Folk Alley: 100 best folk songs.

[dubhlinn]

A nice if somewhat predictable list of songs here

http://www.folkalley.com/lists/

I am listening to the stream on WMP and the sound quality is first class.
Just music, no adverts or any of the dreaded DJ rambling.

Worth a listen...

Slan,
D.

[I.D.10-t]

Perhaps a good listen, but I don't think those are the best or "most essential folk", just the most popular. #1 "This song is copyrighted, It is not your song" by Woody and #21 by Arlo are jokes. How about these... Frankie and Johnny? Oh My Darling, Clementine? St. James Infirmary? The Preacher and the Slave? Thank goodness Barbara Allen made the list. Heck, Leadbelly sang real folk songs and he doesn't receive mention*. But it should be about the tunes, not the performer if it is "essential folk".

*Oops, I guess one of the songs Leadbelly sang made the list when The Weavers sang it. Guess ol' Lead didn' sing it purdy 'nuff.



Wow, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.

[izzarina]

Wow, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.

I was starting to wonder.....

Good site, D. I think I'll be spending a lot of time there...but that's because I didn't wake up on the wrong side of the bed

[mutepointe]

Sweet. You will have just added one more source of annoyance to my wife. Way to go. Like she needed that.

[cowtime]

Well, I'm kinda inclined to agree with ID as to just how many of those tunes actually deserve the "folk" title, ....Amazing Grace???? , Teach Your Children???

but, there's some fine tunes on there, whatever their label.

[Doug_Tipple]

Don't forget "Home on the Range", where the deer and the antelope play, and seldom is heard a discouraging word, and the skies are not cloudy all day.

[missy]

with all the mentions Tom Paxton got (who is a really nice guy, btw) why not "Bottle of Wine"?

[I.D.10-t]

#90 was written in 1982 and is not a song. My wife likes the tune, and from what I have heard the composers are great folks, but I just don't consider it a folk song.

Four sides on a bed, I guess there is only a 1 in 4 chance of me falling off the right side.

Really, lets look at one of the songs that I think deserves recognition. "The Preacher and the Slave" was a parody of "In the Sweet By and By" that really was a wake up call for many churches. It pointed to the reality that there are needs on earth that need to be taken care of despite what is coming in the after life. It was an influential song, covered by many singers, and embraced by the Wobblies. Whether you like the song or not, it is hard to deny its role in history and I would think that it should be in the top 100 (although I am not sure it quite qualifies as a folk song).

Is there any doubt that if a similar thing was done with ITM that "Danny boy" would top the list?

I guess the real question would be how would one qualify what is "folk music". "Amazing Grace" certainly has a long history, but falls more into the spiritual heading, does that exclude it from being a "Folk Song". What about "Ashoken Farewell"? It is in the style and has become almost traditional in the past 20 years. After all, we are not talking about reenactment, we are talking folk music.

The worse thing is that I don't want to be a snobe about such things, because let's face it, that would almost be the antithesis of folk music. It is not like people hand out a pedigree certificate to songs like "Sakura, Sakura" guaranteeing it's authenticity as a folk song. Which leads to the question. Is folk music usually limited to English? Who wouldn't recognize "The Song of the Volga Boatmen" or "Ochi Chernye*" after hearing the first few notes? I guess that would not fit into the 1950's folk revival.

PS, Thanks for the link dubhlinn, good tunes.

*Okay, not even close to the traditional way of singing it, but goodness, what a rendition.
I can't believe that Cysco Huston didn't have a song that made the list.

[dubhlinn]

The list is very conservative no doubt. Like any list of 100 essential anything there will be terrible omissions and outrageous inclusions.
Terrible omissions for me would include huge chunks of Luke Kellys extensive repertoire, Martin Carthy and many of the English folkies. How Matty Groves -Fairport Convention- made the cut over Nic Jones or Christy Moores version of Little Musgrave is beyond me. Traditional song is very under represented.

Among the inclusions I would seriously question Like a Rolling Stone. One of the greatest songs ever written but a Folk Song? Another one that kills me is the Byrds cover of Turn, Turn, Turn. What was wrong with Seegars original. The Byrds to me were always the worse covers band ever. Their Dylan covers are awful when sat alongside the originals...mind ye I am a bit biased in that direction.
The list itself says more about the fan base of Folk Alley than what makes great folk music. Seems to be a big mob of American people, many of whom were about in the sixties and seventies.
I have enjoyed the streaming very much. Many of the songs I had not heard in a long time and it is nice to be reminded just how good they sound after all these years.. Several times I have gone back into my collection to hear a different version.Nancy Griffiths amazing version of #26 Across the great divide is one that springs to mind.

Ah well, time to Folk off and do a bit of work...

Slan,
D.

[I.D.10-t]

Luke Kelly? Martin Carthy? I am learning how ignorant I am. Those are names I should know.

What songs do you think deserve mention?

[dubhlinn]

Luke Kelly was the singer with the Dubliners before his untimely demise. Google him up and grab as much of his singing as you can get your hands on.

Martin Carthy is the Godfather of English traditional song and one of the worlds most amazing guitarists. He is married to Norma Waterson and their daughter is Eliza Carthy.

The place of both men in the history of Folk Music is assured.

Slan,
D.

[s1m0n]

Martin Carthy has made so much great folk, trad & folk-rock* they went and gave him an MBE for it, so now he's "Sir Martin". You probably know his arrangement of "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme". He taught it to Paul Simon on Simon's 60s trip to London, and Paul went home, recorded it, and copyrighted the arrangement as his own. This lead to years of bitter snarkery in British folk circles, as well as a successful lawsuit, but I gather they've patched it up, since.

The place to start, IMO, is with Skin & Bone and Leaf & Limb, the two mid-career albums Carthy recorded in partnership with fiddle player Dave Swarbrick. Both also doubled on mandolin, so there's both a guitar-mando and a mando-fiddle duet on these two.



They made a number of other records together, both early and late in their careers, but these two catch the pair at the height of their powers**. There's not a bad track on either.

*Carthy spent a while holding down guitar duties in seminal english frock band "Steeleye Span". It's not my fave part of his oevre, but some people love it.

**Shortly after they'd been extensively touring these records, Swarbrick was diagnosed with a brain tumor which had, among other symptoms, meant that what Swarb heard through his left ear was a semi-tone out from what he heard through his right. Carthy's comment was that most people tune a fiddle with their left ear & mandolin with their right. 'Which explains why in our gigs we were constantly retuning...'