Interesting places for Musicians and Music Lovers

Interesting.Places.to/Browse	for Music

links for Musicians and Music Lovers

Being a compendium of links to sites and pages in the World Wide Web that are likely to be of interest or of use to musicians and/or music lovers, with a particular emphasis on filk, my favorite genre.

(New links added frequently. Additional pointers welcome.)
This is an Award-winning site. The icons and descriptions were moved to awards.html to make this page load faster.

Filk

Filk (sometimes called ``New Folk'' by those attempting to reach a broader audience) is the folk music of the future; i.e. music by, for, and of interest to fans of science fiction and fantasy. I've written some. For example, here's a posting of me ``singing'' Someplace in the Net in the newsgroup alt.callahans, as recorded by David Mar in his collection of classic posts. (If I ever get access to a machine with audio capability, I'll add a clip.)

For another example, here is The World Inside the Crystal, which won the 1997 Pegasus Award for Best Science Song.

Advice for Kids:: Some filksongs may be a bit ``grown-up'' for young kids. In some cases this will be because of ``adult'' language, in other cases just because some filksongs are about complicated things you may not have learned about yet. On the other hand, I've been singing filk and folk songs to my kids since they were born, and it doesn't seem to have hurt them any. (Though they're both a little weird around the edges!)

Sources of filk music

The definitive list of filk sources is posted periodically on alt.music.filk.

Filk Dealers and Publishers on the Web

DAG
Prometheus Music: Including the Virtual Filksing if you have RealAudio support.
Random Factors

Filk Collections

The Miscellany collected by Joe Bethancourt.: (Includes both frames and no-frames version -- thanks, Joe!). Includes definitive lyrics for The Birthday Song and The Real Old-Time Religion.
SWIL Filkbooks from SWIL - Swarthmore Warders of Imaginative Literature

FilkZines and Filk Organizations

The Filk Foundation
GaFia/GaFilk and GaFia/GaFilk (unofficial?): Georgia Filkers Annonymous
Interfilk
M.A.S.S. F.I.L.C.
Xenofilkia

Filkers

Heather Alexander: ``... is a Singer/Songwriter and Celtic fiddler based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her Solo Album, "Wanderlust" has garnered praise from the likes of Dirty Linen, Folk Roots, Rock and Reel, as well as radio stations and fans around the world. Her live performances are "...not to be missed".''
Dave Aronson
Avalon Rising: describes their music as ``Celtic-Medieval-rock fusion''.
Robin Baylor
Joe Bethancourt/White Tree Productions
Blars' Filk Page by Bob Larson
Filk pointers and collections: from Outside the Asylum (Melissa Binde's home page).
Meg Davis
Nancy Louise Freeman
Lynn Gold's Filking page: has an excellent collection of links. A much more comprehensive listing of conventions and filkers than I've had time to make.
Eli Goldberg
Jeff Hitchin
Bob Kanefsky: One of the world's best parodists.
Keshlam (Joe Kesselman) (also backup and ancient)
Graham Leathers
Mark Mandel: Some songs definitely not for children.
Michael P. Kube-McDowell: has ``Surveillance Photography'' from SF Fandom, 1982-present which includes pictures of filkers, among others.
Kathy Mar
Margaret Middletion
The Music Room The Music Room in Anca's House: With a pointer to a collection of filk lyrics, and created by ammist@mit.edu. ammist@mit.edu.
Ookla the Mok
Karen Rodgers
Kay Shapiro
H. Paul Shuch (Dr. SETI): is a prolific songwriter, among other things. You'll find the filk (and much else) under "Poetry".
Tom Smith
Urban Tapestry: a filk group in Toronto.
Julia West's filk and home page
Filk Music by Andy and Beth Wheeler
Windbourne

Folk

Folk Music Home Page: There seem to be several home pages for folk music; this is one.
Dirty Linen Folk Concert Listings Dirty Linen Folk Concert Listings
the Digital Tradition Folk Song Database
Dirty Linen
the San Diego Folksong Society
the Tam Lin web page: ``a great resource for those who like that ballad.''

