New Hippie

Contrary to popular belief, the Woodstock Generation's flame wasn't extinguished by Altamont, punk, or disco. In fact, the openhearted hippie spirit lives on today in a new breed of indie artists who aren't afraid to let their freak flags fly sky-high. In fact, when Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom emerged as king and queen of a scene that channeled the spirit of trippy '60s troubadours, like Donovan, they were lovingly dubbed "freak folk," though one listen to the furry funk feel of Devendra's "Lover" or the Björk-visits-Middle Earth art-pop of harp-plucker Newsom's "Sawdust & Diamonds" proves they transcend such tags. And the sun-dappled, harmony-rich flow of Fleet Foxes' "Mykonos" shows that the influence of L.A. folk-rockers, like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, is alive and well in today's most buzzed-about bands. Solar-powered space-rockers and flower-power popsters keep the dream alive, in Next Steps.

The hippie dream of the '60s was about achieving true freedom of the soul — staying open to anything the universe might toss your way and turning it into a free-flowing ecstatic explosion. Akron/Family takes those ideals into the 21st century on the churning, multi-culti prog/funk/Afrobeat stew of "Everyone Is Guilty." Brightblack Morning Light recorded their debut album with solar power while living in a tent, and the dreamy "Everybody Daylight" is the sound of these musical mystics communing with nature. Sarah Harmer captivates with the poetry of "The Marble in Your Eye," and if there's a sunnier way to say "love thy neighbor" than the orchestral-pop bliss of Lavender Diamond's "Open Your Heart," it sure hasn't turned up on our radar. In Deep Cuts the new hippies turn it up to 11 and rock their way to fuzztone glory.

Even in the days of paisley and patchouli, there was more floating around in the air than just gentle jams and laid-back licks, and today's neo-hippie rockers are ready, willing, and able to bring the noise. Entrance opens up the door to a fuzz-drenched, blues-rock roar on the Led Zep-loving "Grim Reaper Blues." San Francisco's Howlin Rain honours the acid-rock crunch of their Frisco forebears Blue Cheer with the wah-wah wail of "Dancers at the End of Time." And White Rainbow offers up a different kind of intensity with the hypnotic, electro-tribal power of the pulsing "Mystic Prism." But hey, these are the new hippies, so there's plenty of gentler fare . . . like Amelia Curran's rustic reel-around-the-campfire, "You Won't Find Me."

In the new-wave '80s and the grunge-rattled '90s, there wasn't much room for the "smile on your brother, everybody get together" mindset of bygone times. But the millennium ushered in a new generation of true believers who hadn't seen the hippie dream die — whose love of those longhaired, bushy-bearded late-'60s/early-'70s sounds inspired them to re-imagine it all for a new era. Whether it's the Laurel Canyon folk-rock feel of Vetiver, the alt-country stylings of Toronto's Justin Rutledge, or the Band-worshipping, beards-and-bandanas rural rock of the Avett Brothers, these are the artists who aren't afraid to put their music where their neo-hippie hearts are. All you need to do is settle in and soak up the ultimate sampler of psychedelia, freak-folk, space rock, and more.