I’ve finally begun the section I’ve really wanted to put on the web site but haven’t had the time to create! It’s been a lot of fun assembling this page: I’ve gone through my Music bookmarks and checked out many different web sites. I’ve looked for my favorite sites relevant to the theme of this section: web sites with an emphasis on recorded music, generally somehow related to the styles presented in the New Hampshire Country Dance web site. There will be another section soon for written music, and another for some of my favorite musicians, bands & callers, with an emphasis on those I feel have been influential in the styles of interest.

I’ve tried to include enough information that you can get some sense of whether you might find a web site interesting, and of why I found it interesting: this isn’t just a generic listing of web sites as you’ll find in many Links sections. I hope you find it interesting.

These web sites are organized according to the type of music they contain. Some contain a mixture and are hard to classify; others follow a particular theme more closely. All are included because I think they are interesting and worth checking out.

Rather than organize them strictly alphabetically, where relevant I’ve tried to group them within each section according to some reasonably logical criteria.

This list is far from complete. If you know of a site that you think should be listed here, feel free to send it to me at peter dot yarensky at unh dot edu. I don’t guarantee that I will agree with you, but I will check it out.

A Useful Tool

Google Translate. Use this for web sites in other languages: paste the web site address in and it will translate it pretty competently into English.

New England and Related U.S. Traditions

•The Bradford Dances. The square dances in Bradford with Frank Fortune calling to the music of the Myron Colby Orchestra were for many years among the biggest dances in the state, with up to 400 people attending every Saturday night. In 1955, Jack O’Connor recorded one of the dances, and Walter Lenk has put it on his web site with extensive notes and photos thanks to much help from Myron Colby’s daughters Janice and Myrna. Janice’s son Bob Boynton currently calls many of the same dances at the Contoocook square dance.

•A Duke Miller Dance at the Peterborough Golf Club. This is also hosted by Walter Lenk. It’s from a recording made by John Derby on August 20, 1965. Duke called in Peterborough and in Fitzwilliam for many years, both singing squares and contras, and was an important influence on the New England dance scene. Many callers such as Tod Whittemore, Mary DesRosiers and Carolyn Parrott were strongly influenced by him.

•Jay Ungar and Molly Mason's Dancing On The Air - Live at the Linda. Jay and Molly host a monthly radio show on New York Public Radio 8:00 on the second Wednesday of each month featuring lots of great live music. This is the link to their archive which has hours and hours of music by Jay and Molly and lots of other excellent musicians. From there you can find a link to listen to the show live on WAMC, and one to find out about upcoming shows.

•Jay and Molly’s Home Page. This is their web site which has information about their radio show, the Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Camps, their music and lots of other good stuff.

•Ashokan Center and the Ashokan Foundation. You may find these organizations to be of interest. They came into existence when the State University of New York which owned the Ashokan Field Campus decided to sell it, which would have been the end of the Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Camps and also of a variety of other activities that happen there every year, involving crafts, activities for school children and environmental conservation, often all rolled into one. Jay and Molly, working together with friends and existing environmental and other organizations interested in preserving this wonderful place, put together an organization that has managed to buy the Ashokan Field Campus and preserve it for use by the Ashokan Fiddle and Dance, and by an ever-increasing variety of other organizations for recreational, environmental and other related purposes.

•W is for the Woods: Traditional Adirondack Music & Music Making. This is an excellent web site with recordings of many fiddlers from the Adirondacks of New York, sheet music, historical information and lots more; it’s worth checking it out in detail.

•North Country Public Radio: UpNorth Concert Hall. NCPR (New York) has got a lot of good concerts available to listen to or download; some feature the same fiddlers presented on the Adirondack Music web site.

Canadian, Primarily English

•The Virtual Gramophone: Canadian Historical Sound Recordings. From the Library and Archives Canada, a huge collection of music from old 78 records, including lots of fiddle music. One of the best available! Click on Listen, and the rest should be obvious. This site has both English and French material.

•Back To The Sugar Camp. This is an amazing web site! It’s the home of Steve Fruitman’s radio show of the same name on CIUT from Toronto. You can listen to current and past shows, which include a goodly amount of traditional Canadian fiddling. It’s also the home of one of my favorite web sites, The Great Canadian Liner Notes. Here you’ll find complete liner notes for a vast number of Canadian fiddle records. Thinking of ordering a record (or CD reissue) but not sure what tunes are on it? It’s probably there. it’s also an excellent historical record of Canadian fiddling.

