Barry,

Regarding copyrights, the answer is that you should copyright any work that you create -- new tune, new words, new arrangement, etc. -- no matter how small. Your copyright will, of course, extend only to your own contribution, not to the preexisting music or words. This would be done on what the US Copyright Office calls Form PA. In addition, you should copyright the CD itself when released. That will protect the actual performances against piracy, in theory, that is. For that you will use Form SR.

PA and SR copyright registrations are two separate things, and mean two different things. The PA registration is for the musical composition regardless of who performs it, while the SR registration is for the performance (as recorded on the CD) regardless of who composed the music. The symbol for a PA registration is the letter C in a circle; the symbol for an SR registration is the letter P in a circle.

By the way, you can save some money by registering all your compositions on a single Form PA, provided the copyright claimants (presumably you and Neil) are the same. In Section 1 of the form, you give the collection a title, such as "Folk Songs of Downey & Finn," and then you list each individual song under "Previous or Alternative Titles." When the form asks in Section 2 for "Nature of Authorship," you should say: "Musical arrangements and editorial revisions of words."

On the reverse of the PA form, look for Section 6. The first part asks you to identify any preexisting work, and you should say: "Based upon the following tradional folk songs in the public domain, commonly known as [list names of songs]." The next part asks for what material you added to the work, and you should say: "Musical arrangements for voice and editorial revisions of words, including order of verses, and addition or deletion of text."

I hope this is of some help.

--- Steve