Well, Michael -

Hal Leonard has a Folksong Fake Book still in print, and the out-of-print Folksinger's Wordbook and Oak publications are all folk - but Rise Up Singing wasn't purely folk. This one, Rise Again, has even less folk. There are chapters titled "British Invasion," "Motown," "Rock Around the Clock," and "Surf." Oh, and a chapter titled "Millennials." I confess that I love to sing a lot of the songs in four of those five chapters; and they work very well for group singing, which is the purpose of the songbook. I imagine we'll have fun singing "Walking in Memphis," which is our purpose.

I don't choose the songs - I just research 'em. And I confess the book includes many songs, particularly "singer-songwriter" songs, that I don't like and probably won't sing. If I were editor instead of researcher, the book would be entirely folk - perhaps with an appendix for "British Invasion," "Motown," "Rock Around the Clock," and "Surf."

-Joe-