Hi,
my first request for help here and it's not really folky.
I did search the database first.
If you find that I overlooked a relevant thread, please point me into the right direction.

What is it all about? It is not strictly speaking folky, but I hope that maybe some of you people out there can help me.

Basically I need to compile a CD of approx. 10 backing tracks for a handful of Marlene Dietrich songs, to run on a boombox and sing along to. Karaoke Ugh, I agree, but the circumstances are rather special. See further down for a description of the special circumstances if you are interested. If you feel that being a folkie makes you weird, after that one you will feel like your are swimming right in the middle of the mainstream.

I usually sing a capella and that's that. But for a very special occasion I am preparing to sing a number of Marlene Dietrich songs - in German - no problem as such. But because of the circumstances I do need to bring a boombox and run a karaoke type CD on it. A capella just wouldn't work in the environment I plan to sing the songs.

And I did a google with very little success. If I buy three different commercially available karaoke CD's I will have three useable backing tracks, 57 that i don't need, and a hole in my pocket.

Problem number one: This is a very expensive way of doing it

Problem number two: The songs I really want to sing are commercially unavailable - Marlene singing antiwar songs in German does not sell at all as opposed to "falling in love again" and again and again.

Problem number three: there is software available to buy on the internet that claims to convert music from ordinary CDs into karaoke tracks by removing the vocal part, but the original CD's must be recorded in stereo and all the Marlene recordings are so old, they are in mono and so the software would not work on them.

Problem number four: I only know most song titles in German and as there is a much larger english-speaking internet community I cannot trawl for the english version of the song titles on the internet because I simply do not know what they are called.

Problem number five: occasionally i came across a MIDI file in my internet searches. Eeek it's to do with computers and I haven't a clue where to start.

Problem number six: If I do it after hours in a private bunch of friends having a laugh setting I will be okay, but what happens if I get asked to do it again the next night with a public audience. I haven't the faintest about copyright etc, or other laws I might be breaking by using the backing tracks.

So if you can help with any aspect of my project I would really appreciate it. Any pointers towards a wonder-diet to make me drop two stone in three months in time for the performance would also be appreciated.

Here now the "special circumstances"
I do folk music, weird enough. I am also involved in historic reenactment which is even weirder. I am usually running around as an Anglo-saxon, sometimes medieval. Noooooow,it gets really really weird: a few lads from my Anglo-Saxon society joined another reenactment society. A WWII German panzer regiment. I usually really have an issue with that sort of thing, but as they are depicting a bunch of drafted grunts in brownish boiler suits rather than running around in snazzy sicko SS uniforms, and they are my mates, I am king of okay with it.
Now what happened next is that these WWII related messages kept flying about on the anglo-saxon egroup, and then I made a fatal mistake. I chipped in.
"Oh well, if our lads are defending the Vaterland so bravely I cannot hang back but I just will have to dig out my fishnet stockings and sing Lili Marleen for them"
The response was instant: "You're on. And, no, you cannot back pedal now and claim that you were only joking. You must have been serious, because you are German by birth and everybody knows that Germans don't joke. So tough S**T you are on."
Looks like I am going to entertain the troups at some multiperiod reenactment event in August. Okay, so I might be doing it, but on my terms. I will be singing in German, any passing SS guys can either leave or strip out of their sicko uniforms or be stripped. That's one thing I will NOT tolerate on my pitch although the organizer does.
Anyway, my song collection will be somewhat surprising for them I reckon.
Okay, I have to throw in Lili Marleen, Falling in Love again and the Naughty Lola, otherwise they are going to kill me with disappointment. But as to the rest: There is a song called In the barracks and it is very antiwar. A song called "marie" which is a POW's letter home. There is "where have all the flowers gone" and "the answer is blowing in the wind", "Puff the magic dragon" and other deep and grundy German stuff that one does not usually associate Marlene with.

But otherwise I am feeling completely sane.

Cheers,
Ana