50 Best Folk Songs for IG Reels & Stories

Best Folk Songs for Instagram Reels and Stories

There’s a specific kind of quiet that hangs in the background when folk music plays. Not silence exactly, but a space where an acoustic guitar feels bigger than the room and voices crack in a way that makes them sound alive. These tracks work when you’re sitting on a porch with friends, or scrolling through clips of road trips, or even watching someone pour coffee in a dim kitchen. They catch the small moments that rarely get their own soundtrack. Some might not be literally tied to folk, but they slip into the mood and bring that same raw edge.

What makes these songs fit Instagram reels and stories is how they lean into imperfections. A fiddle that wavers, a harmony that feels unplanned, a lyric that lands heavy without trying to be neat. You can line them up beside pop, rock, country, and R&B songs and they still hold their own, because they create a pause in the noise. They don’t force themselves into the frame, they move around it, letting the clip breathe. That’s why even a shaky video filmed on a phone feels like it belongs to something bigger when the right folk track plays under it.

Not every reel needs to look polished. Sometimes the best clips are messy, quick, caught on a whim, and folk songs thrive in that space. They’re unafraid of sounding stripped back, they sit comfortably with awkward transitions or the kind of shaky filming that happens when someone laughs mid-recording. These songs pull in that energy and push it out loud enough to stop a thumb from scrolling. Here are the best folk songs for Instagram reels and stories.

1. 'Blowin' in the Wind' by Bob Dylan

2. 'This Land Is Your Land' by Woody Guthrie

3. 'The Sound of Silence' by Simon & Garfunkel

4. 'Mr. Tambourine Man' by Bob Dylan

5. 'Scarborough Fair' by Simon & Garfunkel

6. 'Both Sides Now' by Joni Mitchell

7. '500 Miles' by Peter, Paul and Mary

8. 'The House of the Rising Sun' by The Animals

9. 'Danny Boy' by John McCormack

10. 'Greensleeves' by Loreena McKennitt

11. 'I Need You' by Lily Meola

12. 'The Circle Game' by Joni Mitchell

13. 'Put Your Records On' by Ritt Momney

14. 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald' by Gordon Lightfoot

15. 'Early Morning Rain' by Gordon Lightfoot

16. 'Suzanne' by Leonard Cohen

17. 'I Got You Honey' by Ocie Elliott

18. 'Acoustic Camping Folk Travel | New Lands' by Alex-Productions

19. 'Rustic Ballad' by Alexander Nakarada

20. 'The Sickness' by Monplaisir

21. 'Change the World' by My Sun and Stars

22. 'The Pines' by Emily Schultz

23. 'Meant To' by Laura Alden

24. 'Run Like A River' by Ewan J Phillips

25. 'All the Wonder' by The Neighborly

26. 'I'm Not Ready To Go' by Hazlett

27. 'These Days' by Ocie Elliott

28. 'I feel, free' by Ryan Harris

29. 'Waste' by Vraell

30. 'Bookmark' by Ben Morgan

31. 'Six Months Later' by Bertie Newman

32. 'That Way' by Children of Indigo

33. 'Where Have All The Flowers Gone?' by The Kingston Trio

34. 'The Boxer' by Simon & Garfunkel

35. 'Leaving on a Jet Plane' by John Denver

36. 'If You Could Read My Mind' by Gordon Lightfoot

37. 'Both Sides Now' by Judy Collins

38. 'Tom Dooley' by The Kingston Trio

39. 'City of New Orleans' by Steve Goodman

40. 'Thirsty Boots' by Eric Andersen

41. 'Across The Great Divide' by Kate Wolf

42. 'Hickory Wind' by The Byrds

43. 'If I Had a Hammer' by Pete Seeger

44. 'Turn! Turn! Turn!' by The Byrds

45. 'Puff, the Magic Dragon' by Peter, Paul and Mary

46. 'I'll Be Here In The Morning' by Townes Van Zandt

47. 'Gentle on My Mind' by Glen Campbell

48. 'Teach Your Children' by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

49. 'Sweet Pea' by Amos Lee

50. 'Home' by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros