Freak folk

compiled The Golden Apples of the Sun, a various artists album which inadvertently helped freak folk solidify into a genre|300x300pxThe etymology of "freak folk" is unclear. According to Stereogum, the term "freak folk" had been in informal use for decades before solidifying into a genre. In Seasons They Change: The Story of Acid and Psychedelic Folk (2010), author Jeanette Leech claims that contemporary usage of the term is likely a bastardization of the term "free folk." For a short period of time, the terms were to a degree used interchangeably, but by 2006 "free folk" was no longer in mainstream use. In a 1998 review of Beck's Mutations, Joshua Clover, writing for music magazine Spin, described the music as "some old-fashioned freak-folk". In early 2003, music magazine Arthur, one of the earliest outlets to profile freak folk artist Devendra Banhart, called him a "freaked folknik" on the cover of its second issue. On April 1, 2004, Arthur's Bastet imprint released the Banhart-compiled various artists album The Golden Apples of the Sun. According to Pitchfork, the compilation "assisted greatly" in defining the term "freak folk", while Stereogum notes the aftermath of its release as "the moment when a descriptive phrase solidified into a genre". However, according to Stereogum, by 2005 the term "freak folk" had already become oversaturated. Controversy , Washington, May 2005 On December 12, 2004, The New York Times published an article entitled ''Freak Folk's Very Own Pied Piper'', a profile of Devendra Banhart. It also mentioned Joanna Newsom, Animal Collective, and Adem, framing the artists as part of a new genre. In the article, Banhart was quoted as saying: "If you were to ask me how I feel about any of the term freak-folk, it's cool -- you have to call it something -- but we didn't name it. We've been thinking about what to call it, and we just call it the Family." In the interview, Banhart explained his thoughts about the label at length: "First, let me say that I don't know a single person that has ever been called any of the horrid freak-folk-isms, who has ever said, 'Yep! That's what we play! Freak folk!' [...] Today, I really don't care, I just don't want anyone to get the impression I had anything to do with that term or at any point adopted that label." None of the other artists the label "freak folk" was applied to embraced the term either. Greg Weeks of Espers commented that "as soon as the labels got thrown out there, everything [got] jokey." In 2015, Andy Cabic of Vetiver told Billboard: James Jackson Toth of Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice echoed a similar sentiment in 2024: Writing for AllMusic, Richie Unterberger equated the term with "psych-folk" and "acid folk," stating: "psych-folk, freak-folk, acid folk (whatever you want to call it) has enjoyed a mild renaissance over the last decade or so." Writing for Perfect Sound Forever, musician and critic Kandia Crazy Horse, similarly equated the term to "psych-folk", alongside "nu Americana," "avant-folk" and "folktronica". In 2010, music magazine PopMatters made use of the term "freak-folk revival" in a review of musician Josephine Foster's Graphic As A Star (2009), while in 2024, music magazine American Songwriter stated "New Weird America is generally used to describe the 2000s American freak folk revival". == Characteristics ==

was a touchstone for the 2000s freak folk scene A 2004 New York Times feature on Devendra Banhart, entitled ''Freak Folk's Very Own Pied Piper'', asserted that Banhart's music belonged to a style "described as avant-folk or freak-folk". It profiled Banhart as the most prominent of a group of artists which also included Joanna Newsom, Animal Collective, and Adem, and characterized their music as "quiet, soothing and childlike" and their lyrics as "fantastic, surreal and free of the slightest trace of irony". Writing retrospectively in 2021, Pitchfork's Brian Howe commented on Chasny's inclusion under the freak folk umbrella: In a 2006 review of Espers' II, Pitchfork's Amanda Petrusich asserted that "freak-folk tends to eschew any clear genre parameters" and that its participants at the time (including Espers, Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Animal Collective, Faun Fables, and "a mess of other psych- and folk-infused players") were united by an affinity for ancient British folk tradition, as well as late 1960s and early 1970s folk rock acts such as Vashti Bunyan, the Incredible String Band, Comus, Fairport Convention, Shirley Collins, Pentangle, and Strawbs. She characterized the genre as featuring "hippie-gone-Renaissance Faire overtones," though emphasizing that Espers' music is "vaguely menacing" and "smarter, sharper, and more relentlessly compelling than their trappings might suggest". According to music magazine American Songwriter, freak folk "blends the hippie sensibilities of straight folk—pastoral images, free love, and primarily acoustic instrumentation—with the psychedelia and experimentation of its main genre." == History ==

