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The Acoustic Music Archive
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Learn
Folk Songs Through Lyrics, Chords and Recordings
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| Click here to listen to a song |
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Welcome to the Acoustic Music Archive About This Site
You
might have come to the Acoustic Music Archive because you want to find
the lyrics or chords to a particular song, or because you want to find
out more about roots music, or just because you are curious.
You might even have come here by accident. The fact is that there are
plenty of other sites where you can find chords and lyrics.
And there are also specialist sites where you can find out about the
origins of folk songs. But this is one of the few sites where
you can find out a little about the origins of a song, listen
to a recording of it (not a midi file - a real recording) and
see the lyrics and the chords all at the same time. And if
you want to, you can also contribute songs to the site yourself,
including a link back to your homepage. if you want to do this, drop me an
email.
How do I listen to a Song?Near
the top of most pages, including this one, you will see a link that
invites you to click to listen to a song. Click the link and, provided
that your internet browser has a flash plug-in installed, the song
should automatically start playing after two or three seconds. You can
navigate to songs from the Lyrics, Chords
and Recordings page. Do make sure that you un-mute the volume
on your computer.
The Acoustic Music Archive Album
Mainly
for the hell of it, I've taken selected
tracks from the Acoustic Music Archive and have made them into a proper
album. So as well as listening to the low-quality audio on
this site, if you want to, you can now buy the album - or just the
tracks that you like - and listen to them in high-quality audio.
You can download tracks from the Acoustic Music
Archive at the iTunes store. Or, if you prefer, you can buy
or download the Acoustic Music Archive album from CD Baby.
Tracks are also available at Napster.
Give me Feedback
I'd
love to hear your feedback about the site. In particular, I'd
like to know which songs you enjoyed the most, and which songs you'd
like to see added to the site. To give me feedback, email me.
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Folk Song ResourcesYou can listen to a song and view its chords and lyrics by clicking on a song title on the Lyrics, Chords and Recordings page.You can use all of the resources on this site to learn music completely free, but donations will help me financially (if you want to record one of the songs I have written, contact me for permission). You can also visit my personal site at www.peterwebster.org.uk, where you can find out about my other musical projects, including the duo that I play in: Peter Webster and Ross Fergusson. What's New? What is Folk Music Anyway?Try typing ‘What is folk music?’ into Google and you’ll get a variety of responses. Most of these focus on the fact that it is traditional music that has been passed down aurally through the generations, and you could add to this that it is usually, though not always, played on acoustic instruments. When I was growing up, folk music was seen as the preserve of men with woolly jumpers who sang with a nasal twang, one finger embedded in an ear as if they were trying to rid themselves of ear-wax. It was deeply, deeply uncool. I got into it in the mid-1990s when one of my friends recommended an album called ‘Penguin Eggs’, by Nic Jones. I remember thinking that the title was rather un-promising. But in fact ‘Penguin Eggs’ is a wonderful collection of music, and remains amongst one of my favourite CDs. I recommend it to anybody as an introduction to the genre. So, once you get past the woolly-jumpered image, what do you find? Well, firstly, folk music has stood the test of time. Many of the songs have survived for centuries, and people still love them today (how many of the current top forty will still be around in a couple of hundred years, I wonder?). Secondly, the songs are still evolving. Because they have been passed down aurally, lyrics and melodies change as they move from person to person and place to place. One of the beauties of performing folk music is that you can play a part in this ongoing evolution: quite naturally you will find yourself choosing to sing your favourite version of a song, but then introducing a line or two that you like from another version. Lastly – and from my perspective this is one of the best things – folk music, at least at the grass routes level, doesn’t give a damn about image. Hence the woolly jumpers. It doesn’t matter what you look like or how old or young you are. Provided you can make a nice sound, you can play folk music. Coming from the world of Pop that is pathologically obsessed with image, this has come as quite a relief. But the real clincher is just the songs themselves: when you delve into folk, what you find is a series of fantastic stories, beautiful melodies and expert playing. A bit About me Basically, I’m a music fan. I also play and sing a bit around my local area (which is Bedfordshire, in the UK). And I sometimes write songs. Many of the recordings that you will hear on this site are of me. You can find out a bit more about me here. You can also visit my personal site at www.peterwebster.org.uk, where you can find out about my other musical projects, including the duo that I play in: Peter Webster and Ross Fergusson. Peter Webster.
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