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Guide To: American Folk Music

Streaming audio and other resources for students undertaking projects about American folk music

 

This guide originally created by Sarah Bilotta, Music Library Assistant, in January 2014. 

Photo Gallery

Musicians at the Mountain Music Festival, Asheville, NC, Library of Congress American Memory, Lomax Collection

Portraits of Bill Tatnall and Susie Herring, Frederica, Georgia, Library of Congress American Memory, Lomax Collection, photos by Alan Lomax

Stavin' Chain Playing Guitar and Singing, Library of Congress American Memory, Lomax Collection, photos by Alan Lomax

Streaming Audio Resources

Alexander Street Press Music Online: American Song  http://search.alexanderstreet.com/amso/ - Streaming audio song collection, encompassing several genres including a wide range of American vernacular music.

Association for Cultural Equity: Lomax Collection Online archive.culturalequity.org/ - Over 17,400 digital audio files from the archive of noted American musicologist Alan Lomax.

Max Hunter Collection http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/ - Ozark folk songs (with lyrics and audio) from the ~1940s-60s, including Child Ballads.
Song of America Project https://www.loc.gov/collections/songs-of-america/about-this-collection/# - Library of Congress archive of notated music, audio, and video highlighting the history of American song.

 

Beyond American Folk Song: More Song Resources!

Come visit the Fenwick Music Library in person for:

  • Music periodicals like Spin, Billboard, Rolling Stone, and Popular Music, including back-issues.
  • Books about song - many time periods, genres, and cultures!
  • Research help
  • Music on CD or DVD (search our catalog to see if we have what you need)
  • Help learning how to search our catalog

Beyond American Folk Song: More Song Resources!

Other Resources

American Songbag
https://archive.org/details/americansongbag029895mbp - full text of the American Songbag collection from Carl Sandburg.
 
Broadside Archive
http://singout.org/broadside/ - access PDFs of almost every issue of Broadside folk music magazine.
 
IMSLP Petrucci Music Library: American Folk Songs
imslp.org/wiki/Category:Folk_Songs,_American - Public domain scores, books, and recordings
 
Library of Congress American Memory Culture & Folklife
memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?category=Culture,+Folklife - open access (free to use) digital library brought to you by the Library of Congress. Contains photos and documents pertaining to American folklife, including folk song.
 
People's Songs Archive
http://singout.org/ps-archive/ - access PDFs of the American folk music bulletin People's Songs.
 
The Spirituals Database
http://spirituals-database.com -Search recorded track information for over 2,000 Negro spirituals performed by solo Classical vocalists