I have previously moaned on the blog about the bizarre ex-pat expectations of Chinese rock and punk to contain some ethnic flavour in order to be 'real'. I've also moaned about some bands who do this just sounding like the world music genre.
However, if the genre is folk it's all good. Because, you know, folk is supposed to have that stuff in there.
Then again, when I check out folk shows I'm not always that impressed and the recorded material doesn't seem to come over live. One performer I've seen who can really captivate the punters in that folk way is Dongzi. And now his excellent CD Shi Fang 十方 is available online.
You can go here to hear and download all the songs.
A good place to start is the very first track you see there. It's called Qiang Tou Cao 墙头草 which is a type of grass that bends in the wind. It's a metaphor for followers. Also, I'd love to introduce an artist in the north China hard folk style. Anyone like to recommend an artist in the comments?
Beijing has an interesting folk scene that seems to be centered around the Jiangjinjiu Bar near the Drum Tower, where folk artist perform most Wednesdays-Saturdays. I'm not an expert on the scene, but here are two more Beijing folk artists that I think are pretty great:
Hao Yun 郝云 http://www.douban.com/artist/haoyun/
Wang Juan 王娟 http://www.douban.com/artist/wjandhersband/
Is there any analogous folk scene in Shanghai?
I saw Wang Juan when she played the Dream Factory in Shanghai.
Shanghai's Folk scene is smaller and more quirky. It's more about witty storytelling and low key indie pop, where the Beijing scene have a lot of trad influences from the North and Mongolia too.
here is a Shanghai folk collective