As I mentioned previously, Strange Folk were a band I discovered at Ely Folk Festival. Having heard them, I couldn't resist picking up a copy of their EP and now it's top of the pile I get to hark on at you about them endlessly (well, perhaps not endlessly as I'm not sure LJ supports bottomless posts, but you get the point).

Although clearly folk influenced, they seem more on the rock side of the genre folk-rock. However, that said the vocals do sound fairly folky even if the folk influence in the rest of their music hides. Take away the guitars and replace them with a fiddler and a bodhran player sitting on a gate chewing pieces of straw and it would clearly be folk, albeit quite strange (perhaps that's where the name comes from?).

Rather than do that though they back it up with an incredibly talented rock guitarist, base and heavy metal influenced drummer giving it a bit of guts.

There's 3 songs on the EP, all of which can be heard on their MySpace page (the 3 on the EP are "The Portrait", "Turned to Stone" and "Voices from the Lake"). Of the three "Voices from the Lake" seems to show them off the best with both the folk and rock/metal influences showing through.