Freak folk
Freak folk is a subgenre of psychedelic folk associated with the 2000s New Weird America movement and used to describe the work of artists such as Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart, Animal Collective, and Adem. The term "freak folk" had been in informal use for decades before solidifying into a genre in the mid-2000s. The label was rejected by many of the contemporary artists whose music it was applied to.
Etymology
The 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, 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
However, neither the album nor the interviews with Banhart and fellow freak folk artist Joanna Newsom in that month's issue of Arthur featured the term. It did appear in Pitchfork
Controversy
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."However, in a November 2010 interview with music magazine Interview, Banhart claimed he was misquoted: "I never, not even jokingly, expressed anything but disdain for . I’ve been misquoted many times regarding the whole 'freak folk' thing; five or six years ago, The New York Times ran something about me saying “It’s cool—you have to call it something." 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."
Banhart had already expressed similar sentiments in a July 2006 interview with Pitchfork:
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 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:
Interchangeability with other terms
In 2005, Pitchfork equated the term "freak folk" with "New Weird America". Writing for AllMusic, Richie Unterberger equated the term with "psych-folk" and "acid folk," stating: "psych-folk, freak-folk, acid folk 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, while in 2024, music magazine American Songwriter stated "New Weird America is generally used to describe the 2000s American freak folk revival".Characteristics
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." It noted British singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan as having "become a touchstone, collaborating with both Mr. Banhart and Animal Collective".Another New York Times feature, Summer of Love Redux from June 2006, proclaimed "this summer's version of freak folk tends to be darker and more experimental than first-wavers like Mr. Banhart and Ms. Newsom," referencing guitarist Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance, Current 93, and Comets on Fire. Writing retrospectively in 2021, Pitchfork
In a 2006 review of Espers' II, Pitchfork
In 2013, Chicago Reader stated, "Freak folk is freakish not because it channels the chthonic creepiness of the old folk, but because it embraces our current hipster creepiness—the up-to-date chill of the new weird America."
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.In 2008, Peter Stampfel of the Holy Modal Rounders wrote an article on freak folk for issue 10 of the Michael Hurley fanzine Blue Navigator which was published in April 2009. 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". Additionally, Michael Hurley has been labelled "the Godfather of Freak Folk". 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 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 that "in recent years, 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, British music critic Simon Reynolds noted that " 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 and "the godmother of freak folk."
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!"
In 2024, music magazine American Songwriter, stated: "freak folk emerged in the 1970s as a subgenre of psychedelic folk, but later took off in the 1990s with a resurgence in the 2000s."