"Why do I HATE the blue books?", you ask. Well, I'll try to tell you why.

I am a singer of ballads. A ballad is a story song. A ballad ONLY becomes "alive" when it is sung from the singer's soul. When I sing you a ballad, I sing it from my memory. I look at your face, not at a book. I see your reaction. I might even change the ballad slightly to reflect what I see in your face. I sometimes have spent YEARS getting a particuliar ballad into my soul.

A ballad must always remain alive and vital.

I'm re-reading Gordon Gerovld's book "The Ballad Of Tradition." He makes my point perfectly when he says that ballads came from, and must remain, in the "oral tradition."

"Oral tradition" does NOT mean that you sing the damned song out of a book. If you want to waste your time singing songs out of a book, join some damned church. Hell, they even provide you with books of hymns! YIPPEE!

(rant over ... but I feel better)! Bob(deckman)Nelson