sophia_sol | Audience participation

As you know, my musical tastes are pretty wide-ranging, but let's start with something simple.

Josh Ritter's an American folkie, in my opinion the creator of the best American folk rock albums of the past decade. It is entirely possibly you already know him, if not for his albums then for the amazing SGA vid to his "The Temptation of Adam": http://isagel.livejournal.com/154694.html

If you don't, you should listen to his album "Hello Starling" and you should listen to "Kathleen" from it on repeat until you get tired of it, which at least in my case means you're still listening to it on repeat years later. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm3lWq4s5-U

And here, have his railroad ballad "Harrisburg", because if I don't misjudge you railroad ballads are very much up your alley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UJL1mOrIhE

AWESOME! I am unfamiliar with Josh Ritter but he looks very interesting! *puts on list*

Excellent vid about Rory Williams, set to a Josh Ritter song, which I love disproportionate to all reason:

http://greensilver.livejournal.com/564167.html

SECONDED FOREVERRRR.

Josh Ritter is awesometastic. Thirding this suggestion!

My rec: Stan Rogers - Home in Halifax has a good selection of the classics from him. Canadian folk, with an east coast tinge.

Also, because lately I've been thinking about asexuality and popular music and how the world that music tends to present is somewhat alien...
I can't remember the quote exactly, but it was something along the lines about how every song of his is a love song, it's just that they're love songs for times and places and boats and ways of life instead of romantic love.
His two love songs about people are adorable ('Lies', and '45 Years'), and talk more of the White Collar:Peter/Elizabeth type of relationships than the eyes-meet-with-flames-of-lust type. I find it much more in tune with how I experience things.

If you want more suggestions I'll be happy to give. Music is a thing for me :)

STAN ROGERRRRRRRRS I LOVE HIM SO MUCH. Enough that I have an icon for him and everything. He is basically my favourite ever.

That is a really cool point you have about his songs being love songs, and it is so true omg.

SO. Since I already know the artist you suggested, please do give me another!

Stan Rogers yay! I knew there were some people on my droll who listened to him but couldn't remember who, and everyone ought to listen to his music! (in case you don't know, Garnet Rogers (his brother) and Nathan Rogers (his son) also have albums out (Garnet Rogers' 'Night Drive' makes me cry...)

Next option: Brother http://www.brothermusic.com/ (warning: Autoplay music)

Celtic rock/tribal with bagpipe and didgeridoo, with folkish themes in their music (Rainmaker feels very thematically similar to Stan Rogers). I admit it was the instruments that initially caught my ear.

They have a pretty broad range of music. For the Celtic Rock side I'd rec 'as you were' as a starting album as it has a bit of everything (Rainmaker is the one I listened to over and over...).
But if you want something atmospheric the album "One Day" is neat. They recorded it outside in the Australian bush, and it's more impressionistic reflections on a day from dawn to nightfall (and A Thousand Ways would be a good song to start with).

I did vaguely know that Stan Rogers had relatives who also did music, but I totally need to look Garnet and Nathan up now!

And -- bagpipe and didgeridoo. BAGPIPE AND DIDGERIDOO. HOW SO AWESOME. Added to list!

THAT IS EXACTLY WHY I HAD TO SEE THEM! Then I bought 3 of their CDs because really! How awesome!

I was behind the stage at a folk festival when Nathan Rogers started singing "Hold the Line" and I hot chills because there was no doubt at all who's son he was. Most of his stuff is his own style and it's not quite so obvious, but that song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHyTxGwAdnk <- Night Drive by Garnet Rogers

And relatedly: Stan's Tune by Bruce Guthro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPzH0w2n51g
(see, this is the problem when I start talking about music. It becomes a giant game of word association, except with music.)

DAMN YOU GARNET ROGERS YOU MADE ME CRY.

And Stan's Tune is amazing too.

(giant music-association games: AWESOME.)

And since we're talking about Stan Rogers, I'm curious -- what would you say are your favourite songs of his?

I know! That song would inevitably come up when I was up late at night writing papers and it'd make me go wibbly :(

Ooo favourite Stan Rogers song... Mary Ellen Carter is up there. It embodies the stubborn perseverance that is characteristic to a lot of the east coast music ("To you to whom adversity has dealt the final blow..."). There's a lot of music on the theme of "Farm/boat/mine/factory/job market has disappeared but fuck you" and it got me through a lot of teenage angst.