Influences and progenitors Pre-1960s In a February 2007 article, writing for Perfect Sound Forever, Kandia Crazy Horse noted freak folk's "outlaw trappings and apostate nature" as being predated by figures such as Welsh painter Augustus John and his muse Dorelia's ménage, English occultist Aleister Crowley's Thelema cult and 19th century French Romantics. The article aimed to chronologize the pre-1960s "ancestors" of freak folk. It was later shortened and re-published in the online music magazine Perfect Sound Forever in December 2009, Stampfel stated: 1960s–1970s New York folk artists who emerged in the 1960s such as the Holy Modal Rounders, Michael Hurley, the Fugs and Godz would retrospectively be referred to as freak folk. In 1999, music critic Robert Christgau reviewed the reissue 1 & 2, which combined the Holy Modal Rounders' first two albums, declaring that "freak folk started here". Lead singer Peter Stampfel has been described as a "freak-folk legend". Similarly, writing for Perfect Sound Forever, Kandia Crazy Horse referred to guitarist John Fahey as a "freak-folk icon" and stated the "freak-folk elite" labeled Nick Drake "a saint", while treating Vashti Bunyan as "Holy Mater". While David Crosby's 1971 album If I Could Only Remember My Name has been described by some as an early progenitor of the genre. Pitchfork staffer Amanda Petrusich characterized late 1960s and early 1970s acts such as Vashti Bunyan, the Incredible String Band, Comus, Fairport Convention, Shirley Collins, Pentangle, and Strawbs as "routinely pilfer[ed] from" by 2000s freak folk artists like Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, and Espers. Writing retrospectively in 2025, British music monthly Mojo wrote of the 1960s British psychedelic folk duo Tyrannosaurus Rex (later the popular glam rock outfit T. Rex) that "in recent years, [they] have [...] been unmasked as freak-folk pioneers"; American weekly Billboard likewise characterized the duo as a "psychedelic freak-folk outfit". Pitchfork's characterization of Tyrannosaurus Rex's Marc Bolan was that he "switched from Tolkien-esque freak folk to Chuck Berry boogie in the span of an album." In Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy (2016), British music critic Simon Reynolds noted that "[Tyrannosaurus Rex's] records would have remained among the least influential of all time if they hadn't been belatedly seized upon by Animal Collective and other freak-folk artists of the noughties." Vashti Bunyan was an influence on freak folk; in turn, the popularity of the genre helped revive her career. She has been referred to as the "patron saint" of the 2000s freak folk scene A 2014 feature by British music magazine FACT, entitled The 100 best albums of the 1970s, named British progressive folk group Comus' 1971 debut First Utterance as "the square root of the mid-2000s freak-folk explosion." In 2024, James Jackson Toth of freak folk band Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice, reflecting on the 2000s popularity of the genre, told Stereogum: "There were as many bands in my cohort influenced by Sun Ra as there were by Comus. The best ones took a little from both!" 2000s: Popularity On April 1, 2004, American magazine Arthur's Bastet imprint released the Devendra Banhart-compiled various artists album The Golden Apples of the Sun. Pitchfork's review concluded: In September 2005, Pitchfork labeled Devendra Banhart's track "A Sight to Behold" from his debut album Rejoicing in the Hands as "the singer connecting his idiosyncratic vision—in 2004, positioned at the most popular edge of the freak-folk scene". In May 2006, Spin magazine published "The Definitive Guide to Freak Folk", which cited Harry Everett Smith's 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music, Pearls Before Swine, the Incredible String Band, John Fahey, Vashti Bunyan, Jandek, Joanna Newsom, Animal Collective, Devendra Banhart, and Sufjan Stevens as examples of the genre. In 2006, Pitchfork interviewed Current 93's David Tibet, they asked him "Speaking of your connection to younger musicians: In your Durtro updates you've championed Six Organs, Will Oldham, and Joanna Newsom. How did you first get connected to freak folk and the doom and psych stuff? You and Ben [Chasny] seem to have an especially strong alliance." In 2015, Pitchfork referred to Tibet as a "freak-folk impresario". In 2011, Simon Reynolds acknowledged a recent resurgence of interest in folk music, exemplified by "the Folk Britannia festival/documentary series, the glut of compilations of vintage 'wyrd folk', and the network of contemporary troubadours and minstrels known as 'freak folk.'" According to Reynolds, the revival was centered specifically around "UK folk of the most esoteric sort (Vashti Bunyan, Comus, Forest)." He contrasted it with an earlier revival in the mid-1980s, which had instead emphasized American roots music and had no relation to anything "mushroom-munching trippy or mystical." == Criticism ==

In 2005, writer Rob Harvilla of the East Bay Express published an article regarding music magazine The Believer's focus on white dominated music, stating "The Believer's musical tastes have drawn the ire of antirockist types Internetwide. Is liking Joanna Newsom so wrong?". In the article, Harvilla cites The Believer's magazine as herding "indie-rock sacred cows like the Mountain Goats, Spoon, and the Shins — as narrow, freak-folk-centric, and (cover your ears, children) rockist." Both articles stated that artists such as Devendra Banhart were alongside "many of his freaky, cackle-voiced fellow travelers flit in and out of the Yay Area seemingly impervious to the parallel hyphy cultural revolution that's extended its reach from San Francisco across the nation". Horse follows this statement by referencing musician Karen Dalton's influence on Banhart's music, as Dalton was herself Cherokee and stating "Doubtless, the New Weird America scene will prove as inhospitable to any brilliant young colored aesthete who challenges them in their own day-glo arena". Horse further stated: == Legacy ==

In her 2008 book It Still Moves, Pitchfork staffer Amanda Petrusich commented on the evolution of freak folk and related terms, stating that "the umbrella of 'New Weird America' [...] flowed into the slightly more descriptive 'free-folk,' which became 'freak-folk,' and subsequently devolved, as more and more diverse artists were swept up in the wave, into the catchall 'indie-folk'." At the same time, she remarked that "the differences between psych-infused free-folk like MV & EE and acoustic indie-folk like Iron and Wine generally seem profound enough to warrant at least two distinct, hyphenated prefixes." Directly referencing Petrusich, a 2024 Stereogum article by Eric Harvey described the transition from freak folk to indie folk in more detail, tying it to the "mainstreaming of twee-folk signifiers": In the article, Harvey also reflected that regardless of the artists themselves' distaste for it, the term "freak folk" helped carve out a "significant space for a lot of music to gain notice it wouldn't otherwise have"; in this regard, he compared it to grunge, a label rejected by some artists which nonetheless helped sell the music. He cited Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros as an example of a band that owed its existence to the popularity of freak folk. In 2026, Peter Stampfel of the Holy Modal Rounders reflected on an article on freak folk he had originally written for the Michael Hurley fanzine Blue Navigator in 2008, stating: == See also ==