- Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author, musician, and poet who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of Dylan's most recognized work dates from the 1960s, when he became an informal documentarian and a reluctant figurehead of American unrest. A number of his songs, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'", … - Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (born May 3, 1919), almost universally known as Pete Seeger, is a folk singer, political activist, and author. As a member of the Weavers, he had a string of hits, including a 1949 recording of Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene" that topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. He was formerly a member of the Communist Party of the United States of America and a major contributor to folk and pioneer of protest music in the 1950s and the 1960s. - Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC (born Roberta Joan Anderson on November 7, 1943) is a Canadian musician, songwriter, and painter. Mitchell grew up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Mitchell's singing, over several decades, began in small nightclubs and busking on the streets of Toronto and in her native Western Canada. She subsequently became associated with the burgeoning folk music scene of the mid-1960s in New York City. - Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, CC (born September 21, 1934 in Westmount, Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. Cohen's earliest songs (many of which appeared on the 1968 album "Songs of Leonard Cohen") were rooted in European folk music melodies and instrumentation, sung in a high baritone. - John Prine
John Prine (born October 10, 1946, in Maywood, Illinois) is an American country/folk singer-songwriter who has achieved widespread critical (and some commercial) success since the early 1970s. Prine is the son of William Prine and Verna Hamm. His grandfather had played guitar with Merle Travis, and Prine himself started playing guitar at age 14. He was a postman for five years and served in the Army before beginning his musical career in Chicago. - Entrance
Entrance is the musical vehicle for indie rock musician Guy Blakeslee. His style is a sort of psychedelic folk music, often consisting of vocals and guitar with old, public domain blues songs. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Blakeslee first gained notice as a member of The Convocation Of.... He later left the band and moved to Chicago to pursue a solo career under the guise of the name Entrance. - Norah Jones
Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar on March 30 1979 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and occasional actress. Jones's career was launched with the massive success of her 2002 debut album "Come Away with Me", a contemporary pop album with a sensual, plaintive soul/folk/country tinge, that sold over twenty million copies worldwide and received six Grammy Awards, with Jones winning "Best New Artist". - Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk singer. - Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax (January 31, 1915 - July 19, 2002) was an important American folklorist and musicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, the West Indies, Italy, and Spain. - Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams (born January 26, 1953) is an American rock, folk, and country music singer and songwriter. A three-time Grammy Award winner, she was named "America's best songwriter" by "TIME" magazine in 2002. - Doc Watson
Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson, born March 3, 1923 in Deep Gap, North Carolina, is a guitar player, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music. According to Doc on his three CD biographical recording "Legacy", he got the nickname "Doc" during a live radio broadcast when the announcer remarked that his given name Arthel was odd and he needed an easy nickname to go by. - Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg (born December 20, 1957), known as Billy Bragg, is an English musician renowned for his blend of folk, punk-rock, and protest music, and his lyrics dealing with political as well as romantic themes. He has been active for over 20 years, and has collaborated with many other leading musicians, including Johnny Marr of The Smiths, protest folk singer Leon Rosselson, members of R.E.M., Michelle Shocked, Less Than Jake, Kirsty MacColl, … - John Denver
John Denver (December 31, 1943 - October 12, 1997), born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., was an American folk singer-songwriter and folk rock musician who was one of the biggest selling artists of the 1970s. In his lifetime, he recorded and released some 300 songs, about half of which he had written, and served as the Poet Laureate of Colorado. Denver's songs were suffused with a deep and abiding kinship with the natural world. - Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr., CC, O.Ont, LL.D (hon.) (born November 17, 1938) is a Canadian folk singer, composer, lyricist and poet. - Martin Carthy
Martin Dominic Forbes Carthy MBE (born May 21, 1941) is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and later artists such as Richard Thompson since he emerged as a young musician in the early days of the folk revival. He was born in Hatfield and grew up in Hampstead, North London. - Tom Paxton
Thomas R. Paxton (born October 31, 1937) is a well-known American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years. His songs have experienced enduring appeal, including modern standards such as "The Last Thing on My Mind", "Bottle of Wine", "Whose Garden Was This", "The Marvelous Toy", and "Ramblin' Boy". Paxton's songs have been recorded by Pete Seeger, Judy Collins, Doc Watson, Sandy Denny, Dolly Parton, … - Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is a nine-time Grammy-winning American blues rock singer, guitarist, bassist, and songwriter. Her music blends country, pop, folk, and blues rock into one mainstream sound. Crow is also a noted political activist who uses her fame to promote causes she supports. - Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch (born October 2 1967 in New York City) is a singer-songwriter whose musical style combines elements of bluegrass, neotraditional country, Americana, old time string band music and folk into a rustic style that she dubs "American Primitive". All of her recordings feature the close-harmonies and unconventional guitar work of her musical partner, David Rawlings. Her music is often described as haunting or soothing. - Eliza Carthy
Eliza Carthy (born August 23, 1975) in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, is an English folk musician known for both singing and playing fiddle. She is the daughter of legendary English folk musicians singer/guitarist Martin Carthy and singer Norma Waterson. At the age of thirteen she formed the Waterdaughters with her mother, aunt (Lal Waterson) and cousin Maria Knight. She has subsequently worked with Nancy Kerr, with her parents as Waterson:Carthy, … - Townes van Zandt
Townes Van Zandt (March 7 1944 - January 1 1997) was a country-folk music singer-songwriter, performer, and poet. Although Van Zandt was not widely known before his death, he has since slowly gained a cult status. His songs have been covered by such notable musicians as Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, Norah Jones, John Prine, Gillian Welch, Devendra Banhart, The Meat Puppets, GG Allin, Johnny Dowd, … - Nanci Griffith