But I also like the sentiment of 45 Years, and tone of The Giant and how you can hear the waves in White Squall, and the "Pounds his fist white on the dock in the night and cries I'm gonna win!" of Blue Dolphin, and the combination of the joy and the loss in Bluenose, and the way "Last Watch makes me cry when he sings "When men with torches come for her, let angels come for me" and the first Christmas I don't go home I know I'm going to sit there and listen to "First Christmas".

Plus I live on the East Coast so Barrett's Privateers is just a given :)
(I had a friend who was a counciller at a Christian kids camp where they sang that song aroudn the campfire, except being a Christian camp "God damn them all" isn't entirely appropriate. They changed the lyrics to "Have a nice day." I just... can't imagine getting through that with a straight face)

eta: (because I would have sworn I typed it) what about you?

Edited 2011-08-22 21:14 (UTC)

It is hard to pick favourite Stan Rogers songs -- there's just so many good ones! But here would be some of the ones that are near the top for me:

-Mary Ellen Carter, I am totally with you on that one, and also Barrett's Privateers and 45 years
-White Squall (MAKES ME CRY)
-First Christmas (...look, I love this one enough that I wrote FIXIT FIC for it, because it ALSO MAKES ME CRY)
-Macdonnell on the Heights (idek why, I just love this story of a dude who did what he had to and saved the day and nobody made him famous for it but he was awesome anyways)
-Northwest Passage (it is just so BEAUTIFUL)
-Harris and the Mare (MAKES ME CRY, also makes me think. Because I'm pacifist, right, so the argument that there are times you have to fight sits uneasily with me, and yet THIS SONG)
-Lies ("And laughs at how her mirror tells her lies" <3333)
-Maid on the Shore (because it is HARD TO ARGUE with a song about an awesome lady outsmarting people)

And um I could totally keep going and list like ALL of his songs because dude I love them all so much.

Have you read Stan Rogers biography? There's a story in it about a man who'd been washed overboard? boat sunk? not sure exactly what but he was in the ocean, waiting and hoping to be rescued and he spent his time singing Mary Ellen Carter to himself in order to keep his spirits up. 'Cause if there was ever a song for that situation, that one's it.

MacDonall on the Heights! I don't know how I forgot that one. Yay for learning obscure Canadian history via folk songs (see also: Northwest Passage, though that's less obscure). Also yes to that exact line in Lies. Look

My parents and I were driving out East when I was going to University, all a little bit mopey because Daughter Moving Away From Home! So we put on music. It went like this: Rawdon Hills, First Christmas, Last Watch, and then we decided that that Ashley McIsaac was a much better plan.

Also, have you managed to figure out Lock-keeper? I keep losing track of who's who in it and I can't track the story (still makes me wibble though, because it's Stan Rogers)

No, I haven't read the biography! Clearly I need to get on that. And yeah, Mary Ellen Carter is the perfect song for that situation -- but the poor dude, that musta SUCKED.

Learning obscure history via folk songs is the best! Are you familiar with Tanglefoot? They're a fantastic Canadian folk group that occasionally does songs about Canadian history -- for instance, there's a great one about Laura Secord (although that's not exactly obscure...).

Lock-Keeper -- yyyyeah, gorgeous and wibbly and impossible to keep track of the characters. *sigh* Proof that Stan Rogers wasn't perfect, I guess?

I did two years worth of music projects on Stan Rogers when I was in High School. Good times :)
I'm glad it's not just me. I think there's too many 'you's. Dialogue is hard in song form (I've tried to piece it together from the written lyrics and still couldn't get it).

oh yes! Tanglefoot! Buxton gives me chills. And "watch your footsteps, don't fall in the forest, keep your head down and don't make a sound." Fire and Guns I think?

This isn't a rec ~~not yet at least~~, it's just a question: Ian Tamblyn?

An EXCELLENT choice of thing to do music projects on. :D

I (alas) don't have all the Tanglefoot albums yet, so I'm not familiar with Buxton. But YES, Fire and Guns is fantastic. I saw Tanglefoot perform live once, and it was pretty much the highlight of my year. It makes me so sad that they're no longer together as a band.

Ian Tamblyn I have not heard of!

I will give you Buxton when I can stay up late enough to upload (i was in bed 30 minutes ago, just in case anyone asks, and totally not digging up packed boxes for my Ian Tamblyn CDs...). I saw them live, they are fantastic! I hadn't realized they were no longer together :( Moxy Fruvous is another one that I'm sad they're no longer together...

