# Which 'English-speaking' folk music do you like best?



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Folk music, even within the English speaking world, is so diverse. If you had to choose one to listen to or play, which would it be? 

'English-speaking' is a loose term, as there are many areas where English is widely spoken among the people, but older languages (e.g. Irish Gaelic) survive. No offence - it's just to make the poll more convenient. 

Please do post to say why you like that sort so much, and which folk musics run it a close second in your estimation. 

Recommendations for the best tunes or players of your chosen folk music would also be fab. 

Thanks in advance for your replies! :tiphat:


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I voted for Scottish. Even as I post this, I realised that I missed out a major category - 'Shetland' music has a character distinct from the Scottish mainland. Of course, I could also have split English into North and South, because these musics also have a separate character. 

I like Scottish because I grew up with it and it's in my ancestry. But I like Irish almost as much, and then after that English, particularly the old and/or Southern tunes - even though I'm a Northerner. The tunes that go right back to Playford's English Dancing Master are so numinous in their strangeness, and the 'Hardyesque' country dance tunes and songs have a sweet wistfulness about them. 

I may have made some mistakes in naming the American versions - but I'm expecting Ukko :tiphat: to put me right on this.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Incredibly difficult to decide. English has all the beautiful Playford tunes. Irish has a wide range of jigs and reels. Cape Breton feeds off the Scots as does Appalachian. Bluegrass is brilliant.

Ultimately, however, it has to be Scottish. There's such a wide range from the Baroque stylists like William Marshall to the genius of Niel Gow. We've also got the songs of Burns, the ballads of Walter Scott and Mrs Brown of Falkland and of course the bagpipes.

When it comes to players, Jimmy Shand and his band including the legendary Angus Fitchet - fiddler and composer in the best Scott Skinner tradition - stand out. Fitchet himself toured with Robert Wilson - a fine singer.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

I voted for bluegrass. 

I'm not really sure about definitions here. I like "old-timey" country-ish stuff and old blues. There's "folk blues," but that may be a different thing. Wikipedia mentions Cajun music (zydeco).


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

GreenMamba said:


> I voted for bluegrass.
> 
> I'm not really sure about definitions here. I like "old-timey" country-ish stuff and old blues. There's "folk blues," but that may be a different thing. Wikipedia mentions Cajun music (zydeco).


Yes, sorry - I don't know all that much about the different American folk genres. The poll's only there as an aid to posting though, and I'm very happy to be corrected.

I love blue grass too.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I voted bluegrass. Hey, I'm in Nashville; I'm supposed to.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

I didn't vote because I can't be limited to one category. Folk music is so diverse that to put a one category above another is far too difficult.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I consider Blue Grass a musical form or style of playing, and not folk music intrinsically speaking. Much of it is old time fiddle and country music arranged for string quintet, or original compositions.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Barbebleu said:


> I didn't vote because I can't be limited to one category. Folk music is so diverse that to put a one category above another is far too difficult.


+ 1 
all is been said here .


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

I completely disagree. Diverse as it may be, and although I really love a lot of folk music from the other side of the Channel, folk music from the Balkans (Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Rumania, Bulgaria) and Hungary is in a league of its own. Unsurpassed in my opinion.


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## Harmonie (Mar 24, 2007)

I love British Folk, but when I think about it, I haven't really looked into exactly where these songs originated from in Britain. However, there is one thing I know, and that's that I definitely prefer British Folk over American Folk.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

starthrower said:


> I consider Blue Grass a musical form or style of playing, and not folk music intrinsically speaking. Much of it is old time fiddle and country music arranged for string quintet, or original compositions.


I was about to complain along those lines; too slow on the draw, I am.

Re Appalachian, the real deal is mostly 'carried in' Scots-Irish, sometimes with changed place names. Around the north end of the chain there was/is an Acadian influence, obvious in the fiddle playing.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Harmonie said:


> I love British Folk, but when I think about it, I haven't really looked into exactly where these songs originated from in Britain. However, there is one thing I know, and that's that I definitely prefer British Folk over American Folk.


That you are able to differentiate speaks loud of the contamination of definitions.


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## znapschatz (Feb 28, 2016)

As it happens, my wife does programs performing folk music from all over, so I get a lot of exposure to everything from old-timey American to children's songs from Ghana. It is impossible for me to select one of these choices. I like samples from all English speaking folk musics, and also those of other cultures and continents.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Oz Folk plus gumleaves


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Hard to say. I like some bluegrass. American folk music mostly from Bob Dylan's early albums. Can't say that there is any genre of non-classical that I really like in particular. I am more artist oriented.


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