Nanci Caroline Griffith, (born July 6, 1953 in Seguin, Texas) is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter from Austin, Texas. Griffith's career has spanned a variety of musical genres, predominantly country, folk, and what she terms "folkabilly." Griffith won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1994 for her recording, "Other Voices, Other Rooms". This album features Griffith covering the songs of artists who are her major influences. - Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens (born July 1, 1975) is an American singer-songwriter and musician from Petoskey, Michigan. He is known for his lyrically focused and instrumentally rich songs that often relate to faith and family. Stevens has enjoyed wide critical success in the United States. He is considered part of the folk revival in indie pop, but his influences are very broad. His music has been likened to electronica and the minimalism of Steve Reich. - Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Vega (born Suzanne Nadine Vega, 11 July 1959, Santa Monica, California) is an American songwriter and singer known for her highly literate lyrics and eclectic folk-inspired music. - Steve Goodman
Steve Goodman was a Grammy Award-winning folk music singer and songwriter from Chicago, United States. - Robert Burns
Robert Burns - known as Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favourite son, the Ploughman Poet, the Bard of Ayrshire and (in Scotland) simply as The Bard (January 25, 1759 - July 21, 1796) was a poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best-known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, … - Mississippi John Hurt
"Mississippi" John Smith Hurt (July 2, 1892, Teoc, Carroll County, Mississippi - November 2, 1966, Grenada, Mississippi) was an influential blues singer and guitarist. Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, he learned to play guitar at age 9. He spent much of his youth playing old time music for friends and dances, earning a living as a farm hand into the 1920s. - Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known as Nina Simone, was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Although she disliked being categorized, Simone is generally classified as a jazz musician. Her work covers an eclectic variety of musical styles, such as jazz, soul, folk, R&B, gospel, and even pop music. Her vocal style is characterized by passion, breathiness, and tremolo. Simone recorded over 40 live and studio albums, … - Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Douglas Cockburn, OC (born May 27, 1945) is a Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer/songwriter. He has recorded an immense volume of work, his 29th album being released in summer 2006, and has written songs in styles ranging from folk to jazz-influenced rock to rock and roll. - Greg Brown
Greg Brown is a folk musician from Iowa, USA. His "Iowa Waltz" has been (unsuccessfully) proposed to replace the state song of Iowa. - Dave Swarbrick
David Cyril Eric 'Dave' Swarbrick (born 5 April 1941 in New Malden) is an English folk musician. He plays violin, viola, mandolin, and guitar, and sings. - Bert Jansch
Herbert Jansch (born 3 November 1943), known as Bert Jansch, is a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and, in the 1960s, he was heavily influenced by the guitarist Davey Graham and folk singers such as Anne Briggs. He is best known as an innovative and accomplished acoustic guitarist but is also a singer and songwriter. - Damien Rice
Damien Rice (born December 7, 1973) is an Irish folk singer, famous for his two albums "O" and "9". He was born in Dublin, Ireland, to George and Maureen Rice and was raised in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland. - David Wilcox
David Patrick Wilcox (born 1958) is an American folk musician and singer-songwriter. Wilcox was born in Mentor, Ohio. He attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio in 1976 where he started learning guitar. He later transferred to Warren Wilson College in North Carolina in 1981 and graduated in 1985. Within two years he had released his first album, and by 1989 he had signed with A&M Records, a major label. - Leo Kottke
Leo Kottke (born on 11 September 1945 in Athens, Georgia, USA, North America) is an acoustic guitarist. He is widely known for his idiosyncratic fingerpicking style, which draws on blues, jazz, and folk music influences, and his syncopated, polyphonic melodies. His work is often considered part of the American Primitivism movement, partly because he was signed to John Fahey's Takoma Records label. - Richie Havens
Richie Havens (born January 21 1941 in Brooklyn, New York) is an African American folk singer and guitarist. Havens is perhaps best known for his intense rhythmic guitar style, soulful covers of pop and folk songs and his opening performance at the Woodstock Festival; all the more remarkable for the absence of most of his upper teeth. Havens uses open D tuning on the guitar. By fretting all strings it produces a major chord on any position on the neck of the guitar. - Anne Briggs
Anne Patricia Briggs (born 1944), known as Anne Briggs, is an English folk singer. Although she travelled widely, in the 1960s and early 1970s, appearing at folk clubs and venues in England and Ireland, she never aspired to commercial success or to achieve widespread public acknowledgement of her music. However, she was a highly influential figure in the English folk music revival, … - Tommy Makem
Tommy Makem (born November 4, 1932) is an internationally celebrated folk musician, artist, poet and storyteller from Ireland, most known as a member of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. He plays the banjo and tin whistle and sings in a baritone. He is sometimes known as "The Bard of Armagh" (taken from a traditional song of the same name) and "The Godfather of Irish Music". He was born and raised in Keady, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. - Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Ramblin' Jack Elliott (born Elliott Charles Adnopoz, August 1, 1931) is an American folk performer. Originally from New York, Elliott grew up in a Jewish family and had always wanted to be a cowboy. Pressured by his parents to follow in his father's footsteps and become a doctor, Elliott resisted and inspired by the rodeos he attended at Madison Square Garden, he ran away from home at the age of 15 and joined the J.E. Ranch Rodeo. - John Gorka
John Gorka (born 1958, Newark, New Jersey) is a contemporary American folk musician. Upon the release of his first album in 1987, "Rolling Stone" magazine dubbed him "the voice of 'new folk'." - Stan Rogers
Stanley Allison Rogers (November 29, 1949 - June 2, 1983) was a Canadian folk musician and songwriter. Rogers was noted for his rich, baritone voice and his finely-crafted, traditional-sounding songs which were frequently inspired by Canadian history and the daily lives of working people, especially those from the fishing villages of the Maritime provinces and, later, the farms of the Canadian prairies.
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