Ian Tamblyn is more Canadian folk, I can pretty confidently say that you'll love him ('Voice in the wilderness' lived in my CD player for weeks).

(I have realized all the artists I've mentioned have been male. I have lots of awesome women singers to! I'm just trying hard to be good... :P)

Buxton

♥♥♥ THAT SONG. *shivers* Amazing.

I am not familiar with Moxy Fruvous. What are they?

And you know what, SCREW being good while talking about folk music -- because folk music is not about stretching my boundaries at all, it is about HAVING A GOOD TIME. So feel free to talk to me about awesome folk musicians all you want! I shall definitely check out Ian Tamblyn.

And in terms of female Canadian folk singers, are you familiar with Eileen McGann? She's one of my favourites; I could happily listen to her foreverrrrrr. And how about Marie Lynn Hammond? Both her solo stuff and back when she was with the group Stringband?

I know! That song! It nails it in so many ways.
Folk music is so much about having a good time! It's frequently about having a good time just to spite everyone else :D

Moxy Fruvous are another Canadian group, folk-pop. If you listen to CBC, the person who does Q was the drummer.
They did King of Spain, you might have heard that one?

Recs for Fruvous! Bargainville is a good start. River Valley, maybe as the one I had to pick. Though King of Spain is much more fun :)
Other songs that I love:
The drinking song
Gulf War Song
Down from Above (creepy!)
Fly

Awesome women recs:
Fruit: http://www.fruit.on.net/home1.php though the website doesn't work for me. I have their album Burn, it's fantastic (I haven't heard the others, I'm sure they're fantastic too!)

Dala: http://dalagirls.com/music/ I've only heard "This moment in a flash" Listened to "Count to Ten" endlessly when I worked at the Folk Festival office

(And I just remembered Hevia, who is not female, but who is a spanish bagpiper, With not scottish pipes so there's no drone, but its very cool.)

No, I haven't heard of either of those! I'll look them up!

Oh, yeah, I have heard King of Spain! It's a fun song! Cool, I'll add Moxy Fruvous to a list of things to look up, um, sometime. (SO MUCH MUSIC)

Ditto with adding your awesome women recs! And ooh, I think Essie listens to Dala, actually! I shall have to ask her what she recommends too.

Okay, in terms of recs and sources, then, here goes:

-Eileen McGann: here on her website you can listen to seven of her songs. I particularly recommend Kassandra -- I listened to that song on repeat a RIDICULOUS amount. Requiem For The Giants, and Wisdom Guide Me, are also particularly awesome. Of her cds, I only have two (Journeys and Beyond the Storm), but both are amazing and I assume her other cds would be too.

-Marie-Lynn Hammond (solo): on her website you can click on each of the cds and find short sound clips for a few songs from each. I only have two of her cds as well (Pegasus and Vignettes) -- I like both a great deal, but Vignettes is my favourite of the two. And probably my favourite songs on it are Flying/Spring of '44, and La jeune mariee, which handily enough both have a sound-clip.

-Stringband: Their website is pretty sparse, alas. I only have Stringband Live! and National Melodies, but both are fantastic.

Hahaha... Brother was my second recommendation if you'd already heard Josh Ritter. I heartily recommend them. I loved their album "Black Stone Tramp".

Ooo I don't have that one yet *makes note*

I think I would recommend The Newfoundlanders to Stan Rogers fans, but it can be hard to find their music. "The Islander" in particular is totally a love song to Newfoundland.

I haven't heard of them, I'll have to look them up!

It would help if I got the band name right: The Navigators, sorry. *facepalm*

http://www.thenavigators.com/

Awesome, thanks!

Ooh, I will add them to my list too!

idk if you listen to Leonard Cohen at all, but he's one of my favorite singers ever and his song "I'm Your Man" is my favorite song. Highly recommended.

I...think I've probably heard a few Leonard Cohen songs before? Now that will change! ADDED TO LIST.

My favorite Cohen song is "Story of Isaac," although I could not say why.

Sorry about spamming you up top. Sometimes I hit the wrong reply link *facepalm*

My love for I'm Your Man is only slightly colored by all the great genderbending that goes on with that song. There was a cute sequence in the L Word with it (youtube link), and of course there's the multi fandom wonder by charmax (youtube.

sldkfhlkjf I've totally seen Charmax's awesome vid before and had no idea the song was a Leonard Cohen song. The song takes on a very different colour when sung by a woman versus a man!

