Shoe String Symphonettes is a 1997 album of film music by Marc Ribot released on Tzadik Records.

[1] The album contains soundtracks for five short films; the earliest being Landlord Blues directed by Jacob Burkardt (1987), followed by Death by Unnatural Causes directed by Karen Bellone and Lisa Rinzler (1991); one track for Summer Salt directed By Charles Levi (1993); Ribot's music for the silent film Aelita Queen of Mars directed by Yakov Protazanov (1928) was a mixture of live recordings from the 1995 Meltdown Festival mixed with backing tracks recorded in London and a live recording from The Knitting Factory; and Pieces from an Incomplete Project directed by Joe Brewster (1996).

Ribot stated "A lot of what I wrote was source music.

Jacob Burkhardt, the director, needed something that established a backyard on the Lower East Side.

[2] Allmusic awarded the album 3 stars with reviewer Sean Cooper stating, "Symphonettes features some of Ribot's most compelling work to date, both creatively augmenting the originals and sketching out cinematic spaces more or less autonomous from the films they were inspired by".