Folk music has a special way of turning simple melodies, acoustic instruments, and honest storytelling into songs that feel timeless. Across generations, the most popular folk bands have transformed traditional sounds into powerful expressions of love, struggle, community, protest, and everyday life. Some built their music around close vocal harmonies and delicate guitars, while others blended folk traditions with rock, country, bluegrass, and contemporary influences. The greatest folk bands connect listeners through authenticity and unforgettable songwriting, proving that music does not need elaborate production to leave a lasting impression. Their songs continue to inspire audiences, musicians, and storytellers around the world.

1. Simon & Garfunkel

Simon & Garfunkel became one of the defining folk duos of the twentieth century by pairing Paul Simon’s sophisticated songwriting with Art Garfunkel’s extraordinary vocal purity. Their music emerged from the American folk revival but quickly expanded beyond traditional acoustic conventions, incorporating orchestration, rock instrumentation, gospel influences, and increasingly ambitious studio arrangements. At the heart of nearly everything they created was an exceptional gift for harmony. Simon’s lower voice and Garfunkel’s soaring upper register could make even a relatively simple melody feel emotionally enormous.

The Sound of Silence remains one of their defining performances. Simon’s mysterious lyrics explore isolation and failures of communication, while the melody possesses the timeless quality of a traditional folk song. The original acoustic recording was later transformed through additional electric instrumentation, helping turn the song into a major success. Live performances often return the composition to its essential elements, allowing the two voices to carry almost all of its emotional weight.

Bridge Over Troubled Water represents another peak. Garfunkel delivers one of popular music’s most celebrated vocal performances while piano and orchestration gradually expand around him. The Boxer uses vivid storytelling, unusual studio textures, and a famous dramatic percussion accent to create a portrait of perseverance. America turns a journey across the country into something intimate and quietly melancholy, while Homeward Bound captures the loneliness of a traveling musician with remarkable economy.

Mrs. Robinson demonstrates Simon’s sharper rhythmic songwriting, while Scarborough Fair/Canticle transforms a traditional English melody through intricate vocal arrangement. I Am a Rock and Cecilia further show how broadly the duo could interpret folk based songwriting. Simon & Garfunkel made introspection commercially powerful. Their best recordings feel carefully crafted without losing intimacy, and their harmonies remain a benchmark for every acoustic duo that followed.

2. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young brought together four musicians whose individual songwriting personalities were strong enough to sustain separate careers, yet their combined voices created something uniquely powerful. David Crosby contributed unusual harmony and introspective writing, Stephen Stills brought muscular musicianship and ambitious arrangements, Graham Nash supplied an instinct for concise melody, and Neil Young added a restless creative personality that made the expanded quartet even less predictable.

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes is one of the great demonstrations of their vocal chemistry. Written by Stills, the composition moves through several distinct sections while maintaining a continuous emotional arc. Acoustic guitar provides the rhythmic foundation, but the real attraction is the interlocking vocal harmony. Crosby, Stills, and Nash sound simultaneously individual and unified, creating a vocal texture that immediately distinguished them from other folk rock groups.

When Young joined the group, the musical range widened. Their performance of Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock became one of the era’s defining counterculture recordings, trading some of Mitchell’s reflective quality for electric guitar and a more forceful ensemble sound. Ohio, written by Young, responded directly to the Kent State shootings with stark urgency. Its repeated refrain and rough guitar arrangement demonstrated how quickly folk influenced songwriting could become political rock.

Nash’s Our House offers a completely different mood, celebrating domestic contentment through piano and close harmony. Crosby’s Guinnevere is mysterious and harmonically unusual, while Wooden Ships creates an expansive atmosphere through shifting vocals and electric instrumentation. Teach Your Children became another enduring favorite, built around Nash’s clear melody and themes of understanding between generations.

The group’s defining instrument was its harmony. Even when personal tensions made collaboration difficult, those voices could produce a sound of extraordinary warmth and complexity. Their finest recordings helped establish the template for sophisticated American folk rock and influenced vocal groups for decades.

3. The Byrds

The Byrds helped transform American folk music into electric rock by combining the songwriting influence of Bob Dylan with shimmering guitars, layered vocal harmony, and the rhythmic energy of the British Invasion. Roger McGuinn’s ringing twelve string guitar became one of the most recognizable sounds of the 1960s, while Gene Clark, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, and the group’s changing lineup brought formidable songwriting and arranging talent.

