Reference CDs for folk music

[Old Goat]

I did a search and found one mention of James Taylor. I'd like to know what your favorite reference CDs are for acoustic and vocal folk and singer/songwriter music. Thanks.

[psc3]

Pink Moon by Nick Drake
Master and Everyone by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Peter, Paul and Mary by Peter, Paul and Mary

[squeegybug]

It's a broad category of course. For performance style and/or technical production I'll add these that I often use for acoustic reference:

Agree with Pink Moon
Anything by Gordon Lightfoot
Richard Thompson -- Live From Austin TX (acoustic & electric)
Carter Family (various)
Wailin Jennys -- 40 Days (fantastic)
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings -- Hell Among the Yearlings
Alison Krauss & Union Station -- So Long So Wrong
Norman Blake -- The Rising Fawn String Ensemble
Jackson Browne -- Saturate Before Using

lots of others.

Steve

[Carlos Boll]

Jackson C. Frank - Blues Run The Game

Shide & Acorn - Under The Tree

Gary Higgins - Red Hash

[allencollins]

for electric folk check out Liege & Lief by Fairport C.

[travisbrown]

Sonic reference, or style/composition/performance reference?

I'll suggest a few that are exemplary of both, though a few might fall into some alt-folk category. Some is rootsier than others.

The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo
The Waterboys - Fisherman's Blues
Mark Heard - Second Hand
Lyle Lovett - Pontiac
I'll second the Gillian Welch suggestion above. All of the Welch albums are excellent for reference.
Kate Rusby - Little Lights
Bruce Cockburn - Nothing but a Burning Light
Ani DiFranco - Not a Pretty Girl
Lost Dogs - Scenic Routes
Mike Scott - Bring 'em All In
Any Martin Carthy album
The first Nickel Creek album (self-titled). The latter ones stray a little from folk category. Alison Krauss produces the first couple and they sound stellar.
Mundy - 24 Star Hotel
John Bottomley - Blackberry
John Reischman and the Jaybirds - Field Guide
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - the Will the Circle Be Unbroken? volumes.

And not singer-songwriter, but sonically excellent - David Grisman Quintet (1978)

[FireMoon]

John Martyn..... Bless the Weather and Solid Air
Nick Drake....... Pink Moon and Bryter Later
Heron.............. Yellow Roses, recorded live in a field, one English summers evening
Tir Na Nog....... First two albums

[adathead 53]

Richard Buckner "Devotion&Doubt" and "Bloomed"
Vigilantes of Love "Audible Sigh"
Ryan Adams "Heartbreaker"
Buddy and Julie Miller

And of course, early James Taylor and Jackson Browne.

[doncaparker]

While I have seen in these posts the names of lots of artists I love, I wouldn't say they are all necessarily good examples of how to record folk/acoustic music. I guess we all have our own ideas of what falls within certain genre. No harm in that.

I think Gillian Welch and David Rawlings (initially produced by T-Bone Burnett, then later self-produced) are great examples of how one should record sparsely arranged acoustic music. Man, on lots of those tracks, it's just the two of them and their guitars, and it sounds like Heaven. We could all learn something from that.

Speaking of T-Bone, the Oh Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack is a great primer on how one should record old-time music. Absolutely stunning.

For a larger ensemble (can you use that word for folk music?), I really like how Tim O'Brien's recordings sound. There's one in particular that has always stood out to me: Rock in My Shoe. I think Jerry Douglas produced that one. Pop music on acoustic instruments, with a little tip of the hat to bluegrass. Very cool.

While on the Jerry Douglas connection, any Allison Krauss recordings with Jerry in the band sound wonderful. Hard to beat.

In general, those Newgrass types do a great job of capturing the tone of their instruments. Check out Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Tony Rice, Sam Bush, etc.

Dawg music sounds really good, too.

Looking at my list, I think I've been hanging around too many aging hippies. <G>

[themaidsroom]

kate and anna mcgarrigle - the record by the same name

[travisbrown]

Originally Posted by doncaparker

Looking at my list, I think I've been hanging around too many aging hippies. <G>

Yeah, but your list is pretty close to my list, and I'm only half the age of an aging hippie.

[Brian Middleton]

Some good picks here--I particularly like squeegybug's mention of Jackson Browne's first album, which has a warm, wooden, evocative sound unlike anything else he ever did.

A few others to consider:

Richard Shindell, Somewhere Near Paterson, especially "Wisteria" for a great example of how to establish a gorgeous voice/guitar sound and then expand the arrangement without ever losing that initial focus. (Of course it helps to have a voice like Shindell's.)

Girlyman, Remember Who I Am

for a more "alt" approach to folk, the first two Ron Sexsmith albums (eponymous and Other Songs)

[numrologst]

Neil Young - Harvest

[PRobb]

Dolly Parton's bluegrass album "the Grass Is Blue" is a really nice clean, simple production. You can hear every note. And, since it's bluegrass, there's lots of 'em.

[Old Goat]

Wow! Thanks, folks. What an impressive list. I am looking for sonic references. I just finished my tracking/mixing room, and I'd like to get an idea of how "good" sounds in there. I sound better, but is it good?

I'm a fan of Lightfoot, Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Alisson Krauss, Dave Mallett, Croce, and John Denver. (I know, my dirty little secret) I like Shindell, but can't sing like him.

Very cool. Thanks again, from another aging hippie.

[woomanmoomin]

The folkier Joni Mitchell stuff
The folkier Leonard Cohen stuff
'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'
Woody Guthrie
Nick Drake
The Byrds
A whole lot of stuff like Delta blues that pushes the genre envelope...

The opening bars of Simon and Garfunkel's 'The Boxer' are a few more reasons why I've got a nice little folky OM guitar (though it's more like the Gibson Nick Lucas that Dylan used to play than Paul Simon's Guild).

[uncle duncan]

David Wilcox - New Horizon - goes from tastefully produced folk pop to guitar/vocal.

Shawn Colvin - A Few Small Repairs - lush but precise production, with interesting panning, not in your typical guitars-hard-left-and-right style.

The first Norah Jones CD is pretty cool.

Lucinda Williams does some interesting stuff, but now we're veering off into a more rock-oriented sound.

Avoid the new Allison Krause/Robert Plant duet disk. God I hate the way that sounds, with the muffled kick drum fighting with the muffled bass. It's probably supposed to be some kind of retro analog magic, but it gives me a headache.

[PRobb]

I don't know if this really counts as folk but the production on Ryan Adam's "Heartbreaker" just knocks me out.

[crufty]

Elizabeth Mitchell - You are my little bird

I am not an expert on folk music but this is an album that pops out of the speakers.

[Old Goat]

Thanks!

[Kyle S]

[Audiop]

Eric Bibb on the label Opus3.


/Peter

[crufty]

boiled in lead - orb
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/M...17847&s=143441