Folk - Free Music Downloads - MP3 Downloads

The premier source for free music 111,052 FREE MP3s

Artists: upload your music

For the latest songs, albums, videos, playlists, and artist news, bite into our music blog Crossfade.

Sera Cahoone

Seattle area drummers have a history of getting behind the mic, and it's not always advisable. But ex-Band of Horses skinswoman Cahoone is no Dave Grohl. "Only as the Day Is Long" is a sublime set run on twang colors and folk feel, and utterly won over by Cahoone's husky vocals.

Sera Cahoone

Sample

Browse all artists in this genre »

The art of anti-folk

It's not that anti-folk artists are actually against folk; they're just making it take a long, hard look at itself. Lo-fi guitars, haunted whispers, and wounded words are the hallmarks of this set.

Stream all songs

"Lawn Laying" by Origami Ghosts

filed under: Folk » Anti-Folk

"my other car is a pirate ship" by Bessie the Gun

filed under: Folk » Anti-Folk

"Pale Years Came" by Valery's Kin

filed under: Alternative/Punk » Alternative Folk

"Wild Tigers I Have Known" by Emily Jane White

filed under: Alternative/Punk » Alternative Folk

"living and the dead" by David Dondero

filed under: Alternative/Punk » Cowpunk

Pop folks - Folk and pop have been blurring their boundaries at least since Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, and today's indie artists have only further complicated the issue. What do you label a droll ditty that's also got an addictive hook? Good music, that's what. See below.

Play this list

Folk goes soul - Folk is more commonly blended with pop and rock, but it can also make a stunning partner for soul and R&B, as this set reminds us. Artists from Philadelphia crooner Amos Lee to Paris's Ayo offer some variation on thick vocals, vintage keyboards, and coffeehouse guitars.

Play this list

The clean edge - This set focuses on crisp instrumental work of all sorts--from the lush sax and piano of Joni Mitchell's latest to the fingerstyle guitars that have always been a genre specialty. It's as far from "lo-fi" as folk is likely to get.

Play this list

Names to note - The artists and in this set have mostly flown under the radar, but you wouldn't guess it to hear them. Each arrives on the scene fully formed, whether as a whispery Sufjan Stevens type (Travis Vick), a wistful Southern California bard (Tom Langford), or a down-home Brooklyn banjoist (Dawn Landes). Take note of these names.

Play this list

Folk by choice - The artists in this set aren't the travelin' troubadours of folk's yesteryear, telling road tales over three-chord tunes. No, these are ambitious musicians who've made a conscious choice to take the folk route--even if, as is the case with lead Eel Mark Oliver Everett, it's only as a break between eclectic prog-rock LPs.

Play this list

Songs sung blue - Neil Diamond could've been writing about this wistful group of artists, who give new credence to the comment that the best art has pain as its source. Whether it's lost love or just a long day on the range, these folkies spin it into something sweet and tender.

Play this list

Pro-folk playlist - There's a lot of "anti-folk" on the scene these days, and it's high time someone stood up for the embattled troubadours. Here's to the old guard; this is one heck of an unhip set.

Play this list

Beyond borders - This folk playlist travels beyond U.S. borders to include traditional Chinese Guzheng, a Swedish Cajun band, and more.

Play this list

Somewhere in between - This folk set includes backwoods bluegrassers, solo troubadours, and a bunch in between.

Play this list

Ten troubadours - With Janis Ian, David Norris, and Jason Darling in the mix, this folk selection finds ten fine troubadours in one convenient place.

Play this list

Features

Meiko

If you think Brandi Carlile's unlucky in love, you haven't heard Meiko. Like Carlile, the L.A. songstress makes a husky-voiced post-coffeehouse pop--and makes art out of feeling forlorn. Along with Priscilla Ahn, expect her to vie for diarist of the year.

Joni Mitchell

The legendary Mitchell isn't so much a singer-songwriter as a composer-poet, a reputation she makes good on in her rapturous new material. "Shine" follows the jazz texturing of her '70s classics, but is more reverie than avant-garde collage. Its bittersweet lyrics still feel down but not out.

	"Sing For You" Tracy Chapman: "Our Bright Future"	Sample
	"Lawn Laying" Origami Ghosts	Sample
	"Here We Go" Mark S. Greer	Sample
	"Fire" Sarah Millyard	Sample
	"Under My Bed" Meiko	Sample
	"There's More True Lovers Than One" Jonatha Brooke	Sample
	"curs in the weeds" Horse Feathers	Sample
	"my other car is a pirate ship" Bessie the Gun	Sample
	"Ease Back" Amos Lee: ''Last Days At The Lodge''	Sample
	"Pieces" The Bridges	Sample
> All popular downloads...

Sera Cahoone

Sera Cahoone

Browse all artists in this genre »

The art of anti-folk

"Lawn Laying" by Origami Ghosts

"my other car is a pirate ship" by Bessie the Gun

"Pale Years Came" by Valery's Kin

"Wild Tigers I Have Known" by Emily Jane White

"living and the dead" by David Dondero

"I Sing I Swim" by Seabear

"Fears Like Clothing" by Jenny Elizabeth Jones

"Cosmos and Demos" by Devendra Banhart

"Gone" by David LK Murphy

"Leave This Town" by Butcher The Bar: ''Sleep At Your Own Speed''

Features

Meiko

Joni Mitchell

		Krystle Warren	Sample
		Amos Lee: ''Last Days At The Lodge''	Sample
		Hannah Fox Larkin	Sample
		Gallowglass	Sample
		The Morgantown Rounders	Sample
		Janis Ian	Sample
		Patti Witten	Sample
		Lowlander Highlanders	Sample
		Joni Mitchell: ''Shine''	Sample
		Boiling Bayou Cajun Band	Sample