Mr. Tambourine Man became the recording that established their identity. Bob Dylan had written the song, but the Byrds transformed it into something almost entirely new. McGuinn’s bright guitar figure gives the track an instantly recognizable opening, while the vocal arrangement compresses Dylan’s sprawling folk composition into concise pop. The result became one of the foundational recordings of folk rock.

Turn! Turn! Turn! developed the group’s sound around words adapted by Pete Seeger from Ecclesiastes. The performance is both reflective and expansive, using harmony and chiming guitar to create a sense of timelessness. I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better, written by Gene Clark, demonstrates that the Byrds were not dependent upon outside songwriters. Its melodic guitar and bittersweet lyrics make it one of the group’s finest originals.

Eight Miles High opened another creative direction. McGuinn’s guitar drew inspiration from John Coltrane while the band’s harmonies remained rooted in folk and pop, producing one of psychedelic rock’s early landmarks. So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star offered a knowing look at fame, while My Back Pages returned to Dylan with another beautifully arranged interpretation.

Later, the band explored country music deeply through Sweetheart of the Rodeo, aided by Gram Parsons. The Byrds were musical bridge builders. They connected folk with rock, psychedelia, and country, leaving behind ideas that influenced everyone from Tom Petty to countless alternative and Americana bands.

4. The Mamas & The Papas

The Mamas & The Papas created some of the most instantly recognizable vocal folk pop of the 1960s. John Phillips, Michelle Phillips, Denny Doherty, and Cass Elliot possessed dramatically different voices, but when those voices were layered together they produced harmonies with extraordinary warmth and personality. Their recordings often evoke California sunshine, yet many of their strongest songs contain longing, loneliness, romantic complication, and uncertainty beneath the beautiful vocal surfaces.

California Dreamin’ remains their defining recording. The song captures the desire to escape a cold eastern winter for the warmth of California, but the performance feels more emotionally complex than simple geographic longing. Doherty’s lead vocal is surrounded by rich harmony, while the memorable flute passage adds an unexpected instrumental color. The result became one of the enduring musical symbols of 1960s California.

Monday, Monday demonstrates John Phillips’s ability to turn ordinary emotional uncertainty into sophisticated pop songwriting. The arrangement moves through subtle changes while the group’s voices provide dramatic contrast between sections. Dedicated to the One I Love was not an original composition, but their interpretation transformed it into a lush vocal showcase, with Michelle Phillips taking a particularly memorable role.

Creeque Alley offers a playful autobiographical account of the musicians and friendships surrounding the group’s formation. I Saw Her Again combines an infectious chorus with more complicated romantic subject matter, while Words of Love gives Cass Elliot room to display the strength and character of her voice. Twelve Thirty later captured John Phillips’s fascination with California as both a real place and an emotional symbol.

The Mamas & The Papas made vocal arrangement feel cinematic. Their harmonies can sound intimate and enormous within the same song. Although their original period together was relatively brief, those recordings became permanent fixtures of classic pop and folk rock culture.

5. Peter, Paul & Mary

Peter, Paul & Mary became one of the central groups of the American folk revival by combining beautiful three part harmony with songs addressing peace, social justice, love, childhood, and political change. Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers brought folk music into mainstream popular culture without removing its sense of communal participation. Their performances often feel less like displays of celebrity than invitations for audiences to sing alongside them.

Blowin’ in the Wind, written by Bob Dylan, became one of the trio’s signature recordings. Their polished but emotionally direct interpretation helped carry Dylan’s questions about war, freedom, and human responsibility to a vast audience. The arrangement is intentionally uncluttered, allowing the melody, words, acoustic guitars, and vocal blend to remain central.

If I Had a Hammer became another defining performance. Written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays, the song connects freedom, justice, and love through simple symbolic imagery. Peter, Paul & Mary deliver it with rhythmic energy that makes the message feel celebratory rather than solemn. Where Have All the Flowers Gone? approaches similar concerns from a more reflective direction, using repetition to emphasize the tragic cycles of war.

