Other Song Sources

If the Ballad Index does not offer the information you want about a particular song, here are some other places you can look on the Internet.

Other Song Indices

Steve Roud's Folk Song Index, available at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, is the other major song catalog on the Internet, and the Ballad Index cites Roud numbers.

Jane Keefer's Folk Music - An Index to Recorded Resources includes an extensive collection of recordings, both from traditional singers and modern pop performers.

Hymnary.org, source notes, author notes, versions of hymns and religious songs (mostly American). Not all the source information is accurate, but it is usually much better than individual hymnals.

John Baxter's Folk Song and Music Hall has texts and detailed information about hundreds of songs with links to the music hall and which also connect with oral tradition.

Mainly Norfolk has information about English "folk" music and performers.

Broadsides

You can find broadside prints at the following sites (among others):

Bodleian - Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue. Ballads cited by shelfmark. Located as of this writing at http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/search/ (but currently down)
EngBdsdBA - UC Santa Barbara English Broadside Ballad Pepys Collection. Ballads cited by Pepys volume and page. Located as of this writing at http://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/page/pepys
NLScotland - National Library of Scotland Word on the Street site. Ballads cited by shelfmark. Located as of this writing at http://digital.nls.uk/broadsides/search.html
Murray - Glasgow Broadside Ballads site Murray Collection. Ballads cited by manuscript number. Located as of this writing at http://www.gla.ac.uk/t4/dumfries/files/layer2/glasgow_broadside_ballads/
LOCSinging - America Singing at the Library of Congress American Memory site. Ballads cited by digital id.
LOCSheet - Sheet Music at the Library of Congress American Memory site. Ballads cited by digital id Located as of this writing at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?category=Performing%20Arts,+Music
PopMusicMTSU - Middle Tennessee State Center for Popular Music Kenneth Goldstein Broadside Collection at http://popmusic.mtsu.edu/collections/default.aspx

Miscellaneous Sources

The Digital Tradition -- an online collection of songs and song texts. http://www.mudcat.org/. Mudcat.org is also a folk music community where users can ask questions and contribute information, so it is a good place to find out more about songs.
Smithsonian Folkways offers access to one of the largest libraries of recorded folk music available.
The Library of Congress probably contains information about almost any old pop song you want (if you can find it).