“Folk” Reviews

Gidaly’s not really like anyone else, but here she echoes Liz Phair.

The women who calls herself LadyBug plays a feisty, funky style of folk music.

With obvious nods to groups like Vigilantes of Love, Over the Rhine, and Counting Crows, Set On Edge’s music has its base in rock n’ roll.

Folklore further cements 16 Horsepower’s reputation as one of the most original and vital acts in the world today.

I strongly recommend this album to anyone who would like to ease into bluegrass or folk music.

Music this simple, yet powerfully affecting, does not get made very often.

Despite being an original motion picture soundtrack, this is in no way background music.

Expect great things from Williamson in the future, and the future is now.

Thomas is the kind of performer that could sing gibberish and make it sound good.

With the religion in, an Edwards record is the audio equivalent of reading Flannery O’Connor or William Faulkner.

Like a set of old, grainy family photographs you stumble across, not so much comforting as haunting.

Oar is a spectacular achievement of truth and beauty, an example of raw emotion reduced to its purest form.

A collection of stark, regretful vignettes of longing, loneliness, broken dreams, and haunting memories.

Badly Drawn Boy seems to look for any excuse to break the conventional song set-up.

Songs in a Northern Key shows an artist at the height of his powers.

An understated little gem that deserves far more notice than it’s ever likely to receive.

Mojave 3 has gone for a starker acoustic sound that’s stripped down, sparse, and surprisingly more inviting.

Jurado’s lyrics manage to describe tales that seem epic, struggles that seem like something truly overcome.

The territory that Jurado explores is not for those seeking easy answers wrapped up in pop melodies.