Haha, I'm glad I could educate you ;o) The cover is radically different. It is not my favorite cover song ever, but I like that it's a woman's voice.

Okay, the others have offered you fine folk-ish people, so have something different: MIKA is a British singer who does a sort of postmodern bubblegum pop. His music is bright and cheery and catchy and makes me want to dance even when the lyrics go a little deeper, and I love his voice, and his videos are mesmerizingly gorgeous and campy as anything, and he himself is adorable and bouncy. I linked to the youtube channel; watch the videos, they are awesome, I suggest starting with Lollipop. You may also know him as the singer behind the Grace Kelly fanvid which was a hit in SGA fandom a few years back.

Cool, something very different! "postmodern bubblegum pop" -- that sounds awesome! ADDED TO LIST.

If you get through your list and want more Very Different things, get back to me! :D I tend to go through phases of thinking, "Okay, there must be some good music in this genre" and then pushing through until I find it. (I am currently trying to decide if I like Muddy Waters or not. ...because I am doing a Chicago Blues phase, for possibly-obvious reasons.)

Awesome, WILL DO! And dude, that is a way of approaching musical genres that is pretty foreign to me. (like, I am sitting here currently being very relieved that certain genres haven't been recced to me yet, because I am ~biased~. Except I know that the point of this whole exercise is to get over more of my biases! *flails*)

Yes, I decided to be nice and not start by rec'ing hip-hop or Icelandic death metal. :P (Or even better, Icelandic hip-hop!)

I used to be like that, but I went through a huge "learn about musical genres" project a few years back, and what I learned is that the things that determine whether I will like a song/musician or not don't seem to line up with what genre they get sorted into by other people. So I'm poking at my no-likey genres and finding the stuff that does work for me!

I'm not Sophia! Rec me Icelandic hip-hop. I can probably offer something equally bizarre in return.

*g* Well, when it comes to Icelandic hip-hop, there is basically only one group, and that is Quarashi. (No, literally, only one group.) They aren't necessarily the band I would pick to rec to somebody who doesn't like hip-hop, but if you're already used to, oh, that sort of, '90s style white-boy rap, they're pretty good! And they do real hip-hop, not slick commercial stuff; they have a knack for using catchy samples that aren't the same old samples everyone else uses. Mr. Jinx is the song that seems to have been closest to going mainstream, but I like most of the stuff from that album okay. When I'm in the mood for '90s white-boy rap. :D

Awesome, thanks. I will check it out. Um... in return, I will link you when I post my Rosh Hashanah playlist in a week. Including delicious things like the Hebrew translation/cover of Leonard Cohen's "Who By Fire" and a jazz quartet's swinging Avinu Malkinu.

http://seekingferret.dreamwidth.org/50079.html Rosh Hashanah playlist with some commentary

...okay apparently this is a thing I am doing now. Mika vids:

A vid about how wonderful Ten and his companions are!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1hZuv-TxtU&list=PLECD65C264CDCB5DB&index=31

A vid about how INCREDIBLY TRAGIC Torchwood is! Moral compromises! Etc!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJk4UC-MnFQ&list=PLECD65C264CDCB5DB&index=28

I should also note, Sophia, that I don't go looking for Mika fanvids because I have decided that the two characters in the Lollipop video are Ivy and Kinkaid, and Mika is my mental casting for Harry Dresden anyway, so I just pretend all his vids are Dresden Files fanvids already. :D

:DDDDD AWESOME

There's an SGA fanvid to "Grace Kelly"? *runs to watch*

What an awesome idea.

My hubby says the Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald, as a single song to love and appreciate forever. :)

I say Jehro, and the song to listen to first is "Everything". Because it is smooth and his voice is lovely, and there's bitter and sweet all over.

Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald -- ALREADY a song I love and appreciate! Because it is AWESOME.

And Jehro is added to my list!

I have seriously got to get into proper American folk music! I love a lot of sixties-seventies folk-inspired rock and country-ish stuff, but as to Proper Folk... I think I mostly know English and Scottish (and direct hand-me-downs across the puddle, like "I Gave My Love a Cherry"). And sea chanties. I've never even heard Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. O_O

*pokes round all the folk recs in this post, becomes overwhelmed*

DUDE. DUDE. You have come to the right place for folk music! Although you're likely to get half Canadian folk from me, instead of American. Um. If you're overwhelmed by the stuff in this post already though, possibly I should just shut up and let you try some of that stuff.

