Folk Music

Seun Kuti & Egypt 80

RIP Levon Helm: The Band Drummer And Americana Icon Dies At 71

Levon Helm doing what he loved in Woodstock, N.Y., in 2004Levon Helm, the Arkansas-born icon of Americana music, passed away Thursday afternoon after a long battle with throat cancer, his family said on Helm's Web site. "He has loved nothing more than to play, to fill up the room with music, lay do ... More >>

Hootenanny 101: Folk Songs to Help You Study for Finals

Lead Belly​It's the last week of classes for most of us who are still in school, which means that next week is finals time. We here at Rocks Off feel your pain -- it's hard trying to cram for five finals on only 60 milligrams of Adderall. Hell, we have two projects due tonight by 7 p.m. and we ... More >>

RIP Bert Jansch: Legendary Folk Guitarist Dies At 67

Dave Alvin alerted us via Facebook shortly ago that British guitar master Bert Jansch has died. Jansch, who along with his band Pentangle was at the forefront of the '60s British folk movement, was 67. According to the Associated Press, the cause of death was lung cancer. The Scottish-born Jansch o ... More >>

The Storyteller

Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt...Ramblin' Jack Elliott has an anecdote for everyone.

Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune

Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt...Ramblin' Jack Elliott has an anecdote for everyone.

Nearly Lost CD Captures Bob Dylan On The Verge Of Stardom

​That fact that the CD Bob Dylan in Concert: Brandeis University 1963 (Columbia/Legacy) exists at all is something of a miracle. Dylan's brief but energetic seven-song set as a low-billed performer at the school's folk festival came to light only recently via a battered tape box found in the a ... More >>

Bob Dylan: 50 Years After His Debut, Have Things Changed?

Today, April 11, is the 50th anniversary of Bob Dylan's first professional show, an opening slot for John Lee Hooker at Gerde's Folk City in Greenwich Village. It's also the golden anniversary of Nazi military Adolf Eichmann's war crimes trial beginning in Israel, but that's not really that sunny ... More >>

Mason Lankford: "Born-Again Texan" Leads A Folk Family Revival

Mark C. Austin​Tonight at Warehouse Live you can catch Robert Ellis & the Boys with Mason Lankford and the Folk Family Revival, all for free. Ellis and his gaggle of musicians are ramping up activity ahead of their weekly Whiskey Wednesdays debut at the new-era Fitzgerald's on September 29. ... More >>

España

The Fort Bend Symphony Orchestra says olé!

Museum Of Fine Arts Screening Rare Beatles And Bob Dylan Footage This Weekend

​It's an odd thing to think about, but imagine seeing the Beatles on American television for the very first time. Imagine how different they looked from any other musician making popular music in the early 1960s. Or think about Bob Dylan, going electric at Newport, how scandalous it would have bee ... More >>

9th Ward Ramblers

New Orleans's Zydepunks embody the polyglot culture of their hometown...loudly.

Midwinter Graces

The sounds of Christmas 2009 from Bob Dylan, Sting, Tori Amos, Rob Halford and more.

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Drive-By Truckers or the Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe?

​Lonesome Onry and Mean is torn as to his whereabouts this evening. Drive-by Truckers will be knocking down walls and eardrums at House of Blues, and that's where we'll probably end up. But if Galveston was 70 miles closer - it's not the drive down, it's the drive back! - we would certainly be hea ... More >>

Cutout Bin: The Goldwaters' Liberal-Baiting Folk Songs

The Goldwaters Sing Folk Songs to Bug the Liberals (1964, Greenleaf)​The 1964 presidential election was a pivotal point in our nation's history. After years of the liberal leadership and acronym names of JFK and LBJ, Republican Senator Barry Goldwater sought to take the country in a new direction ... More >>

Tonight: Elvis Perkins in Dearland at Walter's on Washington

All too often, the "folk singer/songwriter" label is a warning shot, promising pseudo protest music, self-indulgent hippie strumming, mid-tempo banality, coffee shops in Boulder, sometimes all four at once. Elvis Perkins is not that kind of singer/songwriter. For Perkins, the label is merely a desc ... More >>

Get Lit: The Protest Singer: An Intimate Portrait of Pete Seeger by Alec Wilkinson

When author and New Yorker journalist Alec Wilkinson first approached folk-music icon Pete Seeger about writing an expansive biography, the modest performer - who turned 90 years old Sunday - demurred. Seeger instead challenged him to pen a tome that "could be read in one sitting." The result, based ... More >>

Jimmy LaFave

When author and New Yorker journalist Alec Wilkinson first approached folk-music icon Pete Seeger about writing an expansive biography, the modest performer - who turned 90 years old Sunday - demurred. Seeger instead challenged him to pen a tome that "could be read in one sitting." The result, based ... More >>

Get Lit: A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties, by Suze Rotolo

When author and New Yorker journalist Alec Wilkinson first approached folk-music icon Pete Seeger about writing an expansive biography, the modest performer - who turned 90 years old Sunday - demurred. Seeger instead challenged him to pen a tome that "could be read in one sitting." The result, based ... More >>

Cat Power

Jukebox

Like a Complete Unknown

I'm Not There and the changing face of Bob Dylan on film

One of Us Must Know

The elusive Bob Dylan is masterfully considered in I'm Not There

I'm Not There

The elusive Bob Dylan, masterfully considered, in I'm Not There

Joni Mitchell, Shine

CD Review

Drenched In Blog: Trailer Leaked for the New Dylan Biopic

CD Review

Lomax on Lomax

CD Review

Ramblin' Jack Elliott

Monday, October 10, at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk, 713-528-5999.

Eliza Gilkyson

Thursday, April 8

War on War Songs

Iraq and roll don't go together well when rockers protest

Ramsay Midwood

Shoot Out at the OK Chinese Restaurant (Vanguard)

What Would Woody Do?

Billy Bragg and the Blokes want to know

The Sexual Revolution Will Not Be Televised

For the (International) Noise Conspiracy, the very personal is political

Folk Art

More than 30 years after opening "Alice's Restaurant," Arlo Guthrie still packs 'em in

Going Public

Dave Alvin's private loss inspires him to search for the eternal sounds

Melissa Adams

Firefly

Rotation

New Releases Reviewed

Reason to Roam

At 67, Ramblin' Jack Elliott reclaims -- temporarily -- the urge to wander

Hip to Be Square

Quality, not fashion, drives the legacy of Simon and Garfunkel

The Impotence of Being Earnest

Quality, not fashion, drives the legacy of Simon and Garfunkel

Rotation

Quality, not fashion, drives the legacy of Simon and Garfunkel

Burying the Brakeman

Quality, not fashion, drives the legacy of Simon and Garfunkel

Fit for a Fiddle

Classical? Country? In the hands of fiddler Mark O'Connor, it's one thing: music.

Still Flying

Roger McGuinn is happy to look at the past, but he's not ready to live in it

Sound Check

Roger McGuinn is happy to look at the past, but he's not ready to live in it

Still Blue

Roger McGuinn is happy to look at the past, but he's not ready to live in it

Let It Rock

The Nields turn up the volume on their folk-tinged sound

Sex Sells

The Nields turn up the volume on their folk-tinged sound

Sound Check

The Nields turn up the volume on their folk-tinged sound

The Country of Rock and Roll

From the ashes of Uncle Tupelo springs Wilco, genreless and great

Folk Hero

From the ashes of Uncle Tupelo springs Wilco, genreless and great