Acid, freak, wyrd folk and related

"I was never really a bone fide member of the folk scene," says Harper, whose 1960s and 1970s albums, including Stormcock, Sophisticated Beggar and Flat Baroque and Berserk are now considered classics -- and precursors to today's alternative folk genre. "I was too much of a modernist, really. Just too modern for what was going on in the folk clubs. I wanted to modernize music, but more than that to completely modernize people's attitudes towards life in general. I was involved in trying to bring meat to the folk music, which is a big mistake anyway." Roy Harper

For a modern band you could check out The Hare and The Moon:

^ I like those ones I hadn't mentioned too, especially Roy Harper's Stormcock.

{And I don't feel like editing my OP, but I meant to say Gryphon (as in the Midnight Mushrumps one). Think I mixed it up in my head with a psych band called Griffin (and there's a heavy metal one of the same name)}

Acid folk and various folk music styles have long been a big part of my musical diet. What are some of your favourites? Feel free to mention anything folky that you like, but I'm hoping to be turned on to some lesser-known stuff.

In PA, I love Comus, Perry Leopold, Spirogra, Catherine Ribeiro + 2 Bis, Vashti Bunyan, Linda Perhacs, Jan Dukes de Grey, Tim Buckley, The Incredible String Band, Pearls Before Swine, The Pentangle, Trees, Forest, I like, but don't love Broselmaschine, and like various music in Indo Prog/ Raga Rock (and psych) that would also count such as Malachi's Holy Music and Third Ear Band. Also Syd Barrett for his psych folk and It's a Beautiful Day.... And Griffin was one of my early musical loves (I think the first album has music that fits such an aesthetic well). You get the idea.

Outside of music in PA, one of my very favourite albums is The Wicker Man soundtrack. I love Exuma and Mark Fry's Dreaming with Alice I like a lot, especially for the song The Witch. I like Hölderlins Traum. And I like Matt Berry's folky music a lot. Charlie Cawood has some nice modern folky music. Lots of stuff I can't remember. I also found myself liking NeoFolk, but not its ideological associations. I also like fairly mainstream folk such as Joan Baez.



So what do you like, and while I've covered quite a bit of ground and perhaps should have tried to be more narrow-focused, what would you recommend for someone into such music?