But if you want me to I can happily do as much as little reccing to you as you want! American or Canadian, modern stuff written in folk-style or actual traditional songs, whatever you want I am there for you!

(Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is by -- guess what -- a Canadian folk singer, a dude by name of Gordon Lightfoot. It's about a Great Lakes freighter that sank on Lake Superior during a bad storm, and it's really well known. Here it is on youtube, if you're curious.)

Mainly I'm overwhelmed because my Internet is slowfulness, so YouTube takes forrrrrrrevvvvvvaaaaarrrr to load. So I'm like "ooh stuff! possibly awesome stuff! lots of possibly awesome stuff! ...ack this will take FOREVER where do I start?"

So, um - yeah. If you could rec me some specific starter albums/CDs that I could try to find at the library, that would be lovely! I'd specially like to get a basic grounding in "this is the stuff everybody knows", as if it's not a cowboy song or a sea chantey I probably don't. *g*

Also, I tend to specially love history-based songs - sad ones like Wreck of the Edmund Fitz (I knew OF it from some Ghost Stories Of The Great Lakes book, actually, but never heard the song before) and funny ones like "Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico", and just plain awesome ones like Johnny Cash's version of "John Henry's Hammer" - and snarky joke-songs like "Carrickfergus" and "My Irish Molly-O". I tend to find straight-up Twu Wuv songs and Barbara-Allen-type broken-heart songs boring (although the snarky verses of "On Top of Old Smokey" are brilliant, and I love how that one is girl!POV).

Er, that's a lot of waffling... *g*

Things everyone knows! This not actually the bit that I'm best at, but I'll do my best! Pete Seeger is one of those everybody-knows sorts, but I don't actually have his best-known albums, so I don't know which of those to recommend you. Although "Precious Friends" I and II are excellent, these being live recordings of a concert shared by Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie (another well-known folky type; you could look him up too) but I don't know how likely a library is to have those. But you probably can't go wrong with any Pete Seeger cd.

Uh, Peter, Paul & Mary! Although I have trouble believing you've never heard of them before. Probably if nothing else you've heard their children's song "Puff the Magic Dragon"... but their proper folk music, that isn't from their children's albums, is a lot awesomer. I like their albums "No Easy Walk To Freedom" and "Peter, Paul and Mary". (well, these are the two albums of theirs that I've listened to the most, so that's probs why I like them best....) (And I sometimes do roll my eyes at their songs. Like "Lemon Tree" -- pretty song, but the point of the song is that love is like lemon trees: pretty, but the fruit is impossible to eat. WHATEVER, lemons are delicious and so is love. But most of their songs aren't stupid like that.)

Seeger, Guthrie, and PP&M are all American folk, ftr.

Canadian folk that everyone knows (for a value of "everyone" that equals "canadian", at least): Gordon Lightfoot, as previously mentioned (although he's more folk-rock than straight-up folk), and Stan Rogers. LISTEN TO STAN ROGERS, IF NOTHING ELSE. He's got lots of history-based songs, and lots of just-plain-awesome songs. And his love songs are great too, and not just straight up Twu Wuv. And his voice is spectacular. Mmmmmm. ANY of his CDs is guaranteed awesomesauce. (cds for Gordon Lightfoot -- again, any.)

Okay, that's what I can do for you in terms of popular folk music. Less popular but super-awesome? I CAN DO THAT TOO.

Kathy Mattea's really great. I particularly recommend the album "Coal", which has nothing on it but super-depressing songs about coal-mining in the USA. BUT IT'S GREAT.

If I haven't talked up Tanglefoot somewhere in the comments to this post then it's a huge oversight because TANGLEFOOT <333333. They do funny songs, history songs, awesome songs, songs that make me cry, ALL THE GOOD THINGS. (including a werewolf romance, if that's up your alley! Hee!) Albums: ANY OF THEM YOU CAN FIND, no seriously. But I particularly like "Dance Like Flames" and "The Music In The Wood".

Uh I'D BETTER STOP MYSELF NOW before I end up quoting like half the folk artists I know at you. I just can't choose between them! There's so much awesome in the world! And I've probably already given you enough to be plenty overwhelming! Shutting up now!

