
Top Folk Albums of 2011 : Year of the rabbit 1) Fleet Foxes • Helplessness Blues • Bella Union/Sub Pop 2) Marissa Nadler • Self-Titled • Box of Cedar — stream 3) Meg Baird • Seasons on Earth • Drag City 4) Hip Hatchet • Men Who Share My Name • Gravitation — stream 5) Frank Fairfield • Out on the Open West • Tompkins Square 6) Angel Olsen • Strange Cacti • Bathetic [...]

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Download / Request Immediate Removal This has a similar format to last year's Halloween playlist : poetry, sound effects, bizarro classical, vocal exercises, and a folksong for good measure. 00:00 : Marita Günther • "Lend Me Your Ears: Phonotation of Words" ~WITH~ David Talcott • "Loop No. 3" 01:13 : Heinrich Heine read by Claire Luce • "Why Are All the Roses So Pale?" ~WITH~ University of Toronto Electronic Music Studio • "Summer Idyl" 02:29 [...]

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My parents recently became acquainted with a family overseas through Ancestry.com. This is how I came to know Derek Jenkins , my alleged distant cousin, who has since become my spirit animal. He is an Arkansas native but has spent the past few years in Hamilton, Ontario, where he just picked up a weekly radio show/podcast dubbed "Brilliancy Medley." It is a broadly themed affair of vernacular music and spoken recordings, and I consider it No Words' spiritual kin. I assisted Mr. Jenkins with the website—you can take a gander here . The following tunes were culled from [...]

No Words would likely not exist without the output and reaching influence of Glasgow-born Herbert Jansch , founding member of The Pentangle , who passed away only four days ago. Below I have collected mostly instrumental pieces by Jansch and his Pentangling contemporaries staggered with a few vocal pieces and traditional ballads. R.I.P. Bert Jansch, 1943 — 2011 Download (MP3) / Request Immediate Removal 00:00: John Renbourn • "The Earle of Salisbury" • 1968 01:19: The [...]
Here's a playlist of folksongs recorded in the 1950s. Enjoy. Download (ZIP) / Request Immediate Removal 1. Connie Converse • "Talkin' Like You (Two Tall Mountains)" 2. Peggy Seeger • "When I Was Single" 3. unspecified Russian choir • "The Gusli Serenade" 4. Elizabeth Cotten • "Freight Train" 5. Molly Drake • "Poor Mum" 6. Jean Ritchie & Paul Clayton • "The Devil's Questions" 7. Dan Haugaard • "Byssan [...]

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Top 15 Folk Albums of 2010 : Year of the tiger 1) Joanna Newsom • Have One on Me • Drag City 2) Mountain Man • Made the Harbor • Bella Union/Partisan 3) Ólöf Arnalds • Innundir Skinni • One Little Indian 4) Elisa Randazzo • Bruises & Butterflies • Drag City 5) Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté • Ali & Toumani • Nonesuch 6) Clogs • Veil Waltz • Brassland 7) Alasdair Roberts • The Daemon Lover [...]
; Download / Procure An Acoustic Hour with Bert Jansch / Request Immediate Removal I contemplated compiling a new Christmas-themed playlist this year, but I simply do not have the time, so here is a repost of last year's. Miriam: A No Words Nativity Download (ZIP) [...]

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Download / Request Immediate Removal Here's something altogether different for Halloween: poetry, prose, and medical essays. 00:00 : John Ciardi • "In the Witch-Hunting Season" ~WITH~ Percy Grainger performed by Lydia Kavina • "Free Music, No. 2" 01:32 : Edgar Allen Poe read by David Kurlan • excerpt from "The Pit and the Pendulum" ~WITH~ Malcom Goldstein • "Summer" 04:54 : Sterling Brown • "Slim in Hell" ~WITH~ snapping shrimp and toadfish sounds, three [...]