Good and bad "new folk" (spinoff from Mumford and Sons thread)

i butchered a response in that thread with too many ETAs, so here are my random ruminations about the "new folk"-ish genre:

Annoying folk(s):
(already bashed Of Monsters and Men and M&S)

Lumineers. more marchy crap like everything's an inspirational call to battle on a scottish hill.

Edward Sharpe (similar--just crap).

Civil Wars : can't put my finger on it, but the chick just annoys me.

In fact, i'm generally weary of contrived female vocalists these days (other e.g. is Grace Potter). In lieu of original voices like Joni Mitchell, Lucinda Williams, Bonnie Rait, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Joplin, or Baez, some of these new chicks try too hard to sound like they're from some bygone year, or are boarding the bus by a tobacco field headed for The Farm (or Maggie's Farm or Max's Farm, whatever).

also not impressed with the hyperactive noisy stylings of alabama shakes (not sure if they fit here anyway).

just a sample of some of the more popular better (IMHO) nouveau (and mostly pseudo i suppose) folk alternatives:
Josh Ritter
Alexi Murdoch
Great Lake Swimmers
Monsters of Folk
Neko Case
Gillian Welch
Iron & Wine (duh)
Decemberists/Tarkio
Anais Mitchell (yes, i said anus)
The Tallest Man on Earth
M. Ward
Andrew Bird
Jose Gonzales
AA Bondy


Mixed feelings: Ray LaMontagne, Nickel Creek (they've been around long enough for some cred and Sara Watkins's voice is soothing--hell she shared the stage with Jackson Browne), Gregory Alan Isakov (i'm sort of meh about him but he isn't annoying), Avett Brothers (they are mostly annoying but some redeeming qualities),