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Unplug that guitar and pull our your bongos - folk is the new rock'n'roll, with rising stars such as Noah and the Whale, Laura Marling and Jeffrey Lewis about to hit the big time

THROW SOME TINDERSTICKS on the fire and bring out the vittles - folk music is coming back in from the cold. Pure folk has long been a bit of an outcast in proper pop society - too twee for the rockers, too old-fashioned for the modernists, and too bloody beardy for the clean-cut kids. But folk is back with a bang on the ear, and a new generation of green-fingered troubadours is nurturing the genre back into full bloom.