The trio also achieved enormous success with John Denver’s Leaving on a Jet Plane. Their version gives the song a gentle emotional ache through Travers’s lead vocal and close harmony. Puff, the Magic Dragon became a beloved favorite for younger listeners while retaining the melancholy quality common to many enduring folk songs.

500 Miles and Early Mornin’ Rain further demonstrate their gift for presenting songs with clarity rather than unnecessary ornamentation. Peter, Paul & Mary made folk music feel communal, accessible, and socially meaningful. Their harmonies became part of the soundtrack to a period when popular music and civic engagement were often closely connected.

6. The Band

The Band created music that sounded old and new at the same time. Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson drew from folk, country, blues, gospel, rhythm and blues, and early rock without treating any of those traditions as historical museum pieces. Their songs seemed to belong to an imagined version of North America filled with trains, farms, travelers, workers, soldiers, drifters, and complicated communities.

The Weight became the group’s defining song. Robertson’s composition is filled with mysterious characters and biblical echoes, while the arrangement feels remarkably relaxed. Helm, Danko, and Manuel trade and combine vocal lines, giving the song the feeling of a story being passed between several narrators. The chorus is immediately memorable, yet the verses remain strange enough to invite endless interpretation.

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down provides one of Levon Helm’s greatest vocal performances. Robertson’s lyric approaches the aftermath of the American Civil War through the experience of an ordinary Southerner, while the instrumentation creates dignity without excessive grandeur. Up on Cripple Creek reveals the group’s playful rhythmic side, aided by Garth Hudson’s unusual keyboard textures.

Ophelia combines brass, piano, and Helm’s unmistakable singing into an exuberant piece of roots music. Stage Fright gives Rick Danko one of his signature vocals, while It Makes No Difference demonstrates his ability to communicate heartbreak with extraordinary force. Richard Manuel shines on songs such as In a Station and Whispering Pines.

The group’s collaborations with Bob Dylan also played an important role in its development. The Band helped establish the roots based alternative to psychedelic excess. Their ensemble philosophy influenced Americana, country rock, folk rock, and generations of musicians who valued character and collective chemistry over individual showmanship.

7. Fairport Convention

Fairport Convention played a fundamental role in the development of British folk rock by discovering that traditional English songs could coexist naturally with electric guitars, bass, drums, and the adventurous spirit of late 1960s rock. The group’s changing lineup included remarkable musicians, but the period featuring Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson produced some of the most enduring recordings in British folk music.

Who Knows Where the Time Goes?, written by Sandy Denny, became one of the most beautiful songs associated with the group. Denny’s vocal performance is patient and deeply expressive, addressing the passing of seasons and time without melodrama. Thompson’s guitar and the restrained ensemble arrangement leave enough space for every phrase to resonate. The song has been covered frequently, but Fairport’s recording retains an unusual sense of stillness and emotional authority.

Meet on the Ledge, written by Thompson, became another enduring Fairport anthem. Its theme of reunion gave it special significance to the group’s devoted audience, particularly in live performance. Fotheringay demonstrates Denny’s gift for combining historical imagery with intimate melody.

The album Liege & Lief represented a major turning point. The band approached traditional British material with the energy of a rock group while retaining the character of the original songs. Matty Groves develops an old narrative ballad into a dramatic electric performance, eventually giving Thompson space for intense guitar work. Tam Lin and Reynardine similarly show how ancient stories could feel vivid within modern instrumentation.

Fairport Convention did not merely add electric instruments to folk songs. They developed a genuine musical language where rock rhythm and British tradition could interact naturally. Their influence spread throughout British folk and beyond, while the work of Denny and Thompson continued inspiring singers and songwriters long after their time together.

8. Pentangle

Pentangle occupied a uniquely adventurous corner of British folk music. The classic lineup combined guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, vocalist Jacqui McShee, bassist Danny Thompson, and drummer Terry Cox, creating an ensemble capable of moving between traditional folk, jazz, blues, medieval music, and contemporary songwriting. Their musicianship was sophisticated, but the best recordings never feel like technical demonstrations. Instead, the instrumental complexity creates unusual colors around McShee’s clear and often haunting voice.

