Looking For Good Acoustic "folky" Stuff

[Brian Wise]

Hey guys,

I am wanting some more straight acoustic folk or acoustic mexican folk for some videos and slideshows. I have a buddy that plays a 12 string like crazy but only has a few songs recorded.

Who do you guys recommend for complete acoustic folk...no singing.

Here is a video that I made with some of my buddies music, this is basically what I am looking for--gotta dig this stuff!

Thanks!

Brian

[Gavin]

Brian, I've only been playing acoustic for a couple years...Dylan is the king of acoustic folk, too many songs to list...Niel Young has some great sounding acoustic stuff and I like it alot better w/o his whiney singing. Redemption song by Bob Marley is kind of folky. Ring of Fire by JC has some good mariachi riffs in it..Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison has some neat double stops in it. Roger McGuin and the Byrds did a bunch of stuff on a 12 string, so did the Beatles. One of my favorite albums of all time is Sweetheart of the Rodeo by the Byrds. The Grateful Dead play a lot of folky stuff. Robert Earl Keene has some great stuff too.

[Terry Beeson]

Go to MySpace music and look under the acoustic and folk genres... You can usually find some interesting and different stuff there.... Like I found this dude, Jeff Scheetz there... Man is he way out there in space somewhere....

(By the way, Scheetz... I put your "grabit" songs on my myspace... Now I need some to put on my playlist...)

[Brian Wise]

Man, thanks guys.

Gavin, I hadn't even thought about Dylan....

Found some Kottke too, thanks a lot guys!

Brian

[Growler]

Hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but synchronizing copyrighted music to videos or using it without explicit authorization is illegal. I'm in the vid business, and we deal with this all the time. There are two main areas that are affected:

1. Publishing, or who wrote it, and,

2. Performance, or who's performing of the piece you are using.

What this means is, if someone plays a piece of music and gives you permission to use his performance, but the song was written by someone else, you owe them (publisher) royalties.

Like any bureaucratic area, there are literally hundreds of pages to these laws, and just as many interpretations.

One thing that might bring more clarity to the issue is the knowledge that these people make music for a living, and are entitled to payment for doing their job, just like we are entitled to payment for our work.

There is good news though. There are a number of websites that offer free or affordable music compositions, copyright free, for use on the web and video. Do a google search for ROYALTY FREE or COPYRIGHT FREE music, and you'll find many links to explore.

Although the possibility of being "caught" using copyrighted music is slight, it can happen. Again, I am truly sorry to bring up such a sticky issue, but, I would really feel bad if one of the good people on this site got nailed for doing something they were not informed about.

G

[jscheetz]

Thanks Terry - YOU are the man!!!

Growler - good points about using stuff without permission - nice to have someone sticking up for us poor writers in this time of torrents and winmx fever that we live in!

Brian - I would second Terry's thinking about checking out myspace etc - you might find what you want. I checked out the video and it didn't really strike me as what I would call "folky" - more just acoustic instrumental stuff might do the trick for you in a search. If you find something you like I would just shoot an email to the guy and tell him what you are doing and that you would like permission to use his song. I would think most people would be happy to grant permission. I get asked this kind of stuff all the time "I want to use one of your tunes in a family vacation video" - or "My church is putting together a canoe trip video and want to use your song" etc etc - I always appreciate anyone asking, and if it is not a big profitable thing I have no problem letting them do whatever they want with the tunes. But like when someone uses my stuff for a commercial on radio or tv - and there is money being made..... like to get a little of it.

You can find some "royalty free" music out there - but it is a lot of times pretty nasty crappy stuff imho -

If you guys want to hear how to play acoustic - check out a couple of friends of mine on youtube - search - Trace Bundy or Andy Mckee - these guys are crazy good.

And Brian - if you ever need any slightly more rockin' stuff - It's all yours - you know where to find me

JS

[Growler]

Jeff, yeah, I have a bunch of friends that make their living writing and performing. I'm in the vid production business and we have a lot of our music & jingles written and performed locally. In fact, you might have seen the Sheridan's Frozen Custard spots in KC...I do those. You're from KC right? I have a buddy that's the guitar player for Voodoo Kitchin. Bill's a really good guy, if you ever run into him say hey.

Anyway...everyone support your local musician...pay for that CD and don't balk at a cover charge. It goes to the guys working to entertain you!

Growler

[DD'sMC]

Brian,

Check out Tommy Emmanuel. He has a myspace page. IMO, he is awesome. I do not know anything about royalties and such, but I've met Tommy personally, and he is a great guy...very down to earth. Good luck in you musical endeavors.