Pete Seeger furiously paced backstage at the Newport Folk Festival, enraged by electrified sounds coming from the stage. The folk legend threatened to take an axe to the wiring to stop the desecration of this pure music
Photocredit: Emptyskeleton.blogspot.com
Today’s fans of the genre should be thankful he restrained. Without electrification, the music world would be sans Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Neutral Milk Hotel, Fleet Foxes and many more.
Modern folk band, Bowerbirds, continue the folk genre.
Two schools of folk exist in today’s music. Much like the rap war between California and New York, east again battles west. In folk, the Pacific northwest, based out of Seattle, holds a majority of the genre.
Fleet Foxes, The Decemberists and The Head and the Heart reign as the champions of the Pacific wilderness, creating innovative and unique varieties of folk.
The east’s Mecca of folk lies in the south. Bowerbirds, from Raleigh, N.C., Iron and Wine, from South Carolina, and many others top the east coast list of folk musicians.
The latest release from any of these bands came on March 6, 2012. Bowerbirds, who just made the move to Dead Oceans Records, released their third LP, The Clearing.
The band started the album off with their best track, “Tuck the Darkness In.” A bass-heavy, warm sounding electric guitar combines with the deep twang of a dreadnought (deep-bodied acoustic guitar), creating an inspirational tone.
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