Resources for Contra Dance and Music
Resources for Contra Dance and Music
updated 8/24/26
This page contains links for resources for contra dance and music.
trycontra.com - Jeff Kaufman's excellent resource for locating contra dances by location and dance weekends/camps by location, date, performer or name.
https://www.jefftk.com/ - Jeff Kaufman's blog. Among other topics, he analyzes statistics from contra dance weekends e.g. Festival Stats 2025.
https://contradances.net/ - another site for locating contra dances and events by location, created by Richard Lanham.
Internet resources for contra dance callers - William Watson
Alan Winston's article on ECD and Contra history and differences
Seattle Rhythm Rollers Northern Jam - transcriptions and recordings by Laurie Andres, WB Reid, and Cathie Whitesides for tunes often played at the monthly Seattle northern jam.
The Session (mostly Irish)
North Atlantic Tune List - Tunes from Scandinavia, Ireland, the UK, Québec, Maritime Canada including Cape Breton, Métis (Saskatchewan & Manitoba), New England, Appalachia. Short MP3 audio clips, sheet music and ABC notation
All of these are available in electronic form as well as hardcopy.
The Portland Collection - 3 books of contra dance music in the Pacific Northwest. Cumulative Index (PDF - all 3 books).
The Waltz Books - compiled by Bill Matthiesen. Cumulative Index (PDF - all 4 books)
Randy Miller's Fiddlecase Books - New England Fiddler's Repertoire, The Fiddler's Throne, and other books.
Bob McQuillen's Note Books (iPad app). Some of the hardcopy individual note books are available through the CDSS Store.
David A. Kaynor: Living Music and Dance. In addition to purchasing the book, this web page has a link to download David's music in PDF format.
Canterbury Dance Orchestra - Here's to Every Country Dancer (Dudley Laufman's tunes & songs)
Bob McQuillen. Also see Pure Quill (with Rodney Miller) and The Rhythm Rollers (with Laurie Andres, Cathie Whitesides & W.B. Reid)
Elixir Bandcamp
Swinging on the Gate - collection of contra and English Country dance tunes by the musicians of the SF Bay Area. recorded in 2001. More info.
A Hand for the Band, a map and timeline of dance bands in the US, with info about each band and sound samples. Created by David Millstone.
William Watson's list of recordings (incomplete - first stab. most recent entry is dated 2007)