Tag Archives: Contemporary Folk

Half from the early-’60s folk group Ian & Sylvia, Ian Tyson retreated from executing and recording following the duo disbanded in the mid-’70s to become rancher in the foothills of southern Alberta, Canada. He silently came back to music-making in the 1980s, launching some albums that centered on comprehensive music …

While he’s won a loyal following for his own music, singer/songwriter Bob Neuwirth could very well be most widely known for his use others; like a collaborator and confidante, Neuwirth continues to be associated with performers as gifted and varied as Bob Dylan, John Cale, Patti Smith, T-Bone Burnett, Janis …

The Chenille Sisters’ quirky appeal truly reaches across all ages — while their irreverent country-folk sound was originally geared to adults, they also have recorded several albums designed for children. Shaped in 1985 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the Chenille Sisters are made up of Cheryl Dawdy, Connie Huber, and Sophistication …

While Bob Gibson’s recordings might appear to be run-of-the-mill folk to contemporary listeners, he played a significant part in popularizing folk music to American viewers in the 1950s at the start of the folk growth. His 12-string acoustic guitar style affected performers like Gordon Lightfoot and Harry Chapin; he was …

The colorful however tragic existence of Austin singer/songwriter Blaze Foley — who was simply shot and killed in 1989, at age 39, while trying to guard an elderly friend — reads just like the most heart-piercing of country ballads. It’s no question then that remarkable performers like Foley’s friend and …

Sylvia Tyson, given birth to Sylvia Fricker, was one of the most beloved voices from the early- to mid-’60s folk growth, and was also one of the few woman folkies from the era to create a major music within the genre. Created in southern Ontario in 1940 to some Canadian …

Suzanne Vega was the 1st major number in the bumper crop of feminine singer/songwriters who rose to prominence through the past due ’80s and ’90s. Her hushed, restrained folk-pop and extremely literate lyrics (motivated chiefly by Leonard Cohen, in addition to Lou Reed and Bob Dylan) laid the original musical …

Following the Roches put their critically-acclaimed, two-decade career with an indefinite hiatus in 1997, Suzzy Roche came back later on that year with her solo debut Holy Smokes. That recording and its own 2000 follow-up Tunes From An Unmarried Housewife and Mom, Greenwich Town, USA presented the elegant vocals and …

The Chicago-based folk trio Sons from the By no means Wrong was originally made up of singer/songwriters Nancy Walker, Bruce Roper, and Sue Demel. Their debut LP, Three REASONS, was released around the Waterbug label in 1995; its follow-up, Consequence of Conversation, made an appearance in ’97. By enough time …

Anointed “the brand new Dylan” upon his documenting debut, folk-rock singer/songwriter Steve Forbert was created in Meridian, Mississippi in 1954. After learning acoustic guitar at age group 11, he spent his high-school years playing in a number of local rings before giving up his job like a pickup truck driver …