The RareTunes Archive

RareTunes is a personal archive of recordings of Scottish Traditional Music, although it's not all Scottish or Traditional or Music. It's being developed and maintained by Derek Hoy and Stuart Eydmann. The recordings range from near-studio quality to crowded and noisy house sessions, from digital media to old bits of tape. Read more...

In modern Scots, 'rare' is often used to mean something really enjoyable. The Dictionary of the Scots Language quotes Ian Rankin in 'Black and Blue' (1999) writing: "Jings, but it was rare to be home."

The rare tunes here range from straight-from-the-heart stuff from musicians who never recorded commercially, to old material performed by the stars of the day. If you would like to contribute, then please get in touch.

Hear the tunes

You can listen to all the music on this site:

• use the jukebox by selecting from lists (needs Flash)
• go into the recording and go to its page on archive.org
• use the Songbird web player

We show links to MP3 files in the recording lists, so you can use other software to download- try the Songbird web player which will let you download into your own library or make playlists of your favourite RareTunes.

Creative Commons

"Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry."

Most of the recordings here are made available under Creative Commons licences, allowing you to copy them freely for your enjoyment- most only restrict commercial use without getting the owner's agreement.

Our media files are stored on The Internet Archive