50 Best Folk Songs (Most Essential)

Folk music is built on stories: a phone call from an old lover, a shipwreck on Lake Superior, a family pushed off its land in the Dust Bowl. This list of the 50 best folk songs follows those stories from traditional ballads and spirituals through Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, the 1960s revival of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, and the singer-songwriters who came after.

You’ll find protest songs, murder ballads, love songs, and a few tracks that drift toward country, blues, and rock, because folk has always borrowed from its neighbors. Every entry has a short note on where the song came from and a video to play.

Here are the first 10 at a glance. Open the table for all 50, or tap a song to jump to it.

Rank	Song	Artist	Year	Why it’s here
1	Diamonds and Rust	Joan Baez	1975	An old flame calls, memories return
2	Last Goodbye	Jeff Buckley	1994	Buckley’s biggest US hit
3	Both Sides Now	Judy Collins	1967	Joni Mitchell song, Grammy winner
4	Freight Train	Elizabeth Cotten	1958	Written as a teenager, near the tracks
5	Helplessly Hoping	Crosby, Stills and Nash	1969	Three-part harmony at its best
6	A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall	Bob Dylan	1963	Ballad form, apocalyptic imagery
7	Box of Rain	Grateful Dead	1970	Phil Lesh’s song for his father
8	I Ain’t Got No Home in This World Anymore	Woody Guthrie	1940	Dust Bowl anger
9	Boulder to Birmingham	Emmylou Harris	1975	Grief for Gram Parsons
10	At Seventeen	Janis Ian	1975	An outsider’s view of high school
11	Rich Woman	Alison Krauss and Robert Plant	2007	Grammy-winning collaboration
12	The Bourgeois Blues	Lead Belly	1938	A protest against segregation
13	Coyote	Joni Mitchell	1976	Written on the Rolling Thunder Revue
14	Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child	Odetta	1960	A spiritual from the era of slavery
15	Return of the Grievous Angel	Gram Parsons	1974	A road trip across America
16	Puff, the Magic Dragon	Peter, Paul and Mary	1963	From a student’s poem
17	For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her	Simon and Garfunkel	1966	Garfunkel’s solo showcase
18	Oh Very Young	Cat Stevens	1974	Top 10 folk pop
19	75 Septembers	Cheryl Wheeler	1990	A birthday song for her father
20	Get Right With God	Lucinda Williams	2001	A Grammy-winning revival stomp
21	Harvest Moon	Neil Young	1992	Lifelong love, gently told
22	This Land Is Your Land	Woody Guthrie	1944	An answer to “God Bless America”
23	Blowin’ in the Wind	Bob Dylan	1963	Questions about peace and freedom
24	City of New Orleans	Steve Goodman	1971	A nostalgic train ride
25	If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)	Pete Seeger	1949	A song for justice and freedom
26	Where Have All the Flowers Gone	The Kingston Trio	1961	Seeger’s anti-war circle song
27	Early Morning Rain	Gordon Lightfoot	1966	Stranded at the airport
28	Suzanne	Leonard Cohen	1967	A poem turned folk standard
29	We Shall Overcome	Pete Seeger		The civil rights anthem
30	Four Strong Winds	Ian and Sylvia	1963	Alberta’s unofficial anthem
31	The Last Thing on My Mind	Tom Paxton	1964	A lament turned country hit
32	The Circle Game	Joni Mitchell	1970	A hopeful answer to Neil Young
33	Tom Dooley	The Kingston Trio	1958	A No. 1 murder ballad
34	Who Knows Where the Time Goes	Sandy Denny	1969	Denny’s signature song
35	Goodnight Irene	The Weavers	1950	A Lead Belly song taken to No. 1
36	Universal Soldier	Buffy Sainte-Marie	1964	Who is responsible for war?
37	Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right	Bob Dylan	1963	A bittersweet goodbye
38	The Sound of Silence	Simon & Garfunkel	1965	From flop to No. 1
39	The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald	Gordon Lightfoot	1976	A shipwreck ballad
40	Alice’s Restaurant Massacree	Arlo Guthrie	1967	A satirical draft protest
41	Turn! Turn! Turn!	Pete Seeger	1962	Ecclesiastes set to music
42	Thirsty Boots	Eric Andersen	1966	A song for a civil rights worker
43	There but for Fortune	Phil Ochs	1964	Empathy in four verses
44	Across the Great Divide	Kate Wolf	1981	A modern folk standard
45	The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down	The Band	1969	The Civil War from a Southerner’s view
46	The Dutchman	Michael Peter Smith		A tale of unconditional love
47	Matty Groves	Fairport Convention	1969	A centuries-old murder ballad
48	Pastures of Plenty	Woody Guthrie	1941	The dignity of migrant workers
49	Canadian Railroad Trilogy	Gordon Lightfoot	1967	The building of a nation’s railway
50	The Mary Ellen Carter	Stan Rogers	1979	A rallying cry against despair

