Fuzzy Face

Congrats to Nate , winner of yesterday's prize. Today, on the with the show: what is freak folk and who cares? Here is me on the Brightblack Morning Light in the Sacramento News and Review. They're often tagged with the dreaded F**** F***. I also asked some indie-folk pundits what they thought of the term, the bands associated with it, and where it's all headed. Here are the results:

Dave of the blog Indie Folk Forever:

The term freak-folk was initially applied by the press to a small wave of bearded psychedelic folk artists with beatnik tendencies. "Freak" strikes me as a streamlined version of every slur hurled at hippies decades ago, many of whom made similar music in Northern California. I don't think it's meant maliciously, but that's the undercurrent.
...
Regardless of labels, it's exciting to see growing interest in offbeat singer-songwriters and psychedelic folk. Hopefully
after the hype dies down, there will still be crowds for Joanna Newsom, and bigger audiences for songwriters like Lisa Germano, Amy Annelle, and Bill Callahan, who've been making brilliant, skewed records for years and are heard by too few.

Michael of the Cool As Folk show on KDVS:

Freak Folk, Anti-Folk, Psych-Folk are all cut from the same cloth in that they are all a direct rejection of the contemporary folk
sound. A similar shift from the popular "folk" music to a fringe alternative occurred 40years ago. While the instrumentation of these folk music genres may be the same, the aesthetic is very different. Freak folk songs do not follow a
formula or traditional structure. The diverse voices and players make this"genre" so difficult to categorize, that is exactly why there is a sense of mystery around it and it has attracted the attention of music fans and journalists.

I also believe it is important to examine the "Freak Folk" culture. In interviewing some of the seminal figures like Devendra
and Diane Cluck I have found there to be a disconnect with the material world and an appreciation of the natural. These ideals translate to the artist's songs. With Freak Folk becoming commercially viable I wonder how the artists will respond? If they are true to their values and tradition they will creatively push the genre to depths yet explored and avoid the
mainstream.