h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My lineup for Band Aid recorded by folk musicians would result in a very crowded studio, but would look something like this:

June Tabor - vocals
Jim Moray - vocals and arrangement
Eliza Carthy - vocals
Show of Hands - vocals and instruments (including violin as Phil Beer does a mean solo)
Danú - vocals and instruments
Steeleye Span (any past or present member who could come) - vocals and instruments (and give the second violin solo to Peter Knight)
Fairport Convention (any past or present member who could come) - vocals and instruments
The Kathryn Tickell Band - instruments
Miranda Sykes - double bass and vocals
Kate Rusby - vocals
Oysterband - vocals and instruments

Plus anybody else who turned up, and if I was allowed American artists, add Brett and Rennie Sparks, Asleep at the Wheel, Joan Baez and Gillian Welch. And that would be a really crowded studio (but then it would just be crowded if you got all the past and present members of Firport or Steeleye in there in the first place).

Oh, needless to say, Bono would not be doing his famous line. In my version, I think it would have to be sung by June Tabor, or Eliza Carthy, out of that lineup.

Interesting choices for the American contingent. Joan Baez of course, especially the early songs like "Silver Dagger". But "Asleep at the Wheel" was kind of a surprise ... here in Texas they are legends, but considered "Texas Swing" (a la Bob Wills) rather than "folk". Still, a great act ... maybe add Willis Alan Ramsay and ... OK, you're gonna need a bigger studio ...

I think they'd need to record in several sessions with the number of people - you'd be hard-pressed to find a studio you could fit all the past and present members of Steeleye Span in, let alone anyone else as well, and I believe the contingent for Fairport Convention would be even larger.

Asleep at the Wheel were considered folky enough to play at the Cambridge Folk Festival this year, and they were excellent, so I'm happy to have them in. Of course, Divine Comedy played the folk festival as well, I'm not really sure about that. They were good, but are they even slightly folk?

I guess anything goes, ever since Dylan picked up that electric guitar ... and when the crowd booed, he was recorded turning to his band and saying "play f*****g loud". On top of that, he shows up at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, a venue usually associated with Clint Black and Garth Brooks. They also had Steve Miller, who reportedly wore a cowboy hat and a big tie with a cactus on it.

Naturally anything goes these days - listen to Jim Moray's stuff if you don't believe that. Folk music is about the style of music - sometimes - but it's more frequently about what you're singing these days, it seems.

I don't much care, I'll listen to anything I think is good.

steele eye spam are mad, anything with Joan Baez is magic..
perhaps also Levellers? and maybe Proclaimers for some wit

Maybe, but these are all artists I'm familiar with, and the Proclaimers and the Levellers aren't, which is why they weren't included.

Do we have room for them anyway?