Psychedelic Folk Rock
tagStarted 1966Peak 1967-1971Last big hit still active
Located in 3 routes
Folk rock dissolved into psychedelia: largely acoustic instrumentation laced with raga drones, sitar, exotic percussion, swirling reverb, and free-form, improvisatory structures. Lyrics turn mystical, pastoral, and surreal; melodies modal and hypnotic. It keeps folk's fingerpicked core while opening it to Eastern color and trance-like, dreamlike expansion.
History
Coalesced around 1966-67 as the folk revival met the counterculture. The Byrds' raga-rock 'Eight Miles High,' Donovan's flower-power songs, and Britain's Incredible String Band fused acoustic folk with Eastern modes and studio experiment. Acid folk peaked 1967-71, leaving a lasting strand revived by later freak-folk and psych acts.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelic_folk
- https://www.treblezine.com/10-essential-psychedelic-folk-albums/
- https://rateyourmusic.com/genre/psychedelic-folk/