Music related links

We offer these links as a service to members and others; existence of a link does not necessarily imply any recommendation by the SCVFA.

SCVFA members & friends - please forward suggestions for additional links or feedback on any of the sites listed here to webmasterscvfa.org.

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Well-known and well-respected Kentuckey old-time fiddler J.P. Fraley 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.

• California Bluegrass Association (CBA) Newsletter, calendar, and more.
• California State Old Time Fiddler's Association. The CSOTFA has 14 districts. District 9 (below) includes the SF Bay Area.
• CSOTFA District 9 covers the San Francisco Bay Area. Their monthly jam is held in Castro Valley.
• Fiddling Cricket Music Live acoustic music at local venues.
• IBMA: International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Promoting Bluegrass music worldwide.
• NCBS: Northern California Bluegrass Society An active bluegrass organization based in Mountain View, CA.
• OOTFA: Oregon Old Time Fiddlers Association Heading North? Check them out!
• RBA: Redwood Bluegrass Associates Promotes acoustic music in the Bay Area.
• San Francisco Folk Music Club Has a good listing of music events in the Bay Area, and runs the annual San Francisco Free Folk Festival.
• San Francisco Pipers Club -- holds a slow Irish session in Mountain View on Tuesdays. Fiddlers welcome.
• San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers Scottish music jams, concerts, and workshops in the SF Bay area.
• South Bay Folks Runs a regular free open-mike session and maintains a claendar of acoustic music performances in the South Bay.
• SWBA: SouthWest Bluegrass Association Headquartered down south in Torrence, CA.
• WOTFA: Washington Old Time Fiddlers Association Contests, workshops, and campouts in beautiful Washington State.

• Cayuga Vault In Santa Cruz: “Original music, emerging art, diverse culture ....”
• Clarion Music Center World music in San Francisco's Chinatown.
• Don Quixote's International Music Hall Concert hall & restaurant in Felton.
• Fandango Pizza Weekly jams in Palo Alto: Old-time (Mondays), Bluegrass (Wednesdays).
• Freight & Salvage Coffee House Nonprofit org. in Oakland promoting traditional music throughout the world.
• Make-Out Room A little of everything in the Mission (San Francisco).
• Mission Pizza Live music Friday and Saturday nights in Fremont, CA.
• The Plough and Stars Traditional Irish music in San Francisco (Pacific Heights).
• Sam's BBQ Bluegrass music most Tuesday and Wednesday nights and great food, in San Jose.

• California State Old Time Fiddlers' Assn. Home Sponsors of California's official annual old-time fiddle contest.
• Cloverdale Old-Time Fiddle Festival Contest held in Cloverdale, CA every January.
• Festival of American Fiddle Tunes In Port Townsend, WA, always the week that includes July 4. “Is this Heaven? No, it's Fiddle Tunes.”
• National Oldtime Fiddlers' Contest and Festival The “Big One” every June in Weiser, ID, the “Fiddling Capital of the World.”
• San Francisco Free Folk Festival (SFFFF) Not to be missed! In San Francisco mid-June.
• Valley of the Moon Annual Scottish Fiddling camp in Boulder Creek, CA.
• Western Open Fiddle Contest “Always the 3rd full week in October” in Red Bluff, CA.

• COWPIE Song Corral Archive of Country & Western words and chords.
• Mudcat Café / Digital Tradition Folk Song Database Search the DT database for words to 6500 songs.
• Folklife The Library of Congress's online folk music collections, including a special section “California Gold” on Northern California music of the 30's.
• The National Institutes of Health has lyrics to various songs, especially kid-oriented songs.
• Links to many more kids' songs, on a classic-car website — songs for learning and fun, and some teaching materials. (Suggested by elementary student Amy.)
• The Session Mostly Celtic fiddle tunes, with ABC notation available.
• Sing Out! Online site of one of the best magazines dedicated to preserving Folk Music.

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.
• Hertzler'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 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.
• 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.

CELTIC

• Ceolas Celtic music on the Internet.
• Hertzler's Fakebook Lots of Celtic MIDIs.
• Scotchsnap.com Scottish sheet music in a snap.
• Slowplayers.org Sheet music and listings for slow Celtic jams.

BLUEGRASS

• Bluegrass College Online Bluegrass learning resource.
• Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine
• Cybergrass The Internet Bluegrass Magazine.
• The Music Motel Americana Music, Lifestyle Products and Accessories

Things are not looking good for Web radio these days, with legislation looming that would raise fees beyond the means all but those stations with corporate backing. Find out more at www.savenetradio.org.

You can listen to some Internet stations through iTunes.

• Planet Bluegrass Click the Bluegrass Radio link for online Bluegrass.
• Sugar in the Gourd Online radio. “All old-time, all the time.”
• KKUP Listener-sponsored radio in Cupertino, CA - 91.5 FM Bluegrass, Celtic, and lots of other good music.

• Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camp Join Jay Ungar and Molly Mason for their music and dance programs at Ashokan, a rustic camp in New York's Catskill Mountains.
• Double Stop Fiddle Shop and Music Hall Fiddle shop, performance hall, and regular venue for the Byron Berline Band in Guthrie, OK.
• Fiddle Hangout Online fiddle community and resource.
• Fiddle Hub Learn fiddle online for free, using slow motion video and tablature.
• FIDDLE-L Fiddle players' discussion list.
• Fiddler Magazine Excellent magazine covering all aspects of fiddling.
• Missouri Old Time Fiddling Info on Missouri old-time fiddling.
• Violin Making by Hans Johannsson A Rich resource, beautifully done.

BANJO LINKS

• BANJO-L Online discussion list for banjo players.
• Banjo Newsletter Online portal to the gold standard of banjo magazines.
• Clawhammer.com Links to several clawhammer banjo sites.
• ezFolk.com - Bluegrass Basic instruction for learning bluegrass banjo, some tabs.
• ezFolk.com - Clawhammer Basic instruction for learning clawhammer banjo, some tabs.
• Phillip Mann's Banjo Pages Lots of free banjo tablature.
• The Banjo A Short History by Mick Moloney.

MANDOLIN LINKS

• Bluegrass Mandolin Music from the Delnero family.
• Mandolin Cafe Lots of free mandolin tablature and other resources.
• MandoZine Online magazine for mandolin players.
• Play Chords on Mandolin (Zzounds) A set of useful links, recommended by one of our readers.

GUITAR LINKS

• Flatpicking Guitar Magazine Online portal for the print magazine for flatpickers.
• FLATPICK-L A discussion list for flatpickers.
• Mike Wright's flatpick Guitar tablature Tabs plus WAVs and MP3s of flatpick tunes.

RESONATOR GUITAR LINKS

• Brad's Page of Steel Site dedicated to acoustic and electric lap steel guitars.
• Planet Dobro All things slide guitar.

• Eric & Suzy Thompson Berkeley-based Bluegrass group.
• Briarwood Bay Area-based Bluegrass group, disbanded January 2009.
• Crooked Jades Bay Area-based old-time group.
• Harmon's Peak Terrific Bay Area-based old-time group, now disbanded – but their website lists some ongoing activities by some of the band members.
• Hillbillies From Mars Bay Area contra-dance band, still sporadically active.
• Nickel Creek Bluegrass band originally from California.
• The Stairwell Sisters Good-time gals playing old-time tunes.
• The Waybacks “That ain't the way Bill played it.”

PERFORMERS - Fiddlers

• Darol Anger
• Vassar Clements
• Alasdair Fraser
• Bay Area fiddler Brittany Haas, now in New England-based band Crooked Still
• Bay Area cellist Natalie Haas
• Megan Lynch
• Bruce Molsky
• Mark O'Connor
• The San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers
• Suzy Thompson
• Joe Weed

• Bill Evans
• Ken Perlman
• The late Mike Seeger

PERFORMERS - Mandolin Players

• David Grisman
• Mike Marshall
• Frank Wakefield

PERFORMERS - Resonator/Steel/Dobro Players

• Mike Auldridge
• Bob Brozman
• Jerry Douglas
• Stacy Phillips

Local:

• Gryphon Stringed Instrumets, Palo Alto
• Heaney Violins, Mountain View
• Kamimoto String Instruments, San Jose
• Norm's Music, Mountain View

General

• Allen Guitars
• C. F. Martin and Company
• Deering Banjo Company
• Gibson Instruments
• Ome Banjos Home Page
• Phoenix Mandolins
• Santa Cruz Guitar Company
• Sound To Earth Weber mandolins, mandolas, octave mandolins and mandocellos.
• Stelling Banjo Works, Ltd.
• Wildwood Banjos Traditional openback and bluegrass banjos from California's north coast.

• AcuTab Accurate, artist reviewed banjo tablature.
• County Sales World's largest collection of Bluegrass and old-time music. CDs, videos, and more!
• Elderly Instruments Wonderful source of new and used instruments, strings, books, etc.
  Online ordering!
• Folk of the Wood Large selection of string instruments.
• Gryphon Stringed Instruments In Palo Alto, CA.
• Hatfield Music Catalog Lots of banjo tablature.
• Highland Studios Work with Joe Weed, one of the country's best independent producer/engineer/musicians!
• Homespun Tapes Great source for instructional books, tapes, CD's and videos.
• Jack and Ruby's Guitar Shop Rare and unique acoustic guitars and mandolins
• Janet Davis Music Good discounts on strings
• Kamimoto String Instruments San Jose, CA — great supporters of the SCVFA!
• Mandolin Brothers
• Mandolin World Headquarters...and Guitars!
• Stringed Instrument Division
• Stewart-MacDonald Supplies for building and repairing stringed insturments.

Updated 8/21/11