I know that there have already been loads of threads posted about songs, and this site is supposed to only be about tunes, but I've read through those conversations, and surfed the net, and I STILL can't find what I'm looking for.
Does anyone have some traditional, but relatively unknown songs? It's just that the only songs I can get on the net I either know or are hopelessly overdone (e.g. Dublins fair city *shudder*)
If your ever up around London,check out Cecil Sharpe House in Regent's park road.It houses one of the biggest collections of folk song there is.Amazing place.
If you can take the time to get into places like "the Smithsonian" or "The Library of Congress" in the US or "the National Folk Archive" in UCD Dublin and the " BBC Archives" in London or Belfast, that would be a reasonable start. I was lucky in that I collected songs traditionally in Ireland and Southern England for many years and so have quite a vast repertoire to draw upon.You obviously have the "Digital Tradition Database", which contains, at least for me a wealth of songs I personally have never heard, perhaps they are all sung in the US, I don't know....
It seems a bit counterproductive to go out seeking things that are obscure. After all, if you found it, couldn't someone else have found it? And what if it turned out to be well known somewhere, just not where you are? And if I knew of something that was obscure, and mentioned it on a site with thousands of members, would it still be obscure? No, it's probably best to go out looking for good songs, learn them all, and then sing the ones you like to sing.
However, if you're determined to find obscure, one place to look would be an album called Telfer's Cows, by a fellow named Andrew Calhoun. A fine album of mostly obscure Child Ballads, in his settings. Amazon will have it, or you can get in touch with Waterbug Records, his label.
Are you looking specificaly for Irish Songs. If not you could try the 12 volume - Complete works of Burns - Linn CDs which is an absolutely amazing source of traditional song with many wonderful interpretations.
I tend to search ebay a lot looking at compliation cds to see if there is anything interesting in the tracks that are listed. Some of the Irish ballad books have odd songs which are not as well know as well as the more famous stuff. It depends on what you mean by obscure. I find that some songs you think are really obscure you take out , sing to a club and they sing them straight back to you. Others , which you think everyone will know are not. It depends so much on who is sing what around the area.
if you want to broaden your repertoire of real traditional songs can I recommend the series of CDs edited by Reg Hall over the last couple of years for theTopic label entitled "The Voice of the People". Loads of fantastic stuff on there from Ireland and the rest of the British Isles - and much better to learn from a record than from a book.
Word of warning however - many are unaccompanied so if you are looking for crowd-pleasers you can do with a band, and are not a genius at tastefully updated arrangements, this may not be the right source.
i found some not so well known songs on this page
but i think there's also a bit of rubbish
but it's great if your looking for a song and do not find it otherwere...
there are also some notes to the lyriks.
anyway it may help you http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/
There are lots of songs in between "hopelessly overdone" and "completely unknown". Which subjects are you interested in?
At http://www.mysongbook.de the songs are not only sorted by country but also by singers. There are interesting notes to a lot of them. I'd also recommend http://www.contemplator.com.
Obscure Songs
Obscure Songs
I know that there have already been loads of threads posted about songs, and this site is supposed to only be about tunes, but I've read through those conversations, and surfed the net, and I STILL can't find what I'm looking for.
Does anyone have some traditional, but relatively unknown songs? It's just that the only songs I can get on the net I either know or are hopelessly overdone (e.g. Dublins fair city *shudder*)
# Posted on December 21st 2004 by Folkie Junkie
Re: Obscure Songs
we were fairly excited about finding 'the parting glass' in an old book (not on the net) a few years ago, which we do with piano and voice only
but other heads, including sinead o'conner (2002), have revived it again in recent years
# Posted on December 21st 2004 by lisaniska
Re: Obscure Songs
There's a million or more. If "not hopelessly overdone" is you criterion, make it two million.
Here's a mixture of overdone, well-known, and not so well-known (by me) lyrics:
http://www.ingeb.org/catei.html
There's several good books of songs out there by Waltons music and others that are worth a look.
# Posted on December 21st 2004 by grego
Re: Obscure Songs
If your ever up around London,check out Cecil Sharpe House in Regent's park road.It houses one of the biggest collections of folk song there is.Amazing place.
# Posted on December 21st 2004 by cunnla
Re: Obscure Songs
If you can take the time to get into places like "the Smithsonian" or "The Library of Congress" in the US or "the National Folk Archive" in UCD Dublin and the " BBC Archives" in London or Belfast, that would be a reasonable start. I was lucky in that I collected songs traditionally in Ireland and Southern England for many years and so have quite a vast repertoire to draw upon.You obviously have the "Digital Tradition Database", which contains, at least for me a wealth of songs I personally have never heard, perhaps they are all sung in the US, I don't know....
# Posted on December 22nd 2004 by Ian Stevenson
Re: Obscure Songs
It seems a bit counterproductive to go out seeking things that are obscure. After all, if you found it, couldn't someone else have found it? And what if it turned out to be well known somewhere, just not where you are? And if I knew of something that was obscure, and mentioned it on a site with thousands of members, would it still be obscure? No, it's probably best to go out looking for good songs, learn them all, and then sing the ones you like to sing.
However, if you're determined to find obscure, one place to look would be an album called Telfer's Cows, by a fellow named Andrew Calhoun. A fine album of mostly obscure Child Ballads, in his settings. Amazon will have it, or you can get in touch with Waterbug Records, his label.
# Posted on December 22nd 2004 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: Obscure Songs
Are you looking specificaly for Irish Songs. If not you could try the 12 volume - Complete works of Burns - Linn CDs which is an absolutely amazing source of traditional song with many wonderful interpretations.
I tend to search ebay a lot looking at compliation cds to see if there is anything interesting in the tracks that are listed. Some of the Irish ballad books have odd songs which are not as well know as well as the more famous stuff. It depends on what you mean by obscure. I find that some songs you think are really obscure you take out , sing to a club and they sing them straight back to you. Others , which you think everyone will know are not. It depends so much on who is sing what around the area.
Julie
# Posted on December 22nd 2004 by jfother
Re: Obscure Songs
if you want to broaden your repertoire of real traditional songs can I recommend the series of CDs edited by Reg Hall over the last couple of years for theTopic label entitled "The Voice of the People". Loads of fantastic stuff on there from Ireland and the rest of the British Isles - and much better to learn from a record than from a book.
Word of warning however - many are unaccompanied so if you are looking for crowd-pleasers you can do with a band, and are not a genius at tastefully updated arrangements, this may not be the right source.
# Posted on December 22nd 2004 by quinn
Re: Obscure Songs
i found some not so well known songs on this page
but i think there's also a bit of rubbish
but it's great if your looking for a song and do not find it otherwere...
there are also some notes to the lyriks.
anyway it may help you
http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/
Lea
# Posted on December 22nd 2004 by lea h
Re: Obscure Songs
Leah,
which songs would you consider to be the 'rubbish' on that page?
# Posted on December 22nd 2004 by Ottery
Re: Obscure Songs
There are lots of songs in between "hopelessly overdone" and "completely unknown". Which subjects are you interested in?
At http://www.mysongbook.de the songs are not only sorted by country but also by singers. There are interesting notes to a lot of them. I'd also recommend http://www.contemplator.com.
# Posted on December 23rd 2004 by kuec