Richard Matteson

Acoustic Music Source Book

Bill Bay asked me to write a follow up book to my last book, 'The Bluegrass Pickers Tune Book (20233). ' If you like Bluegrass music (232 songs) I'd recommend getting that book to add to your collection. The focus of this book, 'The Acoustic Source Book' is on roots and old-time music. The book is focused on the time period from late 1800's until 1940's. There are a few songs from The Bluegrass Book that were too important to be left out. I decided not to use any patriotic and Christmas songs and came up with a list of about 400 songs which eventually was cut down to over 200. During the late 1800's and early 1900's there was an important evolution in American music; the birth of jazz, ragtime, and blues. This was also the period of the phonograph and early commercial recordings. Music from the Minstrel period as well as traditional songs were used as staple for the roots musicians. In the early 1900's there were rags, blues, gospel, Tin-Pan Alley, jug band, spiritual, old-time country and popular songs. I've tried to include some of the well-known songs from every genre to give you a big slice of Americana. There are some great songs that are popular roots, bluegrass and old-time songs today that have never been published. There are also great songs that are not well known that should be played and enjoyed.