David Grisman (having been invited to record on his Acoustic Disc label), to prestigious band contests (Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Rocky Mountain Bluegrass Festival) to granola-esque festival goers in the rolling hills of the rural Northwest. Now gearing up to showcase at the Northwest String Summit in North Plains, Oregon in just a matter of days, OSFT brings the particular energy necessary for a live show that can be enjoyed here if you aren’t fortunate enough to catch them on the road. Besides their energy and talent, the beauty of this band is their ability to satiate a wide range of fans ranging from that of Nickel Creek to Yonder Mountain, from Hot Buttered Rum to even Bill Monroe and Ricky Skaggs. This is a disc not to be missed.
MP3 price: $10.00
DAVID M. BAILEY: Two to See
The first time I heard this man four years ago, he took my breath away. Now several albums later, his songs push through even more deeply, breaking my heart, beckoning salty tears. Penetrating through to the soul of life in a stunning way, here is a man who knows what surviving and finding the beauty in life is all about. We often look to musicians to show us that; to frame this painful world in phrases and melodies we can grasp onto, understand and feel apart of. Maybe it helps us feel less powerless somehow. But having produced twelve albums since 1996 after doctors told him he'd be dead in 6 months from a tumor in his head, David has a rare insight into what life is made of and what it comes down to- so if we are to turn to any musician for framing our world with meaning, hope and a reason to keep going, he is an emissary for that. The first song, "Maybe" explores how "maybe this world was meant to break your heart," exploring many possibilities of what it all could mean and then finally concludes that "Maybe in the end, all we have is one another and maybe that's God's answer to the hearts that break in two." It's just like David to see the hope in the impossible and that's why this album, like all the rest, is one we fell in love with.
CD price: $14.75 / MP3 price: $14.75
WESLEY JENSEN: Pirates and Cowboys
With swirling echoes of Wilco, Sufjan Stevens, Ryan Adams and Eisley (with Christie Dupree of the Eisley family on vocals), Wesley Jensen’s music has an aerial, soaring quality with the heart’s doors thrown wide open. Not holding back, not one inch, it’s clear that Jensen is gushing with muse beyond his years. Skipping through alt country, and indie rock, his folk-rooted foundation gives these songs a friendly and familiar disposition, whether they’re slow and poignant like Forward or semi-celebratory like Act Your Part. Any way you look at it, between his yearning vocals and organic songwriting, Pirates and Cowboys is nothing less than a gem.
CD price: $8.00 / MP3 price: $8.00

Top Sellers (see more)

DAN ZANES AND FRIENDS: Rocket Ship Beach
children's music with the raw spontaneity of early rock and roll, the handmade traditions of american folk and the breezy soulfulness of old time west indian music, all on a scale for little and big ears.
CD price: $15.00
DAN ZANES AND FRIENDS: Family Dance
Contains the songs "all around the kitchen" and "jump up" as heard on noggin and sesame street.
CD price: $15.00
JOE PURDY: Julie Blue
Sweet acoustic songs with a soul born of bluegrass and 60s folk. His song "Wash Away" featured on this album, was heard on ABC's show Lost.
CD price: $13.97 / MP3 price: $12.97
JACK JOHNSON: Brushfire Fairytales
Jack's multi-platinum debut that was first released in 2000 on the tiny Enjoy label (now Everloving). Produced by JP Plunier (Ben Harper); includes "Flake" and "Bubble Toes."
CD price: $13.99
JUDE: Sarah
"CDBaby's crowning achievement. Saving Jude from the record companies."
CD price: $12.00 / MP3 price: $12.00
DAN ZANES AND FRIENDS: Night Time!
PARENTS CHOICE GOLD AWARD WINNER. Night time. is relaxed, handmade, all-ages, 21st century folk music for the entire family.
CD price: $15.00
MELISSA FERRICK: Skinnier & Faster - LIVE
Live performance of a sold out show. Double CD with 21 songs, LIVE, from her five critically acclaimed albums. Unique, fiery, compelling, bold and captivating.
CD price: $20.00 / MP3 price: $20.00
TRIBE OF HEAVEN: Imagine We Were
Available for the first time, Mark Roebuck, teaming up with then-fellow-bartender Dave Matthews in 1990 to write and record a rich, folk-accoustic CD, woven with dark, sometimes melancholy themes.
CD price: $10.97
GARY JULES: Gary Jules
BRAND NEW ALBUM (8/06).. Self-titled follow-up to 2002's "Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets" from the singer of "Mad World".
CD price: $14.00 / MP3 price: $14.00
INGRID MICHAELSON: Girls and Boys
Featuring "The Way I Am" as heard on an Old Navy commercial and "Breakable" and "Corner of Your Heart" as heard on "Grey's Anatomy." Indie-pop New Yorker Ingrid Michaelson will knock your socks off with her dynamic vocals and deliciously unique lyrics.
CD price: $14.00