Here are some folk singers that aren't real well known to everyone. That I have in my songbooks

Christy Moore
John Martyn
Tom Paxton
Tim Hardin
Steve Goodman
Dave Van Ronk
Gillian Welch
Billy Joe Shaver
and
Mary Gauthier, one of the best Folk song writers of today and a good picker "Thanks to Old Doll" for sending her my way.

I was told what makes a folk song a folk song is there is no chorus , you just tell a story verse after verse till you get tired or the story has an ending.

One from today that is a good folk singer  Greg Brown, married to Iris Dement. This one leans to the country side but a good one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf0Q6anWEWM

Alot of good stuff during the 70's was done in alot of collaborations that didn't go over at the time. If you check out members of the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Manannas , Flying Burrito Bros, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band , Grateful Dead to name a few. Seems members of these groups seemed to have all kinds of different things going on.

David Bromberg has some good stuff too and always has some neat twists on things.

I have been playing and learning songs from Townes Van Zandt's  list. There are alot of good ones with some melody picked out in the progression I also have been playing Blaze Foley's stuff. 2 great songwriters. I just bought a great CD by Jon Hogan, He was asked by the late Blaze Foley's sister to complete some songs from notes Blaze had left behind and also Townes Van Zandt's family gave him the go ahead to include some of Townes song's also.

Every Now & Then
Songs Of Townes Van Zandt & Blaze Foley
By Jon Hogan

Here's a link to his site and how the CD come about     http://www.jonhoganmusic.com/everynowandthen.htm

The version of the song "Nothin" by Townes is just awesome on this CD  I'm workin on this one and have a friend playing bass with me, great song.

I will give this some more thought and come try to come up with some treasures for you.

Unfortunately I cannot find 'Blood Red River' by The Silkie but I will keep trying for that one.

Roger