1. “Diamonds and Rust” by Joan Baez

Joan Baez wrote and recorded “Diamonds & Rust” in the mid-1970s, and it became one of her signature songs.

It recounts an unexpected phone call from an old lover that sends her back a decade to a Greenwich Village hotel. Baez later said the song is about her relationship with Bob Dylan.

2. “Last Goodbye” by Jeff Buckley

From Grace, this was Jeff Buckley’s most commercially successful song in the US, reaching No. 19 on Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart.

It began life as “Unforgiven,” with a heavier rock arrangement, before becoming the song on the album.

3. “Both Sides Now” by Judy Collins

Written by Joni Mitchell and first recorded by Judy Collins, “Both Sides Now” became a US hit in the fall of 1968 and one of Collins’ best-known songs.

It won the Grammy for Best Folk Performance in early 1969.

4. “Freight Train” by Elizabeth Cotten

By her own account, Elizabeth Cotten wrote “Freight Train” as a child in North Carolina, inspired by the trains passing near her home.

Years later she worked for the Seeger family, and Peggy Seeger took the song to England, where it spread through folk circles. Cotten’s own recording came out in 1958.

5. “Helplessly Hoping” by Crosby, Stills and Nash

This track from Crosby, Stills & Nash’s 1969 debut album is a showcase for the trio’s close harmonies.

Written by Stephen Stills, it’s about two lovers unsure of what to do next.

6. “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” by Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan wrote “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” in 1962, modeling it on the question-and-answer form of traditional ballads such as “Lord Randall.”

Its images deal with suffering, pollution, and war. Dylan has said each line could have been the start of a song he thought he’d never have time to write.

7. “Box of Rain” by Grateful Dead

This fan favorite from American Beauty draws on folk and country roots, and was the first Grateful Dead song with Phil Lesh on lead vocals.

Lyricist Robert Hunter said Lesh wanted a song to sing to his dying father and had written the music before the words.

8. “I Ain’t Got No Home in This World Anymore” by Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie said this song grew out of a gospel song he heard in migrant camps, which told people to accept their hardship.

He wrote his version in response, trying to capture the anger of the Dust Bowl refugees instead.

9. “Boulder to Birmingham” by Emmylou Harris

Emmylou Harris toured with Gram Parsons and sang on both of his solo albums. This song is about her grief after his death in 1973.

It was never released as a single, but it became one of her signature songs.

10. “At Seventeen” by Janis Ian

Janis Ian based this 1975 song on a New York Times article, and it’s about being a social outcast as a teenager.

With soft rock touches, it became an anthem for anyone who felt left out, and remains her best-known song.

11. “Rich Woman” by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant

Bluegrass star Alison Krauss and former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant recorded this R&B cover for Raising Sand, produced by T Bone Burnett.

It won the Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals in 2009.

12. “The Bourgeois Blues” by Lead Belly

Lead Belly wrote this blues song after facing segregation on a visit to Washington, D.C.

One of his best-known works, it rails against racism and the Jim Crow laws.

13. “Coyote” by Joni Mitchell

“Coyote” opens Hejira and is widely said to be about playwright Sam Shepard, whom Mitchell met on Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour.

In David Yaffe’s biography Reckless Daughter, Mitchell describes having a flirtation with Shepard.

14. “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” by Odetta

This spiritual dates back to the era of slavery in the US. The Fisk Jubilee Singers performed it in the 1870s, and it was often heard during the civil rights movement.

Odetta’s 1960 Carnegie Hall performance brought it to a new audience.

15. “Return of the Grievous Angel” by Gram Parsons

Gram Parsons wrote this song with poet Tom Brown, and it describes a road trip across the US.

Emmylou Harris sings with him, backed by members of Elvis Presley’s TCB Band.

16. “Puff, the Magic Dragon” by Peter, Paul and Mary

“Puff, the Magic Dragon” began as a 1959 poem by Leonard Lipton. Peter Yarrow found it and turned it into the song, a hit for Peter, Paul and Mary in 1963.

