Talk:List of folk musicians

Untitled
Seems eurocentric, why NAm musicians mainstream and others not? -- Viajero 14:46 1 Jul 2003 (UTC)

I agree. In terms of folk in the traditional sense, the are infinitely many small folk artist all over the world which make up what true folk is. a lot of these artists could be classified as folk-rock, folk-pop, or have folk roots, but I see a number that i wouldnt classify as true folk. The other issue is that there are so many incredible folk artists all over the world that no one would be able to add them all, it would take nearly infinetly long! should there be a notice at the start of the list that just highlights that this is in no way exhaustive?!

Someone typed this into the edit window for the non-existing Dick Gaughan article. I think this refers to this list but I don't know anything about the topic. Andris 14:23, Jul 30, 2004 (UTC) Dick Gaughan is Scottish, not Irish. Please re-classify this. Now there is an article and he is clearly Scottish. Tiles 07:10, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Searching for more
Is there a better way than Google or Yahoo to search for 'folk musician' or similar on the list to improve these links? I just added Stan Rogers to the Canada section and given Canada's continuing high profile in folk music it seems that there should be much more. Kickstart70 20:15, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * What about Amazon.com? Tiles 07:10, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)

For American artists I suggest: http://www.ibiblio.org/keefer/pf_frset.htm

For Celtic artists I suggest: http://www.slipcue.com/music/international/celtic/albums/A_01.html

For UK artists, up to 1999, I suggest: http://www.piper-kj.demon.co.uk/diary.htm  (click on "recordings")

For general world artists I suggest: http://www.folksylinks.it/index.html Ogg 08:36, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Jack Orion
To the best of my knowledge there is no such group as Jack Orion. There is a notable album by Bert Jansch called "Jack Orion". That is probably the source of the error. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ogg (talk • contribs) 07:57, 4 January 2005 (UTC)

There is a band called Jack O'Ryan Band from Tyneside who were originally called Jack Orion for a very short time Then they altered the spelling of the band's name to Jack O'Ryan band when they realised the content of traditional irish songs and tunes their set consisted of. More information about the Jack O'Ryan Band can be obtained from the website www.folkstomp.com. The name Jack O'Ryan Band was actually chosen by the brother of the bass player (Terence Greener, after a drunken night at the Cumberland Arms, Byker.) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.233.254.158 (talk) 22:57, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Ireland
Ireland is listed twice, with mostly the same performers — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.46.22.195 (talk) 23:38, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

What is "Folk"?
This list seems to be using a very loose definition of "folk" - to find, for instance, Joan Armatrading or even Billy Bragg included in the UK section is rather odd. While a few of the UK performers listed under "England" are interpreters of traditional material (Norma Waterson, Peter Bellamy, John Kirkpatrick, June Tabor etc), not one is a genuine traditional source singer or performer, as far as I am aware. Where are Walter Pardon, Fred Jordan, Jinky Wells, Scan Tester, Billy Pigg, Walter Bulwer, to name but a few? Perhaps further subdivisions of the list are needed (but then how do you categorise a performer whose material is mainly traditional but makes occasional forays into contemporary compositions? Or who writes their own material very much in a traditional vein? Or who arranges a traditional song/tune in a folk-rock style? Or a mainstream performer who happens to record one traditional song?) SiGarb 17:53, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Not all folk musicians perform traditional material; Christine Lavin, the Roches, and Suzanne Vega are all singer-songwriters. Woody Guthrie performed original material, so do his son and granddaughter. Dar Williams, to the best of my knowledge, has never performed a traditional song. Folk music (at least in the case of the US, England, Ireland, and Canada) is (usually) acoustic based music rooted in a traditional sound. The majority of folk performers active today are singer-songwriters. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.46.22.195 (talk) 22:27, 5 September 2005 (UTC)

Here's a bit of fun, read -> Folkies. Ogg 12:44, 13 November 2005 (UTC)
 * Nice one! But nothing about "fingers-in-the-ear", tankards, beards and other archetypes? And don't banjo players, melodeon players, accordionists etc traditionally vie for unpopularity with bodhran players...? ( "What do you call someone who hangs around with musicians? - A drummer/banjo player/bagpiper/accordionist etc etc" ) BTW, does the total lack of wikilinks indicate that you're expecting the article to be a candidate for speedy deletion? SiGarb 17:20, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

