4 Folk Artists From the ‘60s You Should Be Listening to Today

Folk music has evolved and changed through the years, but it’s never really gone away. While there are a few stellar folk acts out there in the modern world today, you just can’t beat the classics. Without further ado, let’s dive into four folk artists from the 1960s who you should be listening to today! Just keep in mind that this list is definitely not exhaustive; there are simply too many incredible folk musicians to compile in one short list.

1. Joan Baez

Joan Baez is one of the greats, and her 1967 album Joan is one of her most influential releases. She’s a master at covering traditional songs and penning folk protest tracks that are entirely original. Baez is really impressive, partly because it was very easy to fall through the cracks as a folk singer around that time. After all, everyone had a voice and an acoustic guitar. The key was to stand out, and Baez did exactly that with her sentimental voice and positive outlook on the future.

2. Linda Perhacs

The ever-underrated Linda Perhacs didn’t release her first record until 1970, but she was hard at work in the late 1960s writing music. We still think she deserves a spot on our list of folk artists from the 1960s who you should be listening to!

Perhacs worked as a dental hygienist while writing songs in the late 1960s, and she released Parallelograms while still holding a “normal” job. Unfortunately, she was afraid of the instability of a music career and quit the industry for some time before returning in the 2010s. Her last release was I’m A Harmony in 2017. When it comes to folk music, few are as underrated as she is.

3. Vashti Bunyan

In the mid-to-late 1960s, Vashti Bunyan only released a handful of singles, such as “I Want To Be Alone” and the cover “Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind”. By the time her debut album Just Another Diamond Day came out in the early 70s, she had more or less quit music until the early 2000s.

Today, that very album has gained cult status among young folk artists. “I’d Like To Walk Around In Your Mind” went viral on TikTok a couple of years ago. “Glow Worms” and “Love Song” are often covered by new acts nowadays. In a way, she’s become the “grandmother” of indie folk artists of the 2020s.

4. Carole King

We wanted to focus on the lesser-known folk artists of the 1960s, but we couldn’t help but mention Carole King. Like most of the artists on this list, she didn’t release her debut studio album until 1970. However, King was hard at work composing music throughout the 1960s.

She and her then-husband Gerry Goffin collaborated on a lot of music during the 60s, dozens of which became chart-toppers for The Beatles, other artists, and even King herself. “It Might As Well Rain Until September” was one of her first recorded hits in 1962, when it hit no. 22 in the US and no. 3 in the UK.

Photo by MALI/Gamma-Rapho

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