Yarrow later tracked Lipton down so he would get co-writing credit.

17. “For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her” by Simon and Garfunkel

Written by Paul Simon and sung by Art Garfunkel alone, it reads like a song about finding a lover.

Simon once said it’s really about a belief rather than a specific person. Garfunkel has called it one of the hardest songs to perform, and one of his favorites.

18. “Oh Very Young” by Cat Stevens

From Buddha and the Chocolate Box, “Oh Very Young” mixes folk with pop and soft rock.

It reached No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 2 on the Easy Listening chart.

19. “75 Septembers” by Cheryl Wheeler

Cheryl Wheeler wrote this for her father’s 75th birthday. He was born in September 1915.

The idea came when she learned the Yellow Cab company was founded the same year, and the song looks at how the world changed over his lifetime.

20. “Get Right With God” by Lucinda Williams

This stomping, gospel-inspired track from Essence won Lucinda Williams the Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance in 2002.

AllMusic praised its “revivalist stomp,” while Spin called it an “odd mock-gospel worksong.”

21. “Harvest Moon” by Neil Young

The title track of Neil Young’s 1992 album is a gentle celebration of long-lasting love, and critics including AllMusic singled it out as the album’s heart.

It reached No. 36 on the UK Singles Chart.

22. “This Land Is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie wrote the lyrics in 1940 in response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America,” which he’d grown tired of hearing on the radio. His working title was “God Blessed America for Me.”

It’s one of America’s best-known folk songs and is in the National Recording Registry.

23. “Blowin’ in the Wind” by Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan’s protest song asks a series of rhetorical questions about peace, war, and freedom.

It entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1994, and Rolling Stone ranked it No. 14 on its 2004 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

24. “City of New Orleans” by Steve Goodman

Steve Goodman wrote this song about a train journey from Chicago to New Orleans after riding the line on a trip to visit his wife’s family.

Arlo Guthrie’s 1972 cover made it a hit, and it’s been a folk and country standard ever since.

25. “If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)” by Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger and Lee Hays wrote “The Hammer Song” in 1949, and their group, the Weavers, recorded it.

It became a civil rights era standard, and Peter, Paul and Mary had a hit with it in 1962.

26. “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” by The Kingston Trio

Pete Seeger wrote this song in 1955, inspired by lines from a traditional Cossack song, and the Kingston Trio’s version made it a hit.

It’s one of the best-known anti-war songs, and the New Statesman named it one of the top 20 political songs in 2010.

27. “Early Morning Rain” by Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot wrote this in 1964 and recorded it for his debut album.

It describes a man, down on his luck, watching a jet take off from an airport. Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, and Peter, Paul and Mary all covered it.

28. “Suzanne” by Leonard Cohen

“Suzanne” was first published as a poem in 1966. Judy Collins recorded it that year, before Leonard Cohen’s own version opened his 1967 debut album.

It has become one of the most covered songs in his catalog.

29. “We Shall Overcome” by Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger published a version of this old gospel song in 1948 and began performing it.

He played it for Martin Luther King Jr. in 1957, and it became the anthem of the civil rights movement.

30. “Four Strong Winds” by Ian and Sylvia

Ian Tyson said he wrote this in about 20 minutes in his manager’s New York apartment in 1961.

A sad reflection on a failing relationship, it was part of the early ’60s folk revival. Its mention of Alberta has made it the province’s unofficial anthem.

31. “The Last Thing on My Mind” by Tom Paxton

Tom Paxton wrote this in the early ’60s, drawing on the traditional song “The Leaving of Liverpool.”

Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton’s 1967 duet took it to No. 7 on the Billboard country chart, the first of their string of hits together.

32. “The Circle Game” by Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell wrote “The Circle Game” in 1966 as a response to Neil Young’s “Sugar Mountain.”

Where Young’s song mourns the end of youth, Mitchell’s is more hopeful. Her own recording closes Ladies of the Canyon.

33. “Tom Dooley” by The Kingston Trio

This traditional North Carolina ballad is based on the 1866 murder of Laura Foster by Tom Dula, pronounced “Dooley.”

The Kingston Trio’s 1958 recording went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped spark the folk boom.

34. “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” by Sandy Denny

Sandy Denny first recorded this as a demo in 1967, singing and playing guitar.

