Folk

71 articles related to Folk:

Film
La Llorona: the Mexican song of a weeping ghost

La Llorona is a Mexican folk song tied to one of the country's most persistent ghost legends. The song has no single…

July 27, 2026
Poetry
Alfonsina y el Mar: the poem behind Argentina's farewell song

Alfonsina y el Mar appeared on Mercedes Sosa's 1969 album Mujeres argentinas, a song cycle about notable women in…

July 19, 2026
Songwriter
Hava Nagila: from Hasidic melody to global celebration song

At Jewish weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, public dances, and festive gatherings, Hava Nagila is less a song to present…

July 9, 2026
Songwriter
Llorando se fue: the Andean song behind Lambada

Llorando se fue began as a Bolivian song by Los Kjarkas, written by the Hermosa brothers, Gonzalo and Ulises. The group…

July 7, 2026
Songwriter
I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger: origins and lyrics of the famous folk song

The Wayfaring Stranger is an American folk song with an uncertain origin. The song's various versions share a common…

May 14, 2023
Songwriter
Smackwater Jack: the classic tale of outlaws and lawmen and the blues harmony behind it

Smackwater Jack is a 1971 song released by Carole King, the most successful female songwriter of the 20th century who…

September 27, 2021
Songwriter
La Gota Fría: vallenato music masterpiece refashioned by Carlos Vives

La Gota Fría is one of the best-known examples of the vallenato genre that originated in the early 19th century in the…

August 7, 2021
Songwriter
The Bells of Rhymney: two major modal modes of famous protest song

The Bells of Rhymney is one of the best-known protest songs of the past century, first recorded in 1958 by the American…

June 29, 2021
Songwriter
La Cucaracha: the song about a stoned legless cockroach as a ridicule against Mexican dictator

La Cucaracha is a fiery Mexican song in the corrido style, a poetic form of the ballad genre prevalent in Central…

April 23, 20211 comment
Songwriter
Pancho and Lefty: gangster song that saved Townes Van Zandt from a speeding ticket

Pancho and Lefty is perhaps the best-known song of American songwriter Townes Van Zandt released on his sixth studio…

March 10, 2021
Songwriter
La Bamba: meaning and tragedy behind the best-known son jarocho

The widely known La Bamba epitomizes one of the most striking examples of the ways in which an old folk tune could be…

February 12, 2021
Music Theory
6 songs to unpack Ionian mode and the major scale

The polyphonic aspects of Western classical music distinguish it from other musical traditions such as Indian Сlassic…

February 7, 2021
Songwriter
Marie Laveau: ballad of the legendary Voodoo Queen

Dedicated to the legendary Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, Marie Laveau was composed by award-winning writer Shel…

January 29, 2021
Songwriter
Coal Miner's Daughter was forced to remove a third of the lyrics from her autobiographical song

Coal Miner's Daughter is an autobiographical song by the influential country-genre songwriter Loretta Lynn in which she…

December 27, 2020
Songwriter
Wabash Cannonball: the ballad of the railway Flying Dutchman

Wabash Cannonball, also known as The Great Rock Island Route, is an influential American folk song the first known…

December 17, 2020
Music Theory
8 songs to introduce Aeolian mode and natural minor scale

Over the past centuries, the composition of polyphonic music has been primarily focused on seven diatonic scales…

November 12, 2020
Songwriter
Subterranean Homesick Blues popularized Dylan's idea of an official lyric video

Subterranean Homesick Blues is one of Bob Dylan's first counterculture hits to transcend genres, owing to the socially…

October 8, 2020
Music Theory
5 songs featuring Dorian mode

Out of all seven diatonic scales, the major and minor scales have been the two most prevalent in Western music…

August 30, 2020
Sea Shanty
Randy Dandy O: sea chantey for raising anchors and sailing around Cape Horn

Randy Dandy O is one of the most famous sea shanties, a song genre presumed to have originated in the 19th century…

July 23, 2020
Choir
The valiha as unifying element in the stylistic diversity of Madagascar music

Due to its geographical location, Madagascar displays diverse musical traditions laid down at different times by waves…

May 27, 2020
Songwriter
Twist in My Sobriety: rare oboe solo in Tanita Tikaram's best song

Twist in My Sobriety is a song by British pop-folk singer Tanita Tikaram released as a single from her debut album…

May 10, 2020
Poetry
The Ektara: traditional music instrument of the Bauls, wandering minstrels from Bengal

Bauls are the wandering minstrels of the Indian subcontinent whose history traces back to the 15th century as mentioned…

April 16, 2020
Poetry
Down by the Salley Gardens: famous Yeats poem evoking old Irish love ballad was set to the traditional air

Down by the Salley Gardens is a famous two-stanza poem by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats whose contribution to the…

April 8, 20201 comment
Music Theory
The Andalusian cadence: distinct chord progression of flamenco that captivated all pop music genres

The Andalusian cadence is a musical term denoting a chain of four chords that appear sequentially through each step of…

March 15, 2020
Kayamba
Traditional maloya music meets French chanson in swaying songs of Maya Kamaty

Maya Kamaty is a new generation singer and songwriter from the Réunion island located in the Indian Ocean east of…

March 1, 2020
Guitar
The art of Caribbean rhythms by the Garifuna Collective

Garifuna music is closely related to the culture of the Garifuna people living primarily on the Caribbean coast of…

January 26, 2020
Songwriter
Traditions of Malian music spread worldwide through Afel Bocoum and Damon Albarn collaboration

The famous Malian songwriter Afel Bocoum began his musical career in the 1960s at the age of thirteen when he joined…

January 5, 2020
Album
Yemeni folk melodies interpolated into psychedelic dance rhythms by El Khat

The musical traditions of Yemen can be traced back to the 14th century in the form of homayni which meaning can be…

December 1, 2019
Band
Bird In The Belly: the dark side of old British ballads re-imagined in polyphonic folk songs

Bird in the Belly is an English folk band that draws their inspiration through collecting little known or forgotten…

November 20, 2019
Saxophone
Pixinguinha: Brazilian saxophonist who established choro music as a pop genre

Pixinguinha, born Alfredo da Rocha Viana, Jr., was an iconic figure in Brazilian popular music who defined its new…

September 26, 2019