So I've decided to take a page from the playbook of rich white snobs who won't want to admit that they're into country music, and use "roots music" as a code word for a certain sub-section of roots music, while pretending that it's a totally different genre than that sub-section.
Much as there's already threads for country and Western and blues, and I have started threads for pretty much every single other petty subgenre of roots music except bluegrass (something I'll have to get right on), let's have a thread for the core of folk roots music as understood by hippies in the 60s: Anglo-American traditional music and its electric derivatives.
Since I think that still encompasses at least seven subgenres, and pre-electric English traditional music is definitely the weakest of them (thank you Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span for discovering what electricity can do for the Child Ballads), I'm going to skip the non-electric English folk song.
Instead, enjoy some:
(Lowlands) Scottish traditional music: John McDermott - "Bonnie Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond"
American traditional music: The Carter Family - "Wildwood Flower"
Singer-songwriter "folk music": Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer - "Gentle Arms of Eden"
Folk Rock: Richard Thompson - "Jerusalem on the Jukebox"
Electric Folk: Steeleye Span - "Sails of Silver"
Roots Rock: Credence Clearwater Revival - "Looking Out My Back Door"
Then, after you've enjoyed these songs, please post some similar songs, while keeping in mind that anybody who posts any song which appears on The Essential Bob Dylan will be trout-slapped for their lack of imagination.