Graceful Explosions: 12 Female Folk Artists on the Rise   Folk
music is one of the genres that threw open its double doors to
female musicians long ago, and the resulting artists have
produced some of the most powerful music of the last decades.
Fortunately, female artists have begun to populate genres that
they were previously denied admission to with increasing
frequency, but their impact on folk remains integral.  Classic
artists like Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams and Joan Baez
ushered in political and social change through some spectacular
songs, but time marches on, and so does music, bringing with it
fresh, new voices who have their own take on old folk
traditions.  From artists riffing on the traditional acoustic
sounds all the way through the various worlds of electric
guitar, breathy synths and the depths of doom-soul, here are
eleven of the most precocious, talented and creative female folk
musicians on the scene. Watch for these ladies, they're on their
way up.  Click to start the list