Top 66 Folk Music Quotes

He helped make Living Things even more crazy than I wanted it to be. He added old-fashioned piano and classical folk music – that weird otherworldly vibe – all these elements got onto the record.

My idea of heaven is a place where the Tyne meets the Delta, where folk music meets the blues.

Musicians are often asked to answer for an entire culture, or for an entire movement. It’s a process of commodification. It becomes packaged and summarized in a word like ’emo’ or ‘grunge’… or ‘folk music.’ I think that’s just language itself, trying to understand the mysteries of the world.

When I was a kid, I was interested in folk music. But rock represented power, and I became the best rock guitarist in my school.

People seem ready for a more in-depth idea of folk music, culture and history.

When you set out to carry on a tradition as deep rooted as folk music is, you’ve got to have your story together. You’ve got to study and have a foundation. Jeffrey Foucault has that foundation, and you can hear it in his voice, and feel it in his music. He’s got an understanding that you don’t hear that often.

I love British folk music, but I’m not obsessed with it. I love the Celtic stuff, and Enya is a favorite, but that’s more electronic.

Of the music that we’ve done over the years, the things that are the most requested are the hymns. And folk music is also high on the list.

I feel like folk music is almost like an old recipe that is passed on from generation to generation.

When I think of folk music, I think of topical songs. And I don’t write topical songs.

Robby had a flamenco and folk music background. I was so enamored with watching Robby’s fingers crawl across the flamenco guitar strings like a crab.

I don’t really know what ‘folk music’ means anymore.

With ‘Mirzya,’ we went deep into folk music. The film, unfortunately, did not do well because it was not marketed well. But we got freedom to do the music the way we want.

Folk music usually has an emphasis on the lyrics and melody. And those lyrics are usually relevant in some way. And it’s populist in scope, which is also true of Bad Religion. So it’s more meant to draw some parallels between the two. And I think even my voice and my delivery can be thought of as a little bit folky.

Pop stardom is not very compelling. I’m much more interested in a relationship between performer and audience that is of equals. I came up through folk music, and there’s no pomp and circumstance to the performance. There’s no, like, ‘I’ll be the rock star, you be the adulating fan.’

The first music I was ever exposed to was Irish folk music, like the Clancy Brothers. My father plays that and Christmas songs.

If someone asked what kind of music I play, I wouldn’t say I’m a folk singer; however, if folk music means music for the people, and playing music to entertain them and share different messages, then sure, I’d like to think that I’m part folk singer.

Artists are taught to be humble about their impact, especially in folk music. It’s so ingrained that I have a hard time even thinking I had any impact other than what a normal hit song would have.

For me, let’s keep jazz as folk music. Let’s not make jazz classical music. Let’s keep it as street music, as people’s everyday-life music. Let’s see jazz musicians continue to use the materials, the tools, the spirit of the actual time that they’re living in, as what they build their lives as musicians around.

Jazz is the folk music of the machine age.

I knew Bobby Dylan back in the days when he lived in the village. He used to come and see me and sing songs for me, saying they ought to go into my next collected book on American folk music.

That folk music led to learning to play, and making things up led to what turns out to be the most lucrative part of the music business – writing, because you get paid every time that song gets played.

When I listen to music today, it is about 99 percent classical. I rarely even listen to folk music, the music of my own specialty, because folk music is to me more limited than classical music.

It’s important to me to not stay too confined to any specific sonic space. There is something really magical about straight folk music – it’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that I like so much music, I hear so many different things, and I want to try more. I don’t want to be confined.

I don’t have very sophisticated taste in music. I listen to a lot of folk music. I like reggae.

Logically, when you talkin’ about folk music and blues, you find out it’s music of just plain people.

Folk music is music that everyday people can play, and it inspired a lot of people to make their own music. That trailed into making your own pop music, and that’s why garage bands started springing up everywhere.

The greatest thing about doing this movie was that Chris and I both were involved in folk music in the ’60s. I had a group, but I don’t think it was at the same level as Chris, because he’s an amazing musician.

I became interested in folk music because I had to make it somehow.

Folk music is very honest, it’s very humble, it’s very organic, and the voice is exactly that. And so I’m very excited to put the two together.

I started off as a mimicry artist, have sung ‘Gaana’ folk music and popularized pop music in the South before I got into acting.

I was wearing leather studded jackets, but I was playing acoustic folk music, so it was quite a weird mix.

I sing a mixture of everything from opera, folk music, Broadway. It’s a mix of things.

My father being in the movie business, I thought being an actor would be great. But when I started singing to people in coffeehouses, you know, singing folk music and then, later, singing songs that I started to write myself, I felt more than an affinity for it. I felt a calling.

Judy Garland, Doris Day, and Gene Kelly were all big influences growing up from all of the films. I’m also a huge folk music fan – Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan have influenced a lot of how music can inspire change in our world.

That’s one of the things I like best about folk music is the beautiful melodies – and the harmonies – that exist in it. And of course, some of the stories, the story songs.

You can see it on the Internet: There’s an argument going on continually about, ‘What is folk music?’ And I don’t really want to get involved in that. It’s an endless argument, a ‘How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?’ kind of argument.

When Kenny first came to me, I think he was thinking of making a nice little folk record, but in my opinion, folk music had come to an end and I felt he needed to go to the next step, the next generation.

I make up cassettes all the time – to take on the road with me – a song from this album, a song from that album. That’s the way I listen to music; it’s like one of those K Tel things: it’s from all over. I listen to Fred Astaire, I listen to African folk music, I listen to Talking Heads.

I came through folk music simply because it was easy to get into it.

All these years, I have never forgotten what my parents have given me, and that is why I take special pride in composing music based on ragas and used folk music in films like ‘Apne Paraye.’

Gujarat is truly vibrant. Be it handicrafts, folk music, art, costumes or food – the state offers the best of everything.

You have to open your mind. I like the ability to express myself in a deep way. It’s the closest music to our humanity – it’s like a folk music that rises up out of a culture.

Northeastern folk music influenced me from a very young age. Sachin Dev Burman is one of the inspirational musicians in Indian film music. The way he fused folk music with his signature style is amazing. So, I am aware of the beauty of northeast folk music.

I grew up listening to a lot of Simon & Garfunkel and Peter, Paul and Mary. I know that sounds dorky, but I always responded strongly to that kind of lyric-driven folk music.

Well, I don’t think it ever did, but in the early ’60s I got interested in folk music.

Banjos are used in Celtic, English folk music and obviously American music. But not that much in pop music. But it’s more versatile than people realise it to be. It’s a beautiful instrument, very rhythmic and melodic. You can do anything with it.

I wanted to write songs which I think is a different thing. I wanted to write music that is informed by folk music. The chord progressions are obvious references.

I have tried to show the influence of folk music in Bollywood, in Tamil movies, in Telugu cinema.

After touring the first album, we went into the studio and started making music that was influenced by all the freaky folk music we’d been listening to. Lots of Canterbury scene stuff from the 1960s and ’70s. Robert Wyatt, Soft Machine, Caravan, Gong.

I think, in a lot of ways, hip-hop is interesting to me because it’s like the modern-day folk music.

I love a lot of Irish folk music and Irish folk songs.

I love vocals and what they can do, and the different layers they can create, and I really want to bring that into folk music in terms of arrangements and stuff.

I grew up with the Blind Boys’ music. My family owns a music store in Claremont, California, called The Claremont Folk Music Center. I grew up with a heavy diet of gospel, folk, and blues because those are kind of the cornerstones of traditional American music.