Okay, so I finally got to the library! :D Things:

* PETE SEEGER. I'd heard (of) some of his songs, of course - We Shall Overcome, Turn Turn Turn, Where Have All the Flowers Gone - but I managed to find, among other things, a live recording of a Greenwich Village "greatest hits" performance he did, and EEEEEEE. :DDDDD There is nothing to beat live folk music (except maaaaybe some live jazz). Audience participation! Simple accompaniments! (I have trouble following complex music-y stuff; I'm sort of weirdly not-exactly-tone-deaf.) HIS ACCENT. THE BANJO. Especially the banjo - me and banjo, it's a thing. I ought to learn, someday.

* All the Peter Paul and Mary was checked out. :-( I shall have to try again someday, because I'm fairly certain the version of Blowin' in the Wind that I fell in love with a few years ago was theirs.

* I found the Seeger/Guthrie concert you mentioned. :D This library does have some fairly rare stuff. There were also half a dozen Gordon Lightfoot CDs - I haven't listened to any of those yet.

* But there was NO STAN ROGERS and no Tanglefoot. :-( I foresee some looking for faster wireless in my future, so I can stalk YT videos. ;P

Eee, I am so happy to hear you enjoyed Pete Seeger! He's so great. And yeah, banjos are awesome and not appreciated enough.

Peter Paul and Mary do indeed do an excellent version of Blowin' in the Wind! I hope you do manage to find soemthing of theirs

It is TRAGIC though that you couldn't find Stan Rogers or Tanglefoot, though, because those are my favourites of the things I recced. But they're relatively limited to a Canadian audience, and afaik you're not Canadian, so it doesn't entirely surprise me that your library doesn't have them. (also, even more tragically, there isn't much of Tanglefoot up on YT either for once you do have faster wireless....)

Well I already got in some proselytizing during your entry into bandom so I am more or less sated (BAHAHA) but, because it is more or less something that would fall under the "fannish" umbrella I must ask, have you listened to recordings of Leslie Fish?

Hee, and much do I appreciate the various proselytizing that happened in my direction while I was getting into bandom!

Leslie Fish, Leslie Fish -- wait, I totally have a song by her! I think I ended up listening to it because of

nextian's awesome folk songs about The Lone Centurion? I will take this as an indication that I need to check out more of her stuff. Added to list!

Awesome! (Also, according to information acquired poking around various OTW sites, Leslie Fish basically invented slash fandom. So that's cool!)

...DUDE.

Oh, it's so hard to pick just one! I will say, for general recs, you should check out my fanmixes (here & here), which are a nice sampler of my musical taste and pleasant to listen to in general. I tend to find new music through fanmixes & last.fm.

While they are not my favorite band, The Magnetic Fields are one of many that I like quite a lot, and I feel compelled to recommend them to you for several reasons:
- their basic style is a funky indie pop I think you'll enjoy
- QUEERMAZING INDIE GOODNESS
- their songs are full of hilarious and arresting narrative
- 69 Love Songs, also known as the best (3 disc!) concept album of all time

69 Love Songs has all sorts of different genres and song styles on it, so it's hard for me to recommend a specific song that sounds most like the band to you. I can say that I Don't Want to Get Over You, Love Is Like a Bottle of Gin (bonus fanvid), and Washington, D.C. are three of my favorites, and you should investigate them in that order.

Ooh, they sound like a lot of fun! Added to my list!

Oh, there are just so many groups that I like (though I don't so much get into the personalities). I'm going to guess you're already at least somewhat exposed to Sarah Harmer, so I'll ask whether you know much Pink Floyd.

The "get into them" for me would actually be to watch the film version of "The Wall", actually. (If that's too steep, "Another Brick in the Wall (part 2)"is the obvious single-song rec, though I'd be quite surprised if you don't already know that.) I personally can't get into anything of theirs before "Dark Side of the Moon" (in fact, if you want a free copy of "Ummagumma", just say the word), but from that album on, I quite like their work. ("Animals" is the only one that hasn't especially gripped me, but I like it well enough.) I don't really care whether it's pre- or post-Waters; I'd recommend listening to "Dark Side of the Moon", "The Wall", "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" (with "Learning to Fly" or "One Slip" as individual songs to start with if needed), and "Division Bell" ("High Hopes" as the individual song) as cohesive albums rather than as singles.

I am actually not particularly familiar with Sarah Harmer! But I know even less about Pink Floyd. So. Both are now on my list!

