Essential Folk Songs

Last weekend NPR posted a story from Folk Alley, the 24-hour online stream from WKSU at Kent State. They recently spent eight-weeks polling their listeners to discover their 100 Essential Folk Songs. Go to the post at Folk Alley where you can find the list and an ongoing stream of the 100 songs. NPR posted the whole list here.

Here are the Top 10 of the Essential 100.....

1. "This Land Is Your Land" - Woody Guthrie
2. "Blowin' in the Wind" - Bob Dylan
3. "City of New Orleans" - Steve Goodman
4. "If I Had a Hammer" - Pete Seeger (and Lee Hays)
5. "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" - The Kingston Trio (Pete Seeger)
6. "Early Morning Rain" - Gordon Lightfoot
7. "Suzanne" - Leonard Cohen
8. "We Shall Overcome" - Pete Seeger (Trad)
9. "Four Strong Winds" - Ian and Sylvia
10. "Last Thing on My Mind" - Tom Paxton

Looking at the rest of the list I can only see a few (Circle Game, Good Night Irene or Tom Dooley) that might have replaced something on the top 10. Otherwise, I think that at least in this part the list is as good as it can get.