Karen Tweed
Karen Tweed was listed under Finland. I believe she is English, of Irish descent. She plays a lot of Scandinavian music as part of Swåp, and with Timo Alakotila and others on her album "May Monday", but equally she has a huge Irish repertoire and also plays English & French contemporary compositions, Scottish, Northumbrian etc etc. She has also recorded an album called "Faerd" of music from the Faroe Islands. So where does that place her in this simplistic list? SiGarb 18:07, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Patrick Wolf
I am sure Patrick Wolf is a fine musician, and yes there is a website calling him a genius, but in what sense is he a folk muscian? The article gives no hint. Should he be in psych-folk, or punk instead? Ogg 19:24, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

Northumbria
Does Northumbria really require its own category distinct from England, especially since only a tiny minority of acts listed have a Wikipedia page. FrFintonStack 18:37, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

adding info
I have added the name of a singer (Robin Roberts) in the United States, General category. the name appears in black type. I am new here; how do I create lines of info about her? (I mean, keystroke by keystroke, friends.) I notice that the names with no info yet are in red; the ones in blue have info about them. What do I do next?GrannyTanny (talk) 18:28, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Criteria needed
I've removed the following as not qualifying for classification as folk music artists: Beau Brummels, Buffalo Springfield, Byrds, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Grateful Dead, Moby Grape, Turtles and Violent Femmes. To me, all of these are clearly rock, folk-rock or something related, but not folk music by any traditional definition. While I appreciate their folk connections and have been a fan of each of them for many years, to me it seems to be stretching the definition far too much to include them.

I'm currently in the process of editing the List of Singer-Songwriters, which at one time overflowed with similarly blurred entries. Fortunately, that list has a secondary listing to accommodate those who are singer-songwriters in the sense that they sing and write songs but whose primary notability is as vocalists-writers for groups. Even there, some additional criteria was needed, namely notable solo experience, otherwise every band in the world that performs and records its own material would have to be included.

Similarly, criteria is needed for the folk list or over time it's bound to become a useless hodge podge. In that regard, I would suggest that we try to keep the list limited to individuals and groups whose primary genre/notability is folk. Given that, the Grateful Dead would not belong here, though Grateful Dawg (Jerry Garcia and David Grisman) clearly would. I would appreciate hearing from others. Thanks. Allreet (talk) 19:18, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Dates of (birth-death) added as comments.
Dear fellow editors, I am leaving the present message, out of courtesy to other editors interested in this article. I was surprised to see dates of (birth-death) added alongside some of the names in this list; it would appear that, historically, this was done mainly for some of the entries in the sublists for Canada, Scotland and the United States. These added comments seem unnecessary to me, since:
 * names can only be included if the person has an article or is referenced by an external link (as per WP:LISTPEOPLE);
 * therefore, dates of (birth-death) can readily be found via these internal/external links;
 * in at least one case (Garnet Rogers), the added birth date diverges from that recorded in the article itself;

From a practical point of view, these dates (and other comments, which should really be located in the articles themselves) take space and therefore preclude the columns from being compacted for efficient presentation on the page (see List of singer-songwriters as an example). The case of Garnet Rogers also demonstrates that the added comments could introduce errors and thus cause confusion to the reader.

I am therefore removing these details, since they are clearly redundant: they seem to serve little purpose and there is no section in the present talk page recording an earlier discussion and agreement to include them. Of course, if anyone has a different view, then please let's discuss this here, by all means, as there may well be an excellent reason for having these dates, even though I can't see it. Thank you. With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(guestbook) 11:43, 9 March 2016 (UTC)
 * This update to confirm I have now applied the above changes. I have also adjusted the width of all columns to the following standard:  , thereby making this article adopt the same layout as the List of singer-songwriters. Thank you.
 * With kind regards;
 * Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(guestbook) 15:37, 9 March 2016 (UTC)