Light Flight became one of Pentangle’s most recognizable compositions. Its shifting rhythmic structure immediately separates it from conventional folk songs, yet the melody remains graceful and accessible. Thompson’s bass and Cox’s drums provide a jazz informed foundation while Jansch and Renbourn weave acoustic guitar lines around McShee’s vocal. The result sounds intricate without becoming heavy.

Basket of Light, the album containing Light Flight, remains an excellent entry point into the group’s musical world. Their interpretation of Once I Had a Sweetheart combines traditional material with instrumental arrangements that are distinctly modern. Hunting Song expands into a long narrative performance filled with shifting textures.

Bruton Town demonstrates the darker side of traditional balladry, while Cruel Sister allows the group to explore an old story through an extended arrangement. Pentangle could also engage blues material naturally, reflecting Jansch and Renbourn’s deep understanding of American guitar traditions.

Pentangle treated folk music as an open musical conversation. Traditional melody could meet jazz bass, complex percussion, blues guitar, and elegant vocal harmony without losing its identity. Their refusal to fit neatly into one genre made them especially influential among acoustic musicians seeking freedom beyond conventional folk arrangements. Decades later, their recordings still sound unusual because very few groups have reproduced that exact balance of delicacy, improvisation, and technical sophistication.

9. Steeleye Span

Steeleye Span helped bring traditional British folk songs into the rock era with a sound that could be both ancient and surprisingly muscular. Formed around musicians deeply knowledgeable about traditional material, the band eventually developed an electric style where old melodies, narrative ballads, vocal harmonies, guitar, bass, and drums could coexist. Maddy Prior’s distinctive voice became the most recognizable feature of the group’s sound, carrying centuries old lyrics with striking clarity.

All Around My Hat became their biggest popular signature. The song originated in folk tradition, but Steeleye Span transformed it into a bright, rhythmic recording with a chorus designed for communal singing. Prior’s vocal cuts confidently through the arrangement, while the band’s electric instrumentation gives the song enough force to function comfortably beside mainstream rock of its era.

Gaudete is one of the most unusual recordings ever to become widely associated with a British folk rock group. Sung in Latin and performed largely through layered voices, it demonstrates the band’s willingness to present historical material without disguising its origins. The stark arrangement creates an atmosphere completely different from All Around My Hat.

Thomas the Rhymer shows how effectively Steeleye Span could turn an old narrative into electric folk rock. Cam Ye O’er Frae France carries political history through a lively traditional framework, while Black Jack Davy demonstrates the enduring strength of folk storytelling. Dark Eyed Sailor and Alison Gross further display the variety of their repertoire.

Steeleye Span treated tradition as something active rather than fragile. They were willing to amplify it, rearrange it, and place it in front of rock audiences without apologizing for the age of the source material. Their long career demonstrates how durable that concept proved to be, and their finest recordings remain gateways into the enormous repertoire of English traditional song.

10. Mumford & Sons

Mumford & Sons became one of the bands most responsible for bringing acoustic folk influenced instrumentation back into mainstream popular music during the early 2010s. Marcus Mumford’s forceful vocals, banjo, acoustic guitar, piano, and stomping rhythms created songs designed to begin intimately and expand toward enormous communal choruses. Their success helped open commercial space for a wider wave of folk inspired groups.

I Will Wait captures their classic early sound at its most confident. The banjo moves rapidly beneath Marcus Mumford’s vocal while piano and rhythm gradually increase the scale of the arrangement. The chorus is built for audience participation, which made the song especially effective in concert. Rather than relying on electronic production for impact, the band creates excitement through repetition, acceleration, harmony, and physical performance.

Little Lion Man first introduced many listeners to their emotional intensity. The arrangement begins with acoustic instrumentation before building into a cathartic chorus, establishing the quiet to loud structure that became associated with the group. The Cave combines literary imagery with one of their most memorable banjo patterns and remains another defining song from Sigh No More.

Roll Away Your Stone and White Blank Page demonstrate the band’s early balance of spiritual language, romantic tension, and acoustic dynamics. Lover of the Light broadens the instrumental palette while preserving the dramatic build of their first recordings.

The group later changed direction, emphasizing electric guitars and larger rock production on songs such as Believe and The Wolf. That shift demonstrated a desire not to remain trapped by the aesthetic that first made them famous. Mumford & Sons turned folk influenced instrumentation into arena music. Their blend of banjo, acoustic rhythm, emotional songwriting, and huge choruses became one of the defining popular sounds of their era.

11. Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes revitalized harmony rich folk music for a new generation by creating songs that sound simultaneously pastoral, mysterious, and meticulously arranged. Led by Robin Pecknold, the group draws from folk traditions, classic vocal groups, chamber pop, and expansive singer songwriter music. Their recordings frequently use acoustic instruments and natural imagery, but the arrangements are far more complex than the rustic presentation might initially suggest.

White Winter Hymnal remains one of their most immediately recognizable songs. The track begins with layered voices singing a circular melody that feels almost traditional despite being an original composition. Percussion and instrumentation gradually enter, but harmony remains the center of the recording. The lyrics are vivid and strange, encouraging listeners to focus as much on the sound of the words as on any straightforward narrative.

Mykonos expands the band’s emotional range through a composition that changes character as it develops. Its later section becomes one of Fleet Foxes’ great vocal climaxes, with repeating harmonies creating a sense of movement and release. Ragged Wood moves through several melodic ideas with remarkable ease, while Blue Ridge Mountains combines family imagery with one of Pecknold’s warmest vocal performances.

Helplessness Blues became a defining statement of the group’s second major period. Pecknold questions individuality, purpose, and the desire to contribute to something larger, all within an arrangement that gradually expands. Grown Ocean closes that album with luminous vocal layering.

Later work became even more intricate. Third of May / Ōdaigahara uses an extended structure to explore friendship and artistic change, while songs from Shore emphasize warmth and rhythmic variety.

Fleet Foxes made vocal harmony feel exploratory again. Their music respects older folk traditions without copying them, creating a modern sound built from careful composition, poetic imagery, and the extraordinary expressive possibilities of multiple human voices singing together.

12. The Lumineers

The Lumineers became one of the most commercially successful bands associated with the modern folk revival by emphasizing direct melodies, hand played instrumentation, storytelling, and choruses that feel immediately communal. Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites formed the group’s central creative partnership, developing songs where piano, acoustic guitar, percussion, and unpolished vocal textures frequently matter more than elaborate studio effects.

Ho Hey became their breakthrough and remains one of the defining folk pop singles of the 2010s. Its arrangement is strikingly economical. Acoustic guitar, foot stomps, shouted interjections, and Schultz’s rough edged voice create a recording that sounds intimate even when the chorus becomes enormous. The lyric centers on belonging and romantic uncertainty, allowing the simplicity of the musical setting to intensify the emotional directness.

Stubborn Love showed that the band could create something more expansive without losing its acoustic identity. The song gradually builds toward a sweeping conclusion while remaining grounded in a simple emotional message. Flowers in Your Hair compresses youthful energy into a short, bright piece, while Dead Sea uses a memorable central image to create an affectionate declaration.

The group’s later work became increasingly narrative. Ophelia combines piano with a memorable vocal hook and helped confirm that their initial success was not dependent upon one song. Cleopatra tells a life story through carefully chosen details, while Angela explores departure and identity with understated instrumentation.

The album III pushed even further toward interconnected storytelling, with songs such as Gloria and Donna functioning within a larger family narrative. The Lumineers understand the power of emotional economy. Their strongest music rarely needs complicated instrumentation because a clear melody, a memorable phrase, and a carefully paced arrangement do most of the work.

13. The Avett Brothers

The Avett Brothers built a devoted audience by combining folk, bluegrass, country, rock, punk energy, and deeply personal songwriting into music that can move from tender reflection to ecstatic performance within minutes. Brothers Scott and Seth Avett became the group’s principal songwriting voices, while longtime bassist Bob Crawford and other collaborators helped turn their family centered musical chemistry into a full ensemble sound.

I and Love and You became one of their defining songs and a major point of introduction for listeners outside the independent folk world. Piano provides the central foundation while the vocals carry a mixture of regret, departure, and emotional vulnerability. The title itself becomes a repeated phrase of remarkable weight, demonstrating the group’s ability to find intensity in simple language.

Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise addresses uncertainty, independence, and personal choice through gradually expanding instrumentation. Its central message became especially beloved among fans because it captures the Avetts’ combination of optimism and realism. January Wedding is warmer and more intimate, using banjo and acoustic textures to create a beautifully understated love song.

