Note: Nothing personal against whoever did the other tape, but he/she hit upon one of my biggest pet peeves: beards and acoustic guitars do not necessarily folk music make. Folk music is, as the name suggests, music of the people -- it is inextricably connected to the geography and culture of the musicians who birth it, while (in America, anyway) simultaneously drawing on stories and forms that can be traced back to the middle ages. It deals in the base fears and hopes that lurk in our collective consciousness, in what is gloriously, bitterly, shockingly human. It is a rich and complex music, and can not just cooked up by some kids in Brooklyn with a banjo. Usually.
Side A: Traditionals, many of which can be found in one form or another on the Anthology of American Folk Music, a wonderful collection of said old Appalachian dudes.
01. Neko Case - "John Saw That Number" (Fox Confessor Brings the Flood)
02. Baird, Espvall, and Krauss - "Babry Ellen" (Leaves From Off the Tree)
03. Nickel Creek - "House Carpenter" (This Side)
04. Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire - "Fatal Flower Garden" (The Swimming Hour)
05. The Fiery Furnaces - "Single Again" (EP)
06. The Clash - "Wrong 'Em Boyo" (London Calling)
07. Cat Power - "Moonshiner" (Moon Pix)
08. Okkervil River - "Omie Wise" (Julie Doiron/Okkervil River split)
09. Rev. F.W. McGee - "Fifty Miles of Elbow Room" (Anthology of American Folk Music)
Side B: (Relatively) recent originals that apply traditional concepts in new ways
01. Pajo - "Mary of the Wild Moor" (Pajo)
02. Page France - "Chariot" (Hello, Dear Wind)
03. David Thomas Broughton - "Unmarked Grave" (The Complete Guide to Insufficiency)
04. Jim White - "The Wound That Never Heals" (No Such Place)
05. Leonard Cohen - "Joan of Arc" (Songs of Love and Hate)
06. Simon and Garfunkel - "A Church is Burning" (Live in New York, 1967)
07. Eef Barzelay - "Ballad of Bitter Honey" (Bitter Honey)
08. Johnny Cash - "Long Black Veil" (Orange Blossom Special)
09. Bob Dylan - "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" (The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan)