Whoa, I just got back from a shanty blast that was a benifit fund raiser in support of the Mystic Sea Music Festival. It was heaven! Really, a cloud pleaser, a walk on the wild side. Not a piece of paper to be seen or read from. Not everyone lead but as far as I could tell everyone sang, at least a couple hundred of them. You don't need a memory to sing on choruses for shanties. They were sung on ships that shipped crews that sounded & looked like the United Nations, the langauges spoken were many, the surrounding sounds of a working ship & nature was in constant comptation with the vocal sounds of the seamen at work, who by the way were not singers by a far stretch, they were songs by their natural work related form created to be simple & clear. By the 3rd verse most caught on to the chorus (by the 4th chorus of almost anything you should have at least some of it down), so anyone can sing at bookless singarounds & even if they get a little complicated it's not all that hard if the song gets sung at a few rounds. I sometimes start off with a chorus & repeat it if I don't think it's being caught, I have to be carefull with my thick Boston accent. There were no turns, it was a free for all though before it was finished the spokesperson asked 3 different times "was there anyone who hasn't yet lead a song & that wants to"? By the end there were no takers left. No you wouldn't want to bring out a book at a session like this, the songs are sung hard & strong & when you get better than 200 voices joining in on the song you want to make sure 'you know what they're singing cuz you're leading them & if they stray you need to pull them along & if they're gonna pull you, you can bet it won't be in the direction you were going, so you had better know your song well enough that you don't need no stinking book.

Now to the Ron's. Yes book singing does nothing to build a singing society, IMHO it will stunt it's growth if not kill it. I've seen, known & heard of a number of vibrant song societies that when RUS came along they never were the same & they never recovered & got back to the point where they flowed & they swayed, where they sang & they partied, where they kidded each other & laughed at themselves & each other. I keep going to some sings that have been carrying on for decades just to see if they've changed & they haven't. Just because they continue only means thatthe beginners are satisfied with staying beginners & anyone that moves on moves out. So these sings stay at a constent plateau, if you put a heart monitor on them you'd get a dead line. No joking, very litle info on the song & where it came from, It's background cuz all you need to know is in the book. No tossing in different verses from different versions cuz all you need & want is right there in the book. No sense trying it with a varition to the tune cuz the only tune you all need is already there as well as the cords so you don't even need to pitch it to your own voice, it's all laid out for you nice, neat & cozy. God forbid that someone sing something Sean Nos, how would you get those voice reflection written into the book.
I've had performers that because they performed for a society feel obligated to attend that society's sing & was told at a different singing session that they'd never perform for that society again because they feared that they'd have to attend another book sing & they wouldn't face that again, even for pay.
A book sing does most definitly drive a higher level of singer into the arms of a beast. It's not a problem in places like San Francisco, Boston, Settle, Austin, Toronto, Chicago, LA (I can only speak for cities that I know of & not of places overseas) but in the more rural areas it's had on those singers that want more than just a low level book-in. Yes, they go to houses & backrooms, they go where they can. They didn't learn their craft in a book sing at someone's home at the foot of a book singer, you don't learn anying that artistic at the foot of a booker, you have to go out & do as they do, you learn from them that already learnt. A beginner teaching a beginner is the same as the blind leading the blind. Go get a dog you're better off learning how to howl from your heart at least you'd be as good as the dog & who else could do it better?
If someone had pulled out a book this afternoon they would have killed that sing dead in it's track, it probably would have picked right back up & recovered but if it happened a few times the place would've emptied out. Even those that were beginners would've been disappointed, they came to sing with those that could & would, to hear those they they could enjoy & join, they came to be apart of what was happening to be emergied & engulfed in a "social event" that was 'musical', not a "social event" that was 'verbal'. I don't care if people drown in RUS or if it spreads like a field on fire, maybe some of the folks will get past the book & go further but if they can't get past that or they don't want to go further, great, just don't try & bring them to where they're "not needed", keep them in their proper place. "A place for everything & everything in it's place"!

Now that comment above about folk singing being learned at home or in neighbor's homes. As far as I have known this was usually done, depending on your local, in kitchens or on porches, done by rural folks & city folk but I can't for the life of me ever recall any mention of book learning being part of the social equation. What I mostly hear of is it being passed on over time from the older to the younger, being passed down in families, at least in the living tradition. Now if we're talking about a dead tradition RUS would be what I'd think of immediately.

Like Mg, Ron & others, if I see a couple RUS's in sight, I'm not even gonna enter the room, no I'm not a song snob as anyone on mudcat can attest to that's knows me. I love to see songs get passed on to newbie's & beginners as well as seeing songs make the rounds among the good singers too but what I love to see & hear the most is young people learning to fly, getting their wings, having fun right from the start & never looking back. Bill D & Rita's Darrel (as well as Rita too), I've watched from going to the Getaways. He was sproutting his wings there & then started leading off a few songs at different workshops, then he was off & running, he's taken lead in a few workshops, that's a wonderful thing. We had a late teen (I think he's still a teen) at the shanty blast who joined his father & another adult singer, the 3 sang harmonies on the verses while everyone joined in on the choruses but he was great. He's been singing with his mother & father for some time now but his ear in amazing for finding & keeping harmonies. His mind is like a song trap, he remebers eveyone's songs. He popped in this afternoon with the words to a verse I was missing/fogeeting while singing but back to the point, he learned within ear shot/range of other singers & he'll be one who will continue the song sessions (I doubt you'll ever hear or see him at a book session). Watching kids like this take over is what makes it best for me. If his parents sang from books,,,,,,,,,,
Anyway, if RUS had been were I was when I was learnig to sprout wings I would never have even bothered to flap & the shame of it is that RUS is where I learnt to flap my wings & now it's a sad thing to see that they can't even keep any flegglings besides those with a broken wing cuz they have no need to fly. They have no disire to flap, they are happy enough to stay in the nest & be force fed. Well, each to their own, I guess, stay happy.

Barry