 | ||
The Mudcat Café is an online discussion group and song and tune database, which also includes many other features relating to folk music.
Contents
History
It grew out of a Blues-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 Delta 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.
Content
The discussion group (the Forum) is divided into music-related and non-music-related topics:
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.
Mudgatherings
Mudcatters in different countries meet up regularly at "mudgatherings".