Acoustic Music Resources

See our list of more than 100 resources for supplies, lessons and sheet music, to luthiers, and other good stuff that is available online.

If you know of any regularly scheduled events or resources that might benefit other musicians, please let us know.

PEOPLE
J.P. Fraley – This well-known and well-respected Kentucky old-time fiddler passed away on February 17, 2011 at the age of 87. Here are a couple of links to his playing on YouTube, from a documentary by Shetlands fiddler Aly Bain.

  • J.P. Fraley plays his signature tune Wild Rose of the Mountain, accompanied by his wife Annadene Fraley and Shetlands fiddler Aly Bain. J.P. and Aly then talk about Kentucky fiddling.
  • J.P. Fraley plays Dusty Miller, accompanied by his wife Annadene.
  • Also, here’s an obituary/article about J.P. published 1/18/11 in The Independent of Ashland, Kentucky.
Art Deems – Long-time SCVFA member, known especially for his “trick” fiddling, passed away on April 16, 2012. Here’s a nice YouTube video from April 2011 showing Art up to a few of those tricks.
EVENT LISTINGS
OLD TIME, BLUEGRASS & ACOUSTIC ORGANIZATIONS
LIVE MUSIC VENUES
FESTIVALS, CONTESTS & EVENTS
SHEET MUSIC, FAKEBOOKS, ONLINE LEARNING

TUNES & LEARNING

  • The ABC tune collection — several hundred thousand tunes, in ABC notation, including ABC versions of many published collections.
  • John Chambers’ ABC Tune Finder, with hundreds of tunes (in ABC notation). New (2018) version of the collection formerly on the trillian server at MIT.
  • Folklife The Library of Congress’s online folk music collections, including a special section “California Gold” on Northern California music of the 30’s.
  • North Atlantic Tune List (wait for it!): “The site focuses on dance and fiddle tunes from several regions around the North Atlantic” (and beyond). It generally provides PDFs, MIDIs and MP3 clips for the tunes.
  • The Session Mostly Celtic fiddle tunes, with standard and ABC notations available.
  • Sing Out! Online site of one of the best magazines dedicated to preserving Folk Music.
  • Slippery Hill A wonderful site with many often rare, mostly old recordings of fiddle music. If you like it, donate to them!
  • MandoLessons Baron Collins-Hill has an amazing website with hundreds of hours of lessons
    teaching tunes and techniques by ear all for free. And it’s not just for mandolin!

OLD-TIME MUSIC

  • American Memory A production of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center. Contains over seventy multimedia collections of digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, motion pictures, and text, free to the public for educational purposes.
  • Hetzler’s Fakebook Old-time MIDIs by the score, some with PDF sheet music too.
  • Library of Congress Henry Reed pages Field recordings and some hand-written notations of West Virginia fiddler Henry Reed.
  • Old-Time Music Home Page Old-Time Fiddlers Hall of Fame, Old-time resources on the Web.
  • ZEPP Country Music Site Old-time fiddle tune MP3s.
  • Old-Time Fiddle tunes — A collection of fiddle
    tunes from old recordings and workshops transcribed by John Lamancusa. Over 370 tunes, most with PDF, MIDI and MP3.

CELTIC

BLUEGRASS

FM & INTERNET RADIO
  • Sugar in the Gourd Online radio. Formerly all old-time; it apparently has been somewhat erratic. It now seems to be a mix of old-time, country,
    bluegrass, blues, folk, etc.
  • KKUP on FM: Listener-sponsored radio formerly in Cupertino, CA – 91.5 FM Bluegrass, Celtic, local bandss, and lots of other good music.
INSTRUMENT RESOURCES

FIDDLES

BANJOS

MANDOLINS

GUITARS

RESONATOR GUITARS

MUSICIANS

PERFORMERS – Old-Time and Bluegrass Groups

PERFORMERS – Fiddlers

PERFORMERS – Banjo Players

PERFORMERS – Mandolin Players

PERFORMERS – Resonator/Steel/Dobro Players

LUTHIERS and INSTRUMENT MAKERS

Local:

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MERCHANTS

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