Old friend looking for acoustic folk inspired music

When folk music is mentioned Kate Wolf deserves notice. She had a brief 10 year recording span due to illness and eventually death. Had she survived her talent would have emerged into the mainstream during the "folk" revival of the late 80's-early 90's!

Yep Slaw, Mary Gauthier is one of the best somewhat new artists, imo. But after lp2cd suggested she and some of the other recommendations aren’t really Folk (according to his definition), I could see his point. I guess she could be considered Singer/Songwriter (though that's two words ;-), which includes Folk, whereas not all Singer/Songwriters are folk. lp’s definition is from and of a purist point-of-view, whereas the request was for, as we’ve noted, Folk "inspired" artists/music. Is Mary inspired by Folk? Seems like it to me, but I’m no Folk music authority!

I'm sorry folks, but I'm terrible busy right now. I'll try to respond to some of the comments maybe tomorrow nite or more likely Sunday. Thanks!

bdp24:,

You may find this interesting....

An old family friend who has always been interested in my systems throughout the years and has been/is a vinyl lover and an aspiring song-writer/guitarist, recently told me that while he was living in Atlanta years ago, shared a stage with Mary Gauthier on some sort of talent night I suppose. (This is my brush with greatness).

Sometimes it's hard to define genres, but reminds me of the line re: porn-"I can't define it, but I know it when I see it"- if we're willing to expand recommendations to :"it gives me goosebumps or brings a tear to my eyes sometimes", I'd second Milk Carton Kids, Civil Wars, & add: Amber Rubarth, I Draw Slow, Trampled By Turtles, Doc Watson & Dave Grisman, Jerry Garcia & Dave Grisman (Hell, Dave Grisman & just about anybody), Yarn, Sammy Walker, John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark-I get many of these are not new, but the 1st time I heard them they were new to me & I really appreciated the folks that showed them to me. The 1st thing I did when I 1st saw this post was go to Spotify & Amazon & listen to the names I hadn't heard before-I can't say I loved them all, can't say as I thought I would, but I thank you all for sharing your recommendations, & I feel like I expanded my horizons a bit-& ain't that what it's all really about?