Barry, true enough about the blues evolving from work songs and hollers - it's just that eventually the responses from the "chorus" to the leader were eventually replaced by responses from the instrument (guitar or harmonica, usually) to the singer. It's hard to imagine an audience singing along with Robert Johnson on "Love in Vain." But on the other hand it's easy to imagine them shouting out responses to him (Yeah, man! You got that right! or whatever the '30s equivalents were). So the audience participation was there, it just wasn't a direct part of the music. Or maybe I'm just full of BS today.

Now I need some suggestions. I'm a Scoutmaster, and I want to get my scouts more involved in singing. However, their taste in music runs from the banal (continuous lite hits) to the appalling (Mega METAL suicide rock). None of this seems to lend itself to creating a sense of community by group singing as the songs I used to sing when I was a scout. How can I spark their interest in the great humor, good fun, and camaraderie of folk songs? Jon