..not "Jeff." (Ex-husband of Maria Muldaur, FWIW.)

Nice story otherwise.

Thank you, thekiti. Geoff Muldaur's name has been corrected.

that someone's gonna say "but what about ___?" And here I am. What about Dan Bern? His latest release, Breathe, is better than a lot of the stuff touted in your article. Check it out.

2006 was the year of the folk revival? At least in the indie scene that you fleetingly mention, this has been going on for a few years. Sufjan Stevens? The Snake, The Cross, The Crown? Murder by Death? The Weakerthans? Actually I was under the impression that "indie rock" has for a few years meant either folk revival or new wave revival. Not to mention the whole folk punk thing has been going on since at least the late 90's (Against Me!, Gogol Bordello, Flogging Molly, etc.).

Also, does the article just kind of stop suddenly right after it mentions Avail (which was one of the most memorable shows I've ever seen when Darkest Hour opened for them), or did it just load badly in my browser?

Look, I know that end-of-the-year retrospectives need a pidgeonhole in which to be posted, but Joanna Newsom--and her spectacular new album Ys--deserve better from a local paper than this. Not only does she not deserve to be lumped under the big odd category Freak Folk (whatever), but her album is not even close to a second coming of Yes. There's no prog-rock anything on this album. It's a harp with string arrangements--if you must pidgeonhole, it's an art-song cycle.

For those of you who might be confused by this particular piece of end of the year journalism, let me just say that Ys is a unique album, beautifully (that's right) beautifully sung by Newsom, with gorgeous music and (most important of all but not mentioned even a little bit here) STUNNING lyrics that establish Joanna Newsom as one of the best American poets.

What 'Freak Folk' has to do with any of that I don't know.

That would be Drag City's release "Mark Fosson: The Lost Takoma Sessions". Fosson (my cousin) recorded these masters for John Fahey's Takoma label in 1977. The label went under and the masters were given back to Fosson and sat in a box for 30 years. Until his young cousin (my daughter Tiffany) a folk musician herself, became enamoured with Fahey and learned of her kin's lost recordings for Fahey's label. She persisted until Fosson handed them over for her to hear and she got them to Drag City who released them last summer.

Read about the amazing journey of this gorgeous record, or better yet -- do yourself the biggest favor of all and buy it. It will blow your folk loving mind. All instrumental, finger picking, Fahey-esque on a 12 string.

Fosson has been touring with Joanna Newsome and is recording a new record for Drag City.

Allison A.

I don't even know what "freak Folk" is, but I know the term "folk" itself gets abused to no end. I am not a "purist" defining the term narrowly. I know what folk music is, it is , and always has been, by defintion, a broad term. Narrow ill-informed defintion of the term is what always bugs me. Folk is not a product of the 1960's, folk is the music of a people. American Folk Music is Blues, Cajun, Appalachian, Spirituals, Guthrian, Rock N Roll, Rap and anything else that found it's place prior to big money, mass marketing, demographic driven, commercialized garbage, whether it claimed it's place for all of 15 minutes before the aforementioned commercialized crap dessimated it (Rock and Roll and Rap) or a hundred years before anyone used the word "demographic". Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell are Pop artists, more so then, Elvis, The Ramones, or any early rap artist.

That said, I am a traditionalist, but to clarify, I am not a purist. It is an important distinction- Purists and traditionalist both heard something they liked in the music of the (not so distant) past, but Purists are authoritarian in their quest to repeat the past. Traditionalists favor the individual and regional creativity they hear back there, we know how to recognize trailblazers from followers. We like trailblazers and don't seek to define artists by how well they imitate trailblazers. Form deserves less respect then creativity and personal style, but, we like form, we just aren't slaves to it.

I say all this to clarify that I know of where I speak on the subject of "folk" and "american Folk" music. I think that 99 out of 100 critics are completely lacking in the knowledge that their allegedly "informed Opinion" suggests they have. The Mammals are more popular than Old Crow Medicine Show? Then Why are Old Crow playing large Halls with people looking for extra tickets outside because the show is sold out, while the Mammals play bars and the cost of admission will get anyone who wants inside at showtime? Becuase The Mammals are legacies, a band compromised of the children and grandchildren of famous folkies, including Pete Seeger's grandson. The Old Crows aren't, they are just the real deal, with a large room full of people who know it singing along. So the ill-informed writer, spins ill-informed tales based on a limited knowledge of his/her subject.I'd bet good money that that easily verified research ( that I admittedly haven't done) would bare out that Old Crow Medicine Show record sales far outshine Mammals record sales too.

2006 the highwater mark for a folk revival? "Oh Brother" caused a resurgence in Bluegrass, not traditional "American Folk" musics as a whole. The resurgance of American Folk Music has been underway since the Folksway/Smithsonian re-release of that mysterious wonderful Harry Smith Anthology back in 1996-1997. But, as nitche marketing has grown with population size, it gets swallowed whole by the mass marketing , figuratively speaking, of Brittany Spears' Cooch. But I guess you'd have to be paying close attention and care about the subject to notice. I noticed.

Salon, If you'd like someone who actually knows of where of they speak to write music articles I am available. I'd also be willing to write truthfully. I love Bob Dylan dearly, but, Modern Times kinda stinks, except for Nettie Moore and Working Man Blues, which both happen to be the only non-beg/borrowed/stolen material on the whole collection ( Which begs the question why?). It is worse thing he's done since the dark days of the 1980's. I know the events of 9/11 made the release of Bob's last album "Love and Theft" on that day seem trivial, but, Love and Theft is the latter day Dylan masterpeice that critics should have hailed, not Modern Times. Modern Times is saddly little more than bland regurgitation.