With the bouts of rain that have hit our UCSB campus, students spend much more time together studying inside. What’s necessary for a rainy-day study session? A slow and cozy folk playlist curated for the vibe, of course!
I’m here to recommend a few introductory folk artists in today’s popular folk scene to include in your cute new playlist! There are three main cabin-core men in folk music that I enjoy the most: Hozier, Noah Kahan, and Bon Iver. I associate these artists with cold winter days, longing for the sun, and what once was. Their music encourages listeners to wallow in reflective rest.
Hozier
Hozier is an Irish folk-rock musician with soul and blues influences. You may already be familiar with his top hit, “Take Me To Church,” which gained the artist popularity in the 2010s. Hozier success skyrocketed after, “the song achieved widespread global popularity, topping the charts in 12 countries”
The artist’s biblical allusions and yearning visuals in lyricism work in harmony to capture the thoughtfulness of a rainy day. Hozier’s Irish folk style is complimentary to this interpretive storytelling he brings forth with beautiful imagery. He speaks of the pains of love, societal issues, and the complexities of modern relationships.
I would recommend his self-titled album, with “Cherry Wine,” “Work Song,” and “Like Real People Do,” as highlighted tracks for listening. As Jessica Anthony so expertly describes, “Hozier is the master of restraint when it comes to his music, with every sound and instrument featured feeling like a deliberate and thoughtful addition to every song.” This selection is a great introduction to Hozier’s style and hopefully will encourage you to explore his other intellectual and compelling bodies of work!
Noah Kahan
Noah Kahan is an up-and-coming artist in the folk scene, as he was recently nominated for “Best New Artist” at the GRAMMYs. Kahan has collaborated with many famous folk musicians, such as the aforementioned Hozier, Gregory Alan Isakov, and Sam Fender. These collaborations are tracks from the artist’s hit album, “Stick Season” creatively entwined features from these talented and stylistically different artists.
Noah Kahan captures the cold-heartedness of the East Coast with tracks like “Northern Attitude,” “Homesick,” and “Stick Season.” His 2022 album, “Stick Season,” is the perfect album to come to terms with what your life has become from where it started. It’s riddled with nostalgic longing for hometown life and comfort.
“Stick Season” is described as “a specific term native to Vermonters, referring to the period of time between Halloween and the first snow.” The period is cold and dreary, which is similar to what we experience on California rainy days. The album as a concept is interesting, as “it speaks to change; it speaks to waiting for a better time,” as Kahan describes. This period of yearning and reflectiveness parallels what we are faced with when we can’t do what we once could on a sunny day.
Bon Iver
Bon Iver (pronounced bone-ee-vare) is a classic folk band, headed by Justin Vernon. My favorite body of work Bon Iver has created is the “For Emma, Forever Ago” album. This album was written isolated in a cabin, where Vernon was left with no outside noise to cancel out his bare thoughts when writing lyrics.
The New York Times illustrates that “Mr. Vernon wrote and recorded it after the breakup of both his longtime band and a relationship, in his father’s chilly hunting cabin in Wisconsin during the winter of 2006-7.” The title track, “For Emma,” is a testament to love lost and having to face that pain and persevere. When asked by Identity Theory about Vernon’s creative process, Bon Iver explains that “music has always been a kind of “way” of understanding myself.” I appreciate that the folk genre is full of ballads, like Vernon’s, where artists walk through and encourage the listener to observe pivotal moments of change in their lives.
These artists are talented and intriguing because they bring forth such reflective themes from different perspectives. Folk music will always be an excellent form of creative expression to experience when you have the chance to dive deep into its compositions. On your rainy days, make sure to give these artists a listen—you may look at your life a little differently!