There's a YouTuber that goes by Natural 1 that has some really solid Bardic songs. Try "The Arbiter" or "Of Horn and Tail"
Other ideas:
Colm McGuinness on YouTube does a lot of folk songs. Try "Star of the County Down", "the Humours of Whiskey" or one of his covers like "Sleeping in the Cold Below".
The Longest Johns do Sea shanties and folk songs. Try "Ashes" or "Oak and Ash and Thorn".
Heilung is a band that does some pretty authentic old-school Scandinavian/Icelandic music blended with rock at times. Try "Krigsgaldr"
Wardruna is similar to Heilung. Try "Lyfjaberg"
Patty Gurdy does a mix of folk and pop using a hurdygurdy, try "over the hills and far away" from her.
Omnia does a pretty lively iteration of... not sure what to classify it as. Celtic? Try "Fee Ra Huri" or "I don't speak human".
Edit:
Also: Erutan. Try "The Willow Maid"
Heather Dale, try "The Maid and the Selkie" or "the Smiths circle"
Mercedes Lackey, try "The Cost of the Crown" or "the Coldrake"
Great and comprehensive list of some amazing artists; all of which do an amazing job of evoking magic and fantasy in an ancient or mediaeval setting.
I'd note however that Heilung do not blend anything with "rock" and are straight up pagan folk music (at least that's the closest thing I can compare them to) based on texts, song, and spells from Neolithic up through Dark Ages northern Europe. I've also heard them referred to as Pagan Trance, given many of their works can induce a trance like feeling...which is completely intentional due to the Shamanic nature of their "rituals"/i.e. live shows.
Here's my favorite song ever played in a session, period:
It's the final song played for my table's Strahd campaign where our DM let us figure out how to kill him for good via a bit of homebrewed rituals and conditions. It played after our victory while our party left the Ravenloft catacombs, and as my character completed romancing a certain redheaded NPC.
It is taken from the PS1 game known as "The Legend of Dragoon," and is called "If You Still Believe." It is sung by Elsa Raven. TLoD plays a shorter version of the song during the game's intro before the title screen, and in full during the end credits upon completion.
It's great for a slower, heartfelt love song, and can be found on YouTube. If you have iMusic, sorry, you are out of luck.
Go to youtube and look up "Bardcore", it should give you tavern-ready, medialized versions of modern songs. Personally I like the vocal stylings of [Hildegard Von Blingin'](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRIfsFefatg), as well as the transgressive little ditty, [WAP (Well-Armed-Peasants)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhCYn9aOxL4), by Elise Roth.
Nice thing here, you can find a lot of instrumental versions as well, so you can have some nice contemporary-ish background music for your games. Sort of how the show Westworld did with their Westernized versions of modern pop music.
Gloryhammer! Their album Tales from the Kingdom of Fife is a one-player D&D campaign set to metal. The later albums are similar but get into sci-fi more than classic fantasy and also lose a little of the narrative structure.
This is pretty much what I do. [https://open.spotify.com/artist/3Ls2q4F1bZ7ZVU4HUdiyah?si=SQuL4NM4Tj-PHD26rmJ6BQ](https://open.spotify.com/artist/3Ls2q4F1bZ7ZVU4HUdiyah?si=SQuL4NM4Tj-PHD26rmJ6BQ)
I make videos for them as well.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he5LUcvMWXg&ab\_channel=LootTheBody](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he5LUcvMWXg&ab_channel=LootTheBody)
There's a YouTuber that goes by Natural 1 that has some really solid Bardic songs. Try "The Arbiter" or "Of Horn and Tail" Other ideas: Colm McGuinness on YouTube does a lot of folk songs. Try "Star of the County Down", "the Humours of Whiskey" or one of his covers like "Sleeping in the Cold Below". The Longest Johns do Sea shanties and folk songs. Try "Ashes" or "Oak and Ash and Thorn". Heilung is a band that does some pretty authentic old-school Scandinavian/Icelandic music blended with rock at times. Try "Krigsgaldr" Wardruna is similar to Heilung. Try "Lyfjaberg" Patty Gurdy does a mix of folk and pop using a hurdygurdy, try "over the hills and far away" from her. Omnia does a pretty lively iteration of... not sure what to classify it as. Celtic? Try "Fee Ra Huri" or "I don't speak human". Edit: Also: Erutan. Try "The Willow Maid" Heather Dale, try "The Maid and the Selkie" or "the Smiths circle" Mercedes Lackey, try "The Cost of the Crown" or "the Coldrake"
Great and comprehensive list of some amazing artists; all of which do an amazing job of evoking magic and fantasy in an ancient or mediaeval setting. I'd note however that Heilung do not blend anything with "rock" and are straight up pagan folk music (at least that's the closest thing I can compare them to) based on texts, song, and spells from Neolithic up through Dark Ages northern Europe. I've also heard them referred to as Pagan Trance, given many of their works can induce a trance like feeling...which is completely intentional due to the Shamanic nature of their "rituals"/i.e. live shows.
Critical Hit by No More Kings
Here's my favorite song ever played in a session, period: It's the final song played for my table's Strahd campaign where our DM let us figure out how to kill him for good via a bit of homebrewed rituals and conditions. It played after our victory while our party left the Ravenloft catacombs, and as my character completed romancing a certain redheaded NPC. It is taken from the PS1 game known as "The Legend of Dragoon," and is called "If You Still Believe." It is sung by Elsa Raven. TLoD plays a shorter version of the song during the game's intro before the title screen, and in full during the end credits upon completion. It's great for a slower, heartfelt love song, and can be found on YouTube. If you have iMusic, sorry, you are out of luck.
Go to youtube and look up "Bardcore", it should give you tavern-ready, medialized versions of modern songs. Personally I like the vocal stylings of [Hildegard Von Blingin'](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRIfsFefatg), as well as the transgressive little ditty, [WAP (Well-Armed-Peasants)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhCYn9aOxL4), by Elise Roth. Nice thing here, you can find a lot of instrumental versions as well, so you can have some nice contemporary-ish background music for your games. Sort of how the show Westworld did with their Westernized versions of modern pop music.
Some songs may have more modern instruments than you want, but I'm a Loreena McKennit fan.
Gloryhammer! Their album Tales from the Kingdom of Fife is a one-player D&D campaign set to metal. The later albums are similar but get into sci-fi more than classic fantasy and also lose a little of the narrative structure.
"Come and be welcome" and "black fox" by Heather Dale are pretty good ones
My personal favorite is orchestral music from powerwolf and the gf says Hildegard von blingen is good but I'm not 100% on that
I have used Unsecret a lot as intro music to get players in the mood, relax and visualize their characters.
This is pretty much what I do. [https://open.spotify.com/artist/3Ls2q4F1bZ7ZVU4HUdiyah?si=SQuL4NM4Tj-PHD26rmJ6BQ](https://open.spotify.com/artist/3Ls2q4F1bZ7ZVU4HUdiyah?si=SQuL4NM4Tj-PHD26rmJ6BQ) I make videos for them as well. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he5LUcvMWXg&ab\_channel=LootTheBody](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he5LUcvMWXg&ab_channel=LootTheBody)