•Cape Breton Live. Another of the true gems among web sites! They have at least 30 live concerts and dances they broadcast, and as of now most or all of the archives are available to listen to. They can’t afford to produce new ones now, but what’s there is some of the best Cape Breton music you’ll ever hear. In my opinion it’s much more exciting than just about any of the formal recordings that have been made; truly wonderful music. Click on Past Shows, and if you like it, make a donation.

Canadian, Primarily French

•Bibliothèque nationale du Québec Sound Recordings.The Québec National Library has a great collection of music from old 78 records. Click on Interprète to get a listing by musician. (If that doesn’t work, try this. Then click on Online Resources near the top; then Digital Collection and Sound Recordings on the left, then Sound Recordings in the middle.)

•The Virtual Gramophone: Canadian Historical Sound Recordings. See English Canadian listing for details.

•Musique traditionnelle du Canada français. Here’s a site with a lot of information about French Canadian music and some of the most important musicians; and at the bottom of the page for each musician there are a number of tunes you can listen to. Again, use Google Translate if necessary.

•Le blog tradquebec par: Pascal. Pascal Gemme has assembled a collection of traditional fiddle tunes with both sheet music and recordings of him playing each of the tunes. There’s a lot there, definitely worth checking it out. He seems not to be actively developing it any more which is too bad, but it remains an excellent resource.

•IdentitAirs Québécois. Currently up to nearly 400 tunes, with sheet music, midi files, and if available, links to other sites that have recordings of the tunes; also pages about many of the important musicians from Québec. It even has an English translation built in.

•Tradosphere. It’s affiliated with Radio Montréal. It has a large amount of traditional music represented in various forms. Try Google Translate, or just click on links. Here are a few that are worth checking out. The general Archive page has links to old programs (at least a year or two at any given time) and to special programs that are worth hearing, as well as program guides going back many years. The Links page has links to many other interesting pages. The Chroniques Trad is their blog which is also interesting; you may need to translate it of course.

•The Virtual Museum of Métis History and Culture. This is part of a larger web site, and has a couple Métis jam sessions and other fiddling on it. The Métis are mixed Aboriginal (Indian) and French/Scottish fur traders; they are distinct from other Indians and haven’t been given the benefits granted to most Indians and Inuit. They have a strong musical history, combining French Canadian and English traditions with their own, often involving very crooked rhythmic versions of otherwise familiar tunes.

Scandinavian

•Sonus: Stockholm’s Student Spelmanslag ~ Låtar. There are lots of Swedish fiddle tunes here. If you can’t figure it out, go to Google to the Translate section (Swedish to English), enter the web page address, and it will do a pretty good translation for you (at least good enough that you should be able to figure out what it’s all about).

•Swedish Radio P2. There are a few folk programs, and you can listen to the archives as well. Just go to Google Translate unless you speak Swedish; it will make a whole lot more sense that way. Look for Folk & Världsmusik near the top.

Southern/Mixed/Unclassifiable, Often Older Recordings

•Digital Library of Appalachia. There’s a lot of music, and a lot of fiddling here. Click on Browse by Topic —>Music or Essays—>Fiddle Tune Search to get started.

•Missouri Traditional Fiddle & Dance Network. There’s a lot of stuff there, but check out the Music page for recordings of fiddle tunes played by Missouri fiddlers. Some of the tunes are played in New England and some aren’t; and some of the fiddlers featured are excellent.

•Lonesome Lefty’s Scratchy Attic. Here’s a site with tons of digitized recordings from old records. Many are more toward the western, bluegrass and country side, but there’s a lot of great fiddling there, and a lot of great music of all sorts.

•Old Time Music and Dance Audio Files. A collection of links to old-time music online, including Canadian, old-time Southern music, Carter Family, etc. There is also a page for videos, some of which are hosted on the web site and some of which are links; a a page of links to radio & other streaming old-time music; a page of general links to old-time music pages, and more.

•Honking Duck: Old-Time Music from 78’s. Over 700 fiddle tunes to listen to on this site!

•Czech Melody Masters. A Czech polka band from Austin, Texas. Check out the Polka Show and Live Music Archive pages for lots of music on their web site.