Earlier material often displays a rougher, more exuberant energy. Talk on Indolence can become nearly frantic in performance, while The Fall and Salina reveal the band’s ability to stretch folk songwriting into unpredictable arrangements. Murder in the City is one of their most emotionally direct compositions, reflecting on family relationships and mortality through little more than voice and acoustic guitar.

Live and Die adds a polished melodic quality without removing the band’s personality, while Ain’t No Man uses rhythm and vocal repetition to create an infectious modern folk anthem. The Avett Brothers thrive on emotional openness. Their music can be messy, tender, philosophical, joyful, or heartbroken, often because the performances preserve the sense that real people are communicating directly with one another.

14. The Decemberists

The Decemberists occupy a distinctive place in modern folk rock through Colin Meloy’s literary songwriting and the band’s fascination with historical settings, unusual characters, tragedy, mythology, and elaborate narrative structures. Their music draws from traditional folk, indie rock, progressive rock, sea songs, and orchestral pop, creating a catalog where a three minute melody can sit comfortably beside an extended concept piece.

Down by the Water represents one of their most immediate songs. The track is driven by a strong acoustic and electric pulse, while harmonica and supporting vocals add roots based character around Meloy’s distinctive lead. The chorus feels direct enough for a large audience, yet the imagery retains the ambiguity and darkness associated with his writing.

The Mariner’s Revenge Song is perhaps the purest demonstration of the band’s theatrical storytelling. The lengthy composition follows an elaborate tale of betrayal and vengeance at sea, gradually increasing in intensity until live performances can feel almost like folk theater. The audience often becomes part of the spectacle, reinforcing the old tradition of narrative songs functioning as shared entertainment.

O Valencia! combines literary tragedy with one of their most energetic melodies. Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect reveals an earlier, quieter side of Meloy’s writing, while We Both Go Down Together pairs dark storytelling with sweeping melodic beauty.

The ambitious album The Hazards of Love connects numerous songs into a continuous narrative, while The King Is Dead moves toward more direct American folk and country influences. January Hymn and June Hymn reveal how beautifully restrained the group can be when elaborate concepts are set aside.

The Decemberists treat folk storytelling as a living literary form. Their strongest songs are populated by sailors, lovers, criminals, ghosts, and ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances, giving modern indie folk one of its richest narrative catalogs.

15. Of Monsters and Men

Of Monsters and Men brought Icelandic indie folk to an enormous international audience through music filled with dual vocals, acoustic textures, dramatic percussion, horns, and imagery that often feels borrowed from dreams or storybooks. Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar Þórhallsson became the group’s most recognizable voices, frequently trading lines in ways that make their songs feel like conversations between characters.

Little Talks became their worldwide breakthrough and remains the perfect introduction to their early sound. The arrangement begins with bright horns and quickly establishes the call and response vocals between Nanna and Ragnar. Beneath the upbeat instrumental surface lies a more melancholy conversation that has often been interpreted through themes of absence, memory, and loss. That contrast gives the song unusual emotional depth. It can sound celebratory in a crowd while remaining surprisingly sad when examined closely.

Mountain Sound continues the expansive character of their debut album, using percussion and a large chorus to evoke travel and escape. Dirty Paws begins quietly before developing into an imaginative narrative filled with animals and conflict. Its unusual imagery established the mythic quality that distinguished the band’s songwriting from more straightforward acoustic pop.

King and Lionheart combines loyalty and adventure with one of their strongest melodic choruses. Lakehouse uses repetition to create an increasingly hypnotic atmosphere, while Yellow Light closes the album with a slower and more mysterious mood.

Later recordings broadened the band’s palette. Crystals retained the large percussion and folk textures of their debut while sounding darker and more polished. Wolves Without Teeth developed a tense rhythmic atmosphere, and later work moved further toward atmospheric pop and electronic textures.

Of Monsters and Men succeeded by making folk influenced music feel cinematic. Their songs are built from memorable melodies, but the arrangements create landscapes around those melodies. Dual vocals, horns, percussion, and imaginative lyrics helped the band develop a sound recognizable within only a few moments.