idk how big I am on traditional folk music - folk-ROCK on the other hand?!? I love it!! The Byrds have pretty much influenced a lot of the more modern bands I listen to, and Dylan's influence, of course, is incalculable. Joni Mitchell is a goddess, and Nick Drake provides some of the most wistful, dark but still innocent, music I've ever heard!! Simon and Garfunkel (and Paul Simon solo) are some of the finest songwriters around, and the pop-ier side of folk-rock (i.e. Mamas and Papas, Lovin' Spoonful, etc.) is just as good!! The Beatles' "Rubber Soul" contains their most folk-rock influenced material and has long been my fave Beatles album of all time!! The folk-ier side of psychedelic bands like Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead is the side I adore most to their music, The Dead in particular On the inverse, Donovan's "psychedelic" material is just amazing! James Taylor was the first rock/pop concert I ever attended (I was just 7 years old at the time!!), and Cat Stevens has wonderfully melodic music ("Moonshadow" is my fave of his)! Didn't even mention Van Morrison yet, but he's also all kinds of awesome (esp. the "Moondance" album!!)
There's something magical about folk-rock!! I love the legacy it's carried on, particularly in bands like R.E.M. (my fave band of all time)! ! That Rickenbacker sound of early R.E.M. and The Byrds makes ME want a Rick of my own (I've been playing guitar for almost a decade now!) Counting Crows, Gin Blossoms, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and Barenaked Ladies (and the "softer" side of Pearl Jam) have all done an excellent job bringing the sound and spirit of folk-rock into the '90s, and in the '00s Wilco, Guster, Ryan Adams, The Shins, The Decemberists, Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie, My Morning Jacket, and a slew of others became some of the finest "neo-folk-rockers" ever! As the '00s came to a close and the '10s have just begun, we still have newcomers like Fleet Foxes, Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, and (especially) Mumford and Sons. Long live folk-rock!!