I LOVE the DT!!!

Subject: I LOVE the DT!!!
From: WyoWoman
Date: 24 Jul 99 - 12:38 PM

I've just finally started checking the DT whenever I come to a new song title, or an old one I've heard but can't remember. What a fabulous resource this is. I'm not sure who inputs all these great old songs and maintains the database, but it is such a gift to all of us. I just want y'all to know how much I appreciate it.

BTW -- Is there anyplace I can go to find the chords for some of these songs? Some I can figure out, but I'm a wee baby guitar player and can't sort all of it out.

Blessings on your heads, ye DT maintainers!

WW

Subject: RE: I LOVE the DT!!!
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 24 Jul 99 - 02:04 PM

WyoWoman,

OLGA.net and Roughstock.com cover many songs in the popular category and the C&W category respectively. If you come up dry on these two sites, you can always post CHRD REQ: "song title" on the Forum. Some of us thing we know how to play guitars and some know it all will give you chords. Be aware that chords choices are like elbows, most people have at least one and everyones are similar and yet unique. I haven't seen an argument over chords on the 'Cat, but I have seen multiple options offered. That is where your creativity of choice comes in.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: I LOVE the DT!!!
From: WyoWoman
Date: 24 Jul 99 - 02:39 PM

Thanks, RiB, I'll check those both out.

WW

Subject: RE: I LOVE the DT!!!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Jul 99 - 02:45 PM

I think it's time to link to some historical information. click here to get to the closest thing we have to our Book of Genesis. It's a sad, sordid tale, it is...(grin)
You know, I've often wondered about that mysterious person, Dick Greenhaus. I suppose I'll find out more when I attend the FSGW Getaway. That should be an interesting encounter, I think.
Dick, I guess the biggest thing I wonder about you is, what kind of computer do you use? You seem to be rather uneasy about newfangled stuff like Windows, so I picture you typing away at a steam-powered IBM XT with two floppy drives, running DOS 1.63
Then again, you never know about old Dick. He's so full of surprises that I don't think anything about him would be too surprising. I'm looking forward to meeting you, Dick.
But what kind of computer is it that you use???
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: I LOVE the DT!!!
From: WyoWoman
Date: 24 Jul 99 - 02:54 PM

Thanks, Joe. That was interesting background. Wow, more than 3,500 songs as of whenever that was written. Must be enormous now.

Love, love, love this technology stuff! Tha' heck with Luddites, I say.

WW

Subject: RE: I LOVE the DT!!!
From: Susan of DT
Date: 24 Jul 99 - 05:13 PM

Joe- I use a Pentium II 330 mhz burdened with Windoze 95, with an 8 gig drive, 96 mB of Ram, a Zip drive, a pair of CD-ROM drives (one for writing, one for reading)and some other goodies, all as a direct result of the generosity of the Philadelphis Folk Song Society a year or so ago.

The DT is prepared and maintained using askSam (for DOS) 5.1, SongWright 5.0, and APLII (vintage 1988) for general handiwork and housecleaning.

The Spring 99 edition has 7800 lyrics and over 4000 tunes. (This is really from dick greenhaus, who forgot to change the cookie on Susan's machine.)

Subject: RE: I LOVE the DT!!!
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 25 Jul 99 - 07:07 AM

Hi Dick, when is Spring 99 likely to be available for us mere mortals?

Cheers
John

Subject: RE: I LOVE the DT!!!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Jul 99 - 08:00 AM

Gee, Dick, you spoiled the old-fashioned image I had drawn of you. Sounds like you're really cookin' with gas over there.
-Joe Offer, Pentium 133-

Subject: RE: I LOVE the DT!!!
From: Sourdough
Date: 25 Jul 99 - 10:50 AM

Thanks, Joe, for posting the link to the roots of DT Story.

I am absolutely delighted to have found DT, and the serendipitous discovery along with it, of Mudcat. Both have added immensely to my enjoyment of the music. Mudcat is an astounding source of information.

