The Best Singer-Songwriters in Folk Music
If you’re a fan of folk music, then you’ll love this list of the best singer-songwriters in the genre. From Bob Dylan to Joni Mitchell, these are the artists that have defined folk music.
Joan Baez
Few artists in any genre have been as influential or as consistent as Joan Baez. A singer-songwriter and social activist, Baez has been a voice for peace and justice for over five decades. With a clear, powerful voice and a gift for finding the perfect song to fit the moment, Baez has inspired generations of folk musicians.
Her music
Joan Baez’s musical career has spanned more than 60 years. She has released over 30 albums, achieved several gold and platinum records, and is widely considered a folk music icon. Her songs, ranging from haunting ballads to upbeat anthems, have been covered by some of the most popular artists of the past few decades, including Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles, and Nirvana.
Baez’s debut album, Joan Baez (1960), reached number two on the Billboard pop albums chart and stayed there for over a month. It included the hit single “Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word.” Her follow-up album, Joan Baez in Concert (1962), reached number three on the pop albums chart and became one of the best-selling live albums of all time. It included her renditions of “We Shall Overcome” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” which became anthems of the civil rights movement and anti-war movement, respectively.
In 1964, Baez was featured on Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’, singing backup vocals on “With God on Our Side.” The following year, she appeared alongside Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival, where they were both met with boos from traditionalists who felt they were betraying the acoustic folk music ethos.
Baez’s next few albums experimented with different genres and sounds, including country music (Farewell Angelina, 1965), gospel music (Blessed Are…, 1971), and rock ‘n’ roll (Diamonds & Rust, 1975). In 1980, she returned to her folk roots with the album Gone from Danger.
Over the past few decades, Baez has continued to release new music and tour extensively throughout North America and Europe. In 2016, she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Her life
Joan Baez was born on Staten Island, New York, on January 9, 1941. Her father, Albert Baez, was a physicist originally from Puebla, Mexico, who came to the United States to study mathematics at Cornell University. Her mother, Joan Bridge Baez, was born in Scotland and later became a teacher of mathematics. The family moved around frequently because of Albert’s work, living in various cities in the Northeast and California. As a young girl, Joan began singing and playing the guitar and ukulele. She soon began performing at local clubs and coffeehouses.
In 1960, Baez released her self-titled debut album. The following year she met Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival. The two quickly became friends and admirers of each other’s work. In 1963, Baez toured with Dylan as he went electric; she can be heard backing him up on the live album “At Budokan.” The two would remain close friends throughout their careers.
Baez’s greatest commercial success came with her 1974 album “Diamonds & Rust.” The title track, a ballad about her complicated relationship with Dylan, reached the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Throughout her career, Baez has been an outspoken advocate for social justice causes including the civil rights and anti-war movements. In recent years she has been involved in environmental and human rights activism.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is one of the most popular and well-known folk singers of all time. His music has been influential in the development of both folk and rock music. Dylan has been creating music for over 50 years and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.
His music
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and artist who has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for more than five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin'” became anthems of the anti-war and civil rights movements. His later work in the 1970s marked a change in style, incorporating elements of rock, blues, and country. Dylan’s work has been praised for its poetic lyrics and its contributions to the great American songbook. He has sold more than 100 million records worldwide and has been awarded numerous awards, including the Nobel Prize in Literature.
His life
Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota on May 24, 1941. He grew up in Hibbing, where he began playing guitar and piano and wrote his first song, “Song to Woody,” in honor of his hero Woody Guthrie. In 1959 he began attending the University of Minnesota, but he left school after a year and a half to move to New York City, where he changed his name to Bob Dylan.
Dylan’s career began in the early 1960s with a series of recordings for Columbia Records. His self-titled debut album, released in 1962, featured two original songs—”Face Value” and “Talkin’ New York”—and cover versions of traditional folk songs and blues standards. His second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, included such classics as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”
Dylan’s style continued to evolve over the next few years, as evidenced by the releases of Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964), Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Highway 61 Revisited (1965), and Blonde on Blonde (1966). His lyrics became more poetic and surrealistic, while his music incorporated elements of rock ‘n’ roll, jazz, and country. This experimental period culminated in what is widely regarded as one of Dylan’s finest achievements: 1967’s John Wesley Harding, a collection of country-tinged folk songs that marked a return to simpler arrangements and traditional themes.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Dylan explored different musical genres—including country rock (Nashville Skyline), gospel (Slow Train Coming), and reggae (Shoot Out the Light)—while continuing to write brilliant original songs like “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” “Forever Young,” and “Like a Rolling Stone.” In 1997 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” In 2016 he released his 37th studio album, Fallen Angels.
Leonard Cohen
His music
Leonard Cohen was a singer-songwriter who was known for his distinctive, deep voice and poetic lyrics. He wrote songs about love, loss, and politics, and his music was influential in the folk music scene of the 1960s and 1970s. Cohen was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1934, and he began his musical career in the 1950s as a folk singer. He released his first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, in 1967, and he went on to release 14 more albums during his lifetime. Cohen died in 2016 at the age of 82.
His life
Leonard Cohen was born in Montreal, Canada on September 21, 1934. Cohen began his musical career as a folk singer in the 1960s. His first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, was released in 1967. Cohen is widely considered to be one of the best singer-songwriters in folk music. He has released 14 studio albums, including such classics as Songs from a Room (1969), New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974), and Death of a Ladies’ Man (1977). Cohen’s most recent album, Popular Problems, was released in 2014.