Oh, hee, I figured "don't rec the Canadian folk singer to the Canadian, silly!" Just goes to show. I'd start with the album "You Were Here"; if you've heard her at all, you'll have heard "Basement Apt.", but I'd go for "Lodestar" as the multiple-listen song; it has varying tempos and strings (which I always adore). I quite like her newest album, "Oh Little Fire", as well as the two between for differing reasons, but "You Were Here" is still my favorite of her albums.

Oh hey I HAVE heard Basement Apartment! I'd forgotten that. Awesome -- thanks for the details to add to my list!

Garmarna! Swedish folk rock with AMAZING lead singer. Vedergällningen is my favorite of their CDs. (Worth looking up the lyrics because Swedish folk music is remarkably morbid at times.) "Vedergällningen (Vengeance)" is one of my favorites; I also love "Varulven (Werewolf)" and "Güds Spelemen (Fiddlers of God)", the later from the same-named album.

And here are some of their music videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIC_SNtYpxQ ("Euchari")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjmq6KI0D_o ("Herr Holger")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufnnr_q1yfE ("Vanner och Frander (Friends and Kin)")

And a concert version of "Gamen (Vulture)":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AAeb0STkbc

Also, uh, if you felt like poking through a bunch of different genres,

smillaraaq has a great contemporary Native American/First Nations music playlist on YouTube. It doesn't have my favorite Buffy Sainte-Marie song ("Starwalker"), but it does have about 3/4 of the hiphop I have ever enjoyed, and also Derek Miller.

OR YOU CAN IGNORE THIS COMMENT IF IT IS OVERWHELMING, SINCE IT IS TECHNICALLY A SECOND SUGGESTION. OR THIRD. OR SOMETHING.

Hee, I will keep this comment in mind, then, for after I get through everything else on my list! Which is getting to be quite a long list.... But hip-hop is one of those things I have never been able to get into, so being able to find some I might enjoy sounds like a Good Thing.

Oh, cool, Swedish folk rock! Added to my list!

The Monkees! I love their stuff. I think they are honestly better than the Beatles (they were a rip-off / spin-off / what-have-you).

I don't really know which of their original albums had which songs on them, because I mostly know them from anthology albums ("Best of The Monkees" and such), but my favorite three songs of theirs - well, sorted for variety (i.e. I left out all the duplicate folk-style songs) are:

* "Papa Gene's Blues" (the title has nothing to do with the song; it's a '60s ballad-style love song, very folk-ish)
* "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day" (punchy pop-style song, reminiscent of "These Shoes Were Made For Walking"; lots of rhythm and sass)
* "Words" (a late-'60s proto-psychedelic broken-heart song with some interesting instrumentation)

These are all lesser-known songs, not their Absolute Top Hits - but believe me, I'll be happy to natter at length about which Monkees songs fall into any category you care to name. ;-) Just get me started.

Oh, cool, they sound awesome! Added to list! And when I eventually get to them, I will be happy to listen to you natter at length about them! :D

You might know them from "I'm a Believer", which they did in Shrek. (I know many artists via Shrek. *grin*)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfuBREMXxts

(And apparently now I'm stalking everyone's recs. This is exciting!)

Steeleye Span is a British folk band, started in the 1970s but still together (although their early stuff is the best if you ask me). They are hardcore traditional in terms of their song choices, but very rock-like in style, and I love them to bits.

Best album to start with: Please to See the King.

Sample tracks (from several different albums):
- False Knight on the Road (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHqFyRT1AhU) (from Please to See the King)
- The Weaver and the Factory Maid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do7epBepl8U) (from Parcel of Rogues)
- King Henry (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U400-AvPKbo) (from Below the Salt)

...Huh! Someone tried to get me into Steeleye Span once, years ago, but that was back when I was rather more narrow-minded, musically, and I didn't particularly enjoy them. Definitely I am going to give them another chance, because I bet they are actually right up my alley!

One thing about Steeleye Span is that they change lineups a lot -- cf. this list (http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/steeleye.span/musicians.html) -- and therefore so does their sound. As I said, the stuff I picked out is all quite early; the later stuff sounds quite different. So that may make a difference.

(And if you still don't like them I can totally recommend other stuff... :D)

...dude, I see what you mean about changing lineups. I will keep that in mind!

(and if it turns out I don't like them, when I get to them on my list, I will definitely hit you up for other recs!)

Everyone else is reccing folkies, but I'm going to go for the nerd rock.

They Might Be Giants.

