Does anyone have any good sources of backing tracks for practising with?
Sometimes I suppress the vocals from records but its not particularly ideal as the arrangements on records tend to be a bit complex.
If anyone wants it here is Pentangle’s version of Bruton Town with the vocals suppressed (still audible as a guide)
Click on the link to download it.
Try the virtual session at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/folk/sessions/
Most ITM music do fine, actually. Tin whistle is one octave above fiddle, flute, uilleann pipes, tenor banjo, etc, so when you play with these, you can easily hear both your instrument and the recording. Just find the tune you want to play in some Bothy Band / Altan / Lunasa / Dervish / Danu / whatever CD (thesession.org will help you in that), and play along.
If they play too fast, get Amazing Slow Downer - despite the stupid name, that program does the real magic - slows down the music to any speed you like, and transposes it to any key you like. It’s worth the money.
If you use the ‘Band-In-A-Box’ program from PG Music, http://pgmusic.com/ then you can get some nice, free ‘Celtic-style’ arrangements, including many session tunes from Alf Warnock’s page, here: http://www.alfwarnock.info/alfs/index.php
Of course, I send this with the usual caveat: you’re playing along with a computer, so it’s not like a real session. Still, if you have a good sound card, amplifier and speakers, this puts out some very convincing sound. I use BIAB for my jazz guitar work, and it just keeps getting better and better. I recommend it highly, PARTICULARLY for jazz, blues rock and popular style players. If you view the videos at the PG site, you’ll see what it’s about.
This reply won’t help your quest, but your post has surely brought back some good memories. While a student at the Univ. of Hawaii many moons ago, I used to listen to a great radio station that played a lot of Pentangle and the one tune that has always stayed with me is “Hole in the Coal”, sometimes listed as “Hole in my Coal”. Amazing guitar. I need to get some Pentangle CDs. Thanks 
I met Bert Jansch last year at a social function and didn’t realise till afterwards that he was the same person who was in Pentangle. He looks much younger than the other members of the band. Some great music though, and a great influence on many people.
The original lineup have reformed and play together occasionally.
Here they are last year at the BBC:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=F4WZhEkio5o
Two of the greatest living guitarists in the same band!
If you don’t believe me here is Renbourne:
Very cool. I’ve always been a huge fan of both Jansch and Renbourne and both have influenced my guitar playing, along with Stephen Stills and Paul Simon. I’m pretty sure Jansch is the one who played “Hole in the Coal”. I saw a recent photo of him and you’re right…he still looks young.
There are quite a few websites which have tunes played fast or slow (or both). A quick list of ones that I have found useful to play against:
http://toraigh.com/slowsessions/
http://comhaltas.ie/shop/detail/foinn_seisiun_cd_volume_1/
http://comhaltas.ie/shop/detail/foinn_seisiun_book_volume_2/
http://comhaltas.ie/blog/post/foinn_seisiun_3/
http://www.thegrotonsession.com/
http://www.tinwhistletunes.com/clipssnip/reels.html
http://irishwindow.com/wst_page7.html
http://www.thewhistleshop.com/slow/session.htm
http://www.slowplayers.org/SCTLS/playlist.html
http://www.siamsa.org/sessions/sessions.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/folk/sessions/
http://www.tradlessons.com/
http://tinwhistler.blogspot.com/
and of course You Tube has many
Hopefully others will add to this list; I’m sure I left of many (some of which I even know about 
)
Thanks for all the info. Adding them to my list.