Welcome to another two hours of psychedelic music on Global Psychedelia WEFT 90.1FM and streaming live at weft.org/listen –Today’s show is free folk, freak folk, free freak folk from the U.S.  I tried to give a little historical context by including some ’60s and ’70s freak folk artists.  There’s so much music that could fall into this category I ended up organizing these artists together, not in chronological order or due to the sonic psychedelic quality of their music, but because of what I hear as the qualities of magic, fantasy, and whimsy they all share.

I hope you enjoy this collection, and as always, please leave suggestions in the comments.

Turn on. Tune in.

The Fugs . First Album . Nothing . 1965 . Big Beat

Joshua Burkett . Where’s My Hat . A Moon Equals Zero . 2007 . Time Lag Records

Devendra Banhart . Oh Me Oh My… . Lend Me Your Teeth . 2003 . Young God Records

Steven R. Smith . Owl . The Pity of All Things . 2008 . Digitalis Records

Terrors . Lagan Qord . Hit & Miss Iowa City (for Charles) . 2011 . Weird Forest Records

Sic Alps . Pleasures and Treasures . I am Grass . 2006 . Animal Disguise

Smog . Swen to the Sky . hollow out cakes . 1990 . Disaster Records

Chelsea Wolfe . The Grime and the Glow . Moses . 2010 . Pendu Sound Recordings

Dorothy Carter . Waillee Waillee . The Squirrel is a Funny Thing… . 1978 . Celeste

Marissa Nadler . Ballads of Living and Dying . Stallions . 2004 . Eclipse Records

Thee Oh Sees . Thee Hounds of Foggy Notion . Golden Phones (live) . 2008 . Tomlab

Perry Leopold . Experiment in Metaphysics . And then, The Snow Came . 1970 . No Label

Godz . Contact High With The Godz . Eleven . 1966 . ESP Disck

Ed Askew . Little Eyes . Oh, All the Gold and Green Eyes . (2005) . De Stijl

Animal Collective . Prospect hummer . Prospect hummer . 2005 . Fat Cat Records

Six Organs of Admittance . RTZ . Creation Aspect Fire . 2009 . Drag City

Alexander “Skip” Spence . Oar . War In Peace . 1969 . Columbia

Gary Higgins . Red Hash . Thicker Than a Smokey . 1973 . Nufusmoon

MIJ . Yodeling Astrologer . Grok (Martian Love Call) . 1969 . ESP Disk

Jandek . Six and Six . You’re the Best One . 1981 . Corwood Industries (of course)

Castanets . Cathedral . You Are the Blood . 2004 . Asthmatic Kitty Records

Spires that in the Sunset Rise . Spires That In The Sunset Rise . I Am Sewn . 2003 . Graveface Records

Weyes Blood . The Innocents . Land of Broken Dreams . 2014 . Mexican Summer

Joanna Newsom . The Milk-Eyed Mender . Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie . 2004 . Drag City

Quilt . Agents of Play . Commodity Spectre . 2010 . Breakfast of Champs Records

Troll . The Golden Apple of the Sun . Mexicana . 2004 . Bastet

also the name of a Ray Bradbury book

Youth Lagoon . Wondrous Bughouse . Raspberry Cane . 2013 . Fat Possum Records

The Fugs . Fugs Second Album . Virgin Forest . 1966 . Big Beat Records