They were the band that pretty much got me through high school. The album you want is Flood (http://tmbw.net/wiki/Flood), because that was the album I started with, and the song you want to listen to on repeat is Birdhouse in Your Soul (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAbZzdalZh4), which you should listen to as many times as it takes, until it sounds completely normal and rational that this song is about a nightlight and that it namechecks Jason and the Argonauts. This will prepare you for the rest of the album.

...if you've heard of them, do I get another rec?

NERD ROCK. Ooh, that sounds AWESOME! Added to list!

And I will be generous and give you a second rec even though I haven't heard They Might Be Giants before. :D

They are awesome. Especially if your idea of a good rock song includes accordion. They have excellent melodies and lyrics that can best be described as very, very strange. Their voices might take some getting used to, though. The core of the band is John Flansburgh (guitar, vocals) and John Flansburgh (accordion, keyboard, vocals) and it took several albums before they actually got a drummer and not just a drum machine. They're also the kind of band that has a song about that ("Rhythm Section Want Ad").

Um. Hmm. I actually didn't think I'd get another rec. Let me think of a different genre here.

Oh! Back to the folkies, there's the Nields (http://nields.com/), who are a pair of sisters (and occasionally singing with other people) who do mostly their own songs and have interesting harmonies. I was going to tell you that Play was my favorite album, but poking around on their site I see that the album Gotta Get Over Greta (http://nields.bandcamp.com/) is available for entirely free download, and, um... we named our dog Greta after the song. (It's not really related; the song is about the narrator's ex-girlfriend. But it's a good song.)

(Pst, Sophia - you like a They Might Be Giants song! They did that version of "Istanbul Not Constantinople". *grin*)

(I am really enjoying all this commenting on other people's recs, PS.)

Hee, of course my idea of a good rock song includes accordion! Also, it is clear that I have spent too long in SGA fandom because I can't look at John Flansburgh's name without thinking of him as JFlan...

And yay! The Nields are now added to my list!

(Excuse the deleted comment and reposting; HTML vomit.)

SCISSOR SISTERS! Oh, Lord, Scissor Sisters. How to explain Scissor Sisters? Their latest album, Night Work, feels like it's taking place at 3 AM in a glitter-filled club in the '80s (and occasionally the '70s). It's alternative glam rock pop, and it's glorious.

You may already know them from Doctor Who; the Master plays "I Can't Decide" at one point, and it's insinuated that he's essentially just playing their second album, Ta-Dah!, ad nauseum and broadcasting it to the whole world. In fact, I think Ta-Dah! is their best album, and I would start there.

As for specific songs, "Take Your Mama" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od7-fyGa9DQ&ob=av3e) was their first big hit. It's a lot of fun, but I think "Better Luck" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5-GCJSwUOs) and "Music is the Victim" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsJE-q1q-U0) are better, and emphasize their honky-tonk vibe. (They're all over the map. It's great.)

Ta-Dah! is just, well, glorious, but stand-outs include "Might Tell You Tonight" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TosO5ti3LIk), a remarkably sweet love song, and "Everybody Wants the Same Thing" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngxYXXw8f04), which must be heard—if you listen to only song from this comment, make it this one.

Night Work skews a bit more new wave, hence how '80s it feels, which unfortunately tends to replace the honky-tonk vibe I so loved. "Fire with Fire" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FV2ILnnTa0&ob=av2e), the first single and track, is joyful, but "Invisible Light" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfkKmncw3rc) is just amazing. Also, Sir Ian McKellen guests on the track. This band is Gandalf-approved.

Pst, Sophia, this vid:

http://mresundance.livejournal.com/709903.html

No, this vid:

http://jarrow.livejournal.com/957773.html

...pardon me, I need to go rewatch, uh, all of Will and Grace. Oh, this vid. <3

Ooh, SWEET. I love I Can't Decide! I have watched that clip from Doctor Who a possibly unhealthy amount! The Scissor Sisters: added to my list!

They are well-known and perhaps you already have opinions on them, but for something a bit different from the music that's been rec'd so far ... how about Fleetwood Mac? '70s rock/pop, nice blend of men's and women's voices, fast catchy tunes. "Rumours" is probably the album to start with (it's their signature album and overall their best, even though some of my favorite songs of theirs aren't on it). For individual songs, Secondhand News is probably my favorite song off the album (possibly in part because it's not as overplayed as some of the others), and while I'm more partial to their faster, rockier songs in general, Gold Dust Woman is an excellent sample of their slower/folkier songs.

Nope, I have not heard them and have no opinions! So, they are now on my list!

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