Folk promoters, publicists and musicians regularly accuse me of willfully neglecting- or worse still, disrespecting- the form. As the selection of my 2025 Person of the Year indicates, I’m innocent of such charges.
I am guilty, however, of resolutely dismissing tired soundalikes and retro nostalgists. Only extraordinary songwriting compels me to assent to conventional folk settings. The use of unconventional staging by imaginative folk artists such as Willi Carlisle often pushes their music over the top.
Rather than indulging Mimi Fariña and Tom Rush clones, I’m drawn to innovators like Shannon Lay. Even as it references the vintage British folk-rock sounds of Sandy Denny, Nick Drake and Renaissance, elaborate production makes Lay’s new album Past the Veil seem futuristic.
The folk roots are never washed out by the psychedelic drone washes on “Whom Gods Destroy,” trip-hop bumping on “Room For Less,” fun-house ambience on “Sky Song” and cloudy pop on “I Need More Water.” To paraphrase Woody Guthrie, these sounds are my sounds.