After joining Fairport Convention, she recorded it with the band for Unhalfbricking. It became a signature song for both, and has been covered many times.

35. “Goodnight Irene” by The Weavers

The Weavers took Lead Belly’s “Goodnight Irene” to the top of the charts in 1950.

The song tells of a troubled love and the singer’s sorrow. One of its lines gave Ken Kesey the title of his 1964 novel Sometimes a Great Notion.

36. “Universal Soldier” by Buffy Sainte-Marie

Buffy Sainte-Marie released “Universal Soldier” in 1964. It wasn’t an immediate hit, but it got attention in the folk community, and Donovan’s cover spread it further.

She said she wrote it like a student essay aimed at a professor who disagreed with her, hoping to present another point of view.

37. “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” by Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan wrote this around the time Suze Rotolo extended her stay in Italy. Nat Hentoff’s liner notes call it a statement you might make to yourself to feel better.

The melody is based on a traditional song taught to Dylan by folk singer Paul Clayton.

38. “The Sound of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel

Paul Simon wrote the song in 1963 and 1964. The original acoustic version on Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. sold poorly, and the duo split up.

Producer Tom Wilson then overdubbed electric instruments without telling them. That version went to No. 1 in early 1966 and brought them back together.

39. “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot wrote this ballad about the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior in 1975, after reading a Newsweek article about it.

He worried about getting details wrong until his producer, Lenny Waronker, told him to just tell a story.

40. “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” by Arlo Guthrie

Usually called “Alice’s Restaurant,” this is a satirical talking blues that runs for about 18 minutes.

It protests the Vietnam War draft through a comically exaggerated but true story from Arlo Guthrie’s life: an arrest for illegally dumping trash that affects his draft eligibility. It became his signature song.

41. “Turn! Turn! Turn!” by Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger wrote this in the late 1950s, taking almost all of the lyrics from the Book of Ecclesiastes.

The Byrds’ folk-rock version went to No. 1 in late 1965. The video here shows Seeger performing it with Judy Collins.

42. “Thirsty Boots” by Eric Andersen

Eric Andersen’s civil-rights-era song was written for a friend who’d been working in the South.

In the liner notes he explains that, never having gone to Mississippi himself, he wrote about coming back. Judy Collins is among the artists who’ve covered it.

43. “There but for Fortune” by Phil Ochs

Phil Ochs wrote this in 1963 and recorded it twice. Joan Baez had a hit with it in 1965.

Each verse ends with the title line. They describe a prisoner, a hobo, a drunk leaving a bar, and a country that has been bombed.

44. “Across the Great Divide” by Kate Wolf

Kate Wolf’s career was short, but she made a lasting mark on folk music, and many musicians still cover her songs.

“Across the Great Divide” has been recorded by artists including Nanci Griffith.

45. “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” by The Band

Written by Robbie Robertson and recorded by The Band, this song tells the story of a poor white Southerner in the last year of the Civil War.

It’s set during George Stoneman’s raids in southwest Virginia.

46. “The Dutchman” by Michael Peter Smith

Michael Peter Smith wrote “The Dutchman” in 1968, and Liam Clancy and Steve Goodman helped make it popular. The video here is Smith’s own recording.

It’s about an elderly couple in Amsterdam. The Dutchman is losing his memory, and his wife, Margaret, cares for him with great tenderness.

47. “Matty Groves” by Fairport Convention

“Matty Groves,” also known as “Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard,” is a ballad thought to come from northern England.

It tells of an affair between a young man and a noblewoman that ends when her husband finds them and kills them both. Fairport Convention’s version is on Liege & Lief.

48. “Pastures of Plenty” by Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie wrote this in 1941 about the hardship and dignity of migrant farm workers, the world of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.

The tune is based on the traditional ballad “Pretty Polly.”

49. “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” by Gordon Lightfoot

The CBC commissioned this song for Canada’s centennial in 1967. Lightfoot first performed it in 1966 and released his recording the next year.

It tells the story of building the Canadian Pacific Railway across the country.

50. “The Mary Ellen Carter” by Stan Rogers

Stan Rogers wrote this as a motivational song, about a crew refusing to give up on their sunken ship, the fictional Mary Ellen Carter.

It has become a folk standard, and is often credited with helping save at least one life.

FAQs

Folk has always moved between country, blues, and rock, and these songs show how far its stories have traveled.

Start with the table, pick a few you don’t know, and work back through the generations from there.

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