Forfolks consists of solo guitar works by Jeff Parker.[5] It features six original songs, as well as his versions of the standard "My Ideal" and Thelonious Monk's "Ugly Beauty".[6] The album was recorded at Parker's home studio in Altadena, California, over two days in June 2021.[5] A music video for "Suffolk" was directed by Cauleen Smith.[7]
According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Forfolks received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 87 out of 100 from 7 critic scores.[4]
Mariel Fechik of Under the Radar described the album as "a transfixing solo guitar record that finds Parker turning inward, creating a collection of songs that border on musical meditation."[14] Erin Osmon of Uncut commented that "He situates his intuitive, improvised guitar work among a menagerie of textural loops, working alone and thus fully exposed, his playing a gift of intimacy and warmth in a climate very much in need of such things."[13] Grayson Haver Currin of Pitchfork stated, "The games he plays with rhythm and repetition feel like a frontier, a suggestion of new spaces to explore for solo guitarists indebted to minimalism, drone, and electronics."[11] He added, "Hearing a long-consummate instrumentalist well into his 50s grapple so clearly with the future of his own idiom is plenty inspiring; the quiet confidence with which Parker proclaims there is something else to say with just six strings and a few effects feels like a revelation, for himself and the form."[11]