Folksingers & Singer-Songwriters

Hoyt Axton
Eric Bogle

Music in General

All-Music GuideAll-Music Guide: self-described as the largest organized collection of music albums, ratings, and reviews open to public comment. Most of the items in the menu are listed as "not yet loaded".
The alt.music Group List: Links to and descriptions of all the alt.music newsgroups.
the Bagpipe FAQ
The Canadian Music Exchange: Which maintains a Music Industry Contacts List (currently rather skimpy, but it appears that you can add your own entries).
the Computer Music Center at IBM Research
Music Resources on the Internet: is a good place to find stuff.
MUSICSEARCH: Has ambitions of becoming a major search and link site for music. Links for artists, groups, genres, etc. Still under construction in May 1996.
Index to Multimedia Information Sources: includes music-related software
Noteworthy Music: and their catalog of CD's
The Piano Education Page: `` bringing together information of interest to teachers, students, parents of students, and fans of the piano.''
Barbershop Quartet Gopher
Pink Floyd
music links
The World-Wide Web Virtual Library: Music: This is where you get from CERN's subject index.
<a href">Stanford Savoyards
Dat-heads archive Dat-heads archive: from the Dat-heads (Digital Audio Tape) mailing list. The faq is available on ftp from ftp.atd.ucar.edu:pub/dat-heads and ftp.funet.fi The microphone faq is available via FTP from here and hereand via e-mail from maggard@subpac.enet.dec.com.
Jeff Maggard's Digital Audio Tape Home Page: includes the various FAQ's, including the microphone faq, the Dat-Heads FAQ and the Reliability Survey. A survey of digital audio interface cards for PC's is available at http://www.pepperland.com/digital.html.
mtv.com Main Menu: Also accessible from Gopher as Adam Curry's MTV Gopher [mtv.com]. Music news, concert schedules, and music online. Links to various places, including home pages for several bands I don't listen to.
Billboard Top Ten Lists
Concert Information
Music: ``While it is impossible to keep track of everything on the Web, the intention is to keep this a relatively complete set of the music resources available. Please email jdg@cs.cmu.edu with anything that should be added or changed.''
Grateful Dead
Indiana University Music Library: and music resource list
Music & Lyrics Databases
N-Fusion Records
On-Line Music Database: A searchable database, by burnett@www.cecer.army.mil; also includes a pointer to a list of many Other WWW Music Resources
The Internet Underground Music Archive: Contains actual music in MPEG audio format, plus pointers to software for playing same. Also accessible via Gopher at Internet Underground Music Archive
Music World III: wants to be the Music Industry Web Site. They offer free Web presence for bands, and will even sell your albums.
ZIPI, Zeta's new digital music interface:: from MIT or ccrma

Stuff for songwriters

(Under Construction.)

The abc home page: abc is an ascii-based musical notation that's human-readable. Conversion programs exist for MIDI, mtex, etc.
ASCAP: is on the Web, and is now new and improved. They have a database called ACE (ASCAP Clearance Express), and licensing forms for anyone who wants to perform ASCAP music online.
BMI: Maintains a Repertoire Database. Also improved since the last time I visited. They have clearance and copyright forms online, to be printed using Acrobat.
U.S. Copyright Office Home Page
Taxi: ``The Independent A&R Vehicle that connects unsigned artists, bands and songwriters with major record labels, publishers, and film & TV music supervisors.'' (For a price, but not a percentage.) They also have a good link page.
Typesetting:: For typesetting music, try MusicTeX; More info here including how to get the other one (MuTeX) here (or maybe here as mutex.arc).
Common Music: ``an object-oriented music composition environment'' in Common Lisp.

Stuff for performers

(Under Construction.)

Acoustic Guitar Home Page
Cassette House: ``We have been in business since 1981 selling blank audio cassettes, DAT tape, instructional books, videos and various music supplies. We have recently expanded into computer supplies, digital multi track tape and CDR's.''
Digital Guitar Home Page
The Linux MIDI + Sound Pages

People Selling Stuff

(Under Construction.) Many of the following came from Joe Bethancourt's page:

The Fender Guitar Company
The Gibson Guitar Company
Martin guitar serial numbers list!
Steel Guitar/Dobro information and stuff!
The Guitar Foundation of America: classical guitar stuff! Neat!
Lark In The Morning carries -everything-! Gawd, they're great!
Virtuoso for vintage guitars
Vintage Instruments in Philadelphia are neat people!

Digital Audio Labs: ``makes sound recording and editing hardware and software for IBM compatible computer''
Music in Stoneware: Ocarinas

Copyright Notice:

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Stephen R. Savitzky <steve@theStarport.org>
343 Leigh Ave.
San Jose, CA 95128

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