some key Australian folk music sites

The indefatiguable Dave de Santi and the Wongawilli Colonial Dance Club have a site full of the publications by Carrawobbity Press and news about their activities.

Folk Alliance Australia now have the information about the organization, their annual conference and the Australian Folk Directory on their web site with festivals, venues, sessions and services all listed by state.

Mark Gregory's wonderful site of Australian Folk Songs has words and music for lots of them. There is now a chat page for discussion of folk music topics.

Folk Australia has loads of information and their on-line Australian folk magazine Simply Australia has lots of good articles to read. They also have a list of folk festivals around the country.

Other general information about folk activities in NSW at the New South Wales Folk page

Monaro Folk Society (ACT) with the monthly newsletter avaiable as a PDF file.

Mark Schuster and Maria Zann Schuster have a new site dedicated to Australian accordion playing, concentrating on the music of South East Queensland

music magazines

Trad & Now is a new quarterly Australian folk magazine.

FRoots is the main English folk/world/roots music monthly.

Dirty Linen is a similar mag from the US, with more emphasis on singer/songwriters.

Musical Traditions is an on-line magazine from England concentrating on traditional music.

Rhythms is the Australian roots/jazz/blues music magazine.

 

musical instruments

Han Speek's Irish Bouzouki Site is a worldwide resource on Irish bouzoukis, citterns and other instrments of the family with lots of info on tuning, chord shapes and people who build and play them.

Gilet Guitars are based in Sydney and also supply timber and other guitar building materials.

Jim Williams Guitars have a very fine reputation both here in Australia and overseas, and he has also written a really useful book on building guitars.

Scott Wise is based in Margaret River WA, and makes guitars, mandolins and just about anyhting else with strings. He also has a family of very fine musicians

Lawrence K Smith is a guitar and mandolin maker from Thiroul in NSW who has a useful page of links to other musical instrument makers in Australia and in the rest of the world.

Jeff Kemp is a classical guitar maker in Armidale NSW

If you are interested in Irish or other wooden flutes, check out Terry McGee's home page, to find out about his instruments.

Peter Coombe makes some of the worlds finest A-model mandolins using lots of Australian timbers.

Gillian Alcock is Australia's premier maker of hammered dulcimers from lots of different traditions.

Andrew Ellis is a guitar maker from WA making classical, steel string and resonator guitars

The Guild of American Luthiers publishes American Lutherie four times a year and is essential reading for any instrument builder

The Musical Instrument Maker Forum is a discussion forum for all kinds of musical instruments

 

books and records

For mail order of lots of folk CDs, books and the like contact Mike and Beth at Celtic Southern Cross. They are also hold a Celtic Summer School in January each year, at Weindorfers Chalet, Gowrie Park, near Sheffield,which is on the way to Cradle Mountain in Tasmania.

just a sample of what else is out there

tradmusic.com is a site devoted to traditional music, and run by Aaron Jones, a bouzouki player from Scotland

To search or download a database of over 6,000 folksongs with music contact the Digital Tradition database.

North American Folk Music & Dance Alliance

Celtic Music On The Internet

The Free Sheet Music web site is a collection of links to web sites offering free sheet music

They have lots of folkmusic in New Zealand as well, and Mike Moroney's Kiwifolk site is well worth a look.