1) Nick Drake
2) Ben Harper
3) Bon Iver
4) The Pogues
5) Leonard Cohen
2 close calls :
Ray LaMontagne
Van Morrison
I'm not a big fan of Folk Rock, so I don't have issue not voting for the big ones.
But it looks indeed that in some categories, it will be harsh to pick only 5.
They fit the genre according to RYM and there were not any 80's bands in the mix... shooting for as much diversity as possible... plus they had 3 pretty good albums from '85-'89.
I know there are a lot of great artists to choose from but I'm surprised that nobody else has placed even a 5th place vote for CSN. If John Prine or Phil Ochs were on the nominations list I probably would have gone with one of them #5.
110 - Bob Dylan
88 - Neil Young
40 - Tom Waits
31 - Crosby, Stills & Nash
22 - Leonard Cohen
22 - Nick Drake
19 - Van Morrison
17 - Ben Harper
___________________________
13 - The Band
12 - Cat Stevens, Fleet Foxes, Joni Mitchell
11 - Grateful Dead
9 - Love
6 - Bon Iver, The Byrds
5 - Counting Crows, David Gray, The Pogues, Tracy Chapman
4 - Donovan, Jethro Tull, Ray LaMontagne
3 - Billy Bragg, Robin Hitchcock
1 - Joanna Newsom, Okkervil River, Rusted Root
0 - Iron & Wine, Sarah McLachlan, Sinead O'Connor, The Hooters