Mudcat Cafe
Encyclopedia
The Mudcat Café is an online discussion group
and song and tune database
, which also includes many other features relating to folk music
.
-oriented discussion site started in October 1996, and incorporated the Digital Tradition song database (started in 1988) after the database lost its original home. The song database is updated on a regular basis by members ("Mudcatters") and now contains the words to over 9,000 folk songs, many with an accompanying midi file and links to further information.
region catfish, capable of living in muddy waters. This region was the birthplace of the American Delta Blues
style. The fish is locally known as a Mudcat so, a good name for a Blues forum.
The Links section of the site provides links to "Festivals and Venues", "Instruments", "Lyrics, Sheet Music & Tabs", "Performers and Composers", among other subjects dealing with folk music and blues.
The Mudcat Songbook on the site presents MP3
recordings of songs written and recorded by Mudcatters.
Membership is free and the site is run by volunteers.
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
and song and tune database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
, which also includes many other features relating to folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
.
History
It grew out of a BluesBlues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
-oriented discussion site started in October 1996, and incorporated the Digital Tradition song database (started in 1988) after the database lost its original home. The song database is updated on a regular basis by members ("Mudcatters") and now contains the words to over 9,000 folk songs, many with an accompanying midi file and links to further information.
Origin of the name
The original Blues forum, founded by Max Spiegel, was named for a Mississippi DeltaMississippi Delta
The Mississippi Delta is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. The region has been called "The Most Southern Place on Earth" because of its unique racial, cultural, and economic history...
region catfish, capable of living in muddy waters. This region was the birthplace of the American Delta Blues
Delta blues
The Delta blues is one of the earliest styles of blues music. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, a region of the United States that stretches from Memphis, Tennessee in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south, Helena, Arkansas in the west to the Yazoo River on the east. The...
style. The fish is locally known as a Mudcat so, a good name for a Blues forum.
Content
The discussion group (the Forum) is divided into music-related and non-music-related topics:- The music-related section hosts lively discussions on American folk music, British folk music and that of many other cultures, origins and lyrics of songs, folklore and related information. Information is provided and maintained on a large number of folk clubsFolk clubsA folk club is a regular event, permanent venue, or section of a venue devoted to folk music and traditional music. Folk clubs were primarily an urban phenomenon of 1960s and 1970s Great Britain and Ireland, and vital to the second British folk revival, but continue today there and elsewhere...
, folk festivalsFolk festivalA Folk festival celebrates traditional folk crafts and folk music.-Canada:Alberta*Calgary Folk Music Festival*Canmore Folk Music Festival*Edmonton Folk Music Festival*Jasper Folk Festival*Wild Mountain Music FestOntario*Barriefolk...
, music sessionsPub sessionA pub session refers to playing music and/or singing in the relaxed social setting of a local pub, in which the music-making is intermingled with the consumption of ale, stout, and beer and conversation...
and dances around the world. Requests for origins, lyrics and chords of songs are answered here. Many performing artists also contribute to the discussions from time to time.
- The non-music section contains discussion on everything unrelated to music.
The Links section of the site provides links to "Festivals and Venues", "Instruments", "Lyrics, Sheet Music & Tabs", "Performers and Composers", among other subjects dealing with folk music and blues.
The Mudcat Songbook on the site presents MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
recordings of songs written and recorded by Mudcatters.
External links
- The Mudcat Café
- English Folk Dance and Song Society website
- The Folkopedia Project
- The Mudcat Café in Pif MagazinePif MagazinePif Magazine is one of the oldest, continually published literary zines online. Founded in 1995 by Richard Luck, the magazine has published original works by authors such as Amy Hempel, Julia Slavin, Richard Yates, and David Lehman, as well as interviews with modern literary greats like A. Manette...
- Cited in We Never Will Forget in Voices, The Journal of New York Folklore