Folk Song Index

Folk Song Index

Notes and disclaimers

This is an index of the folk songs in books and recordings in my collection, plus some of the books and recordings in the collections of friends. The emphasis is on traditional folk songs in the English language, though there are songs in other languages (notably French), modern folk songs, and some instrumentals. There are over 38,000 entries in the index.

For alphabetisation, leading articles in English and French (a, an, the, un, une, le, la, and les) have been inverted, but this has not been done for any other language. There are no accented letters in this index (it was begun when most computers didn't handle accented letters).

Cross references indicate alternate titles, distinctive phrases (to assist in locating songs when the title is not known), and songs that are related in some way. Songs that are related may be different versions of the same song, songs that share a tune, or songs that share a theme (such as the "broken token" ballads or "night visiting" songs). Use caution, as a cross reference from A to B and from B to C does not necessarily mean that A and C are related.

The index began very modestly as a homegrown database to enable me to locate songs in my collection of about 30 vinyl albums. It had been annoying me to have to pull out many albums to find the one song I wanted. The index has somewhat outgrown its origins.

I'm currently working on adding information to the index from The Digital Tradition (opens new window), a process which will add another 10,000 entries or so.

While care was taken during the preparation of the index, it has not been proofread. There will be errors of many kinds. There will also be inconsistencies. Use with caution.

This is an index, and refers to books and recordings only. None of the books or recordings are on this site. There are no links from this index to Internet sites. Check with libraries, book stores, and record stores.

James Prescott
2004-November-16
Edited 2006-April-18

If you are interested in my index, you might also be interested in another index that I am now (as of 2007-June-22) hosting on this site. Someone who tells me "I don't want any attribution to my name, because I relish the anonymity" has sent me an index of mainly Irish and UK traditional artists, with small separate sections on (a) folk-rock, (b) singer-songwriters, (c) early music, (d) old-time, and (e) anthologies. This index is entirely their work. They have given me permission to host their index here. Primarily Irish and UK traditional recordings, arranged by artist (opens new window)

See also the online index by Jane Keefer here (opens new window)