An acoustic guitar and a voice—that’s often all it takes. The folk revival of recent years has given rise to a new generation of groundbreaking female singers who follow in the footsteps of the legendary artists who illuminated the music scene in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Among these queens of folk, some became household names, while others, equally deserving, remained well-kept secrets. This (highly subjective) selection highlights ten of these remarkable artists.

Joan Baez

A direct descendant of founding fathers Woody Guthrie (1912 - 1967) and Pete Seeger (1919 - 2014), Joan Baez will forever be THE queen of ‘60s protest folk. She’s a sort of icon, really. Against the backdrop of the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War, this daughter of a Mexican father and a Scottish mother slowly moved away from the artistic inclinations of her ex Bob Dylan in order to become more involved in these socio-political movements, even joining the ranks of organizations like Amnesty International – an involvement that never detracted from her poetic side. Even in revisiting the music of her teachers (Dylan, Guthrie, Donovan), the immaculate beauty of her otherworldly voice never ceases to amaze. In order to evolve with the times, Joan Baez sometimes forgoes pure folk, filling out her instrumental backing as she did on her highly popular Diamonds and Rust, a 1975 album where she surrounded herself with the very best musicians of the jazz scene and the FM airwaves alike, including Larry Carlton, Wilton Felder, Joe Sample and Tom Scott. Fighting for human rights, marriage equality, the abolition of the death penalty, and climate stewardship, she slowed down her music production in the ‘80s and ‘90s in order to focus on her advocacy work. At a time when she was reminded that the fight was far from over in the United States, the high priestess of folk came out of her hiatus in 2018, reminding us of the sheer aura and power of her voice with the album Whistle Down the Wind, which includes covers of Tom Waits, Josh Ritter, ANOHNI, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Joe Henry. In fact, Joan Baez has always proven to be particularly talented at putting her own spin on the music of other artists: with her cover of " The President Sang Amazing Grace, " which Zoe Mulford composed after the June 2015 Charleston church shooting, Baez brought the intense emotion behind the song to even greater depths.

Sibylle Baier

Aliens don’t exist, but UFOs do. And in 2006, indie label Orange Twin captured a huge one. Entitled Colour Green, this was the work of an entirely unknown German woman named Sibylle Baier, who composed and recorded a handful of songs in her own home between 1970 and 1973. Very succinct liner notes explain that it was upon returning from a short trip between Strasbourg and Genoa that the young woman brought into existence these 14 timeless gems, and that her son would go on to re-edit 35 years prior to their recording. Her voice, stripped of all affectation, seems to be stricken with immense disquiet, overwhelming to the point that it becomes divine, regal. Sibylle Baier’s inimitable timbre caught the attention of none other than the playful Nico, the groggy Leonard Cohen, and even the morose Vashti Bunyan…All of which goes to show that this record is far from something you’d want to get up and dance to. Quickly becoming a cult classic, Baier’s few recordings set themselves apart from the sort of manic depressive folk produced by artists like Devendra Banhart: beyond the weighty, melancholic vocals, Baier manages to weave an impressive harmonic tapestry that does away with the ennui that is often associated with the genre.

Listen more

Artists