Because I am tempermentally uninterested in discussions of modern small arms, I have missed some of the more contentious threads and, following my own interests through the threads, have basked in the reflected warmth of Mudcat camraderie. Twice a day, now, with my morning coffee and as I close up shop for the night, I cruise through the messages posted since my last visit. Often, the references and links they contain take me to great places I would never have found. Often, the messages introduce me to people I might never have met. The Tex Konig thread is like a short story. I didn't know him, I had never heard of him, but the patchwork biography of the thread has made him real to people like me, illuminating a time and place as well as a person, the way any good biography should.

My thanks to you keepers of the flame -

or perhaps, to paraphrase Pete Seeger, the keepers of The Chain - the one that links generations together through music and the poetry of lyrics.

Sourdough

Subject: RE: I LOVE the DT!!!
From: harpgirl
Date: 25 Jul 99 - 10:54 AM

Joe, I was amazed and delighted to read that the DT is powered by software designed in Perry, Florida. In fact, while the DoneyGals were enjoying an evening of hilarity and music with another one of Mudcat's finest last night, I mentioned that if the world came to an end I would like to be in Taylor County Florida, because it has the roughest toughest manly men I've ever seen, within it's borders!!!!
Now you go and tell me it also has major computer nerds residing there!!!! I'm even more convinced the human race will resurrect itself from Taylor County Florida if Y2K is the end of the world!!!!! *he, he*...harpgirl

Subject: RE: I LOVE the DT!!! From: Susan of DT Date: 25-Jul-99 - 07:10 PM Joe - The earliest editions of the DT ran on CPM as well as DOS with each song in its own file. Both Dick and I had used Osborn computers and I think Dick had joined the IBM world by then, but I had not. Someone introduced us to Logitek hand scanners fairly early, so we felt very cutting edge at the time. Remember that the Digital Tradition is eleven years old.

---

Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

---

---

Subject: RE: I LOVE the DT!!! From: Joe Offer Date: 25 Jul 99 - 08:21 PM Thanks for the historical information, Dick and Susan. I discovered the Digital Tradition in 1992, but I couldn't use it until late that year, when I replaced my Tandy with a computer with an actual hard drive. I've used the database almost daily ever since. It is interesting to see what people can do with relatively primitive equipment. I think the database will still run on an IBM XT, won't it? Don't know if you could run an Internet browser on anything slower than a 386, so you gotta have some power to be a 'Catter. I still see computer science students hook into university mainframes with Commodore, Timex, and Radio Shack TRS-80 don't they call it trash-80??)computers.

---

Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

---

Share Thread:

---

Reply to Thread

Subject:	Help
From:
Preview   Automatic Linebreaks   Make a link ("blue clicky")

---

Mudcat time: 26 July 7:59 PM EDT

[ Home ]

All original material is copyright © 2022 by the Mudcat Café Music Foundation. All photos, music, images, etc. are copyright © by their rightful owners. Every effort is taken to attribute appropriate copyright to images, content, music, etc. We are not a copyright resource.

---

Subject: RE: I LOVE the DT!!!
From: Susan of DT
Date: 25-Jul-99 - 07:10 PM

Joe - The earliest editions of the DT ran on CPM as well as DOS with each song in its own file. Both Dick and I had used Osborn computers and I think Dick had joined the IBM world by then, but I had not. Someone introduced us to Logitek hand scanners fairly early, so we felt very cutting edge at the time. Remember that the Digital Tradition is eleven years old.

Subject: RE: I LOVE the DT!!!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Jul 99 - 08:21 PM

Thanks for the historical information, Dick and Susan. I discovered the Digital Tradition in 1992, but I couldn't use it until late that year, when I replaced my Tandy with a computer with an actual hard drive. I've used the database almost daily ever since.

It is interesting to see what people can do with relatively primitive equipment. I think the database will still run on an IBM XT, won't it? Don't know if you could run an Internet browser on anything slower than a 386, so you gotta have some power to be a 'Catter. I still see computer science students hook into university mainframes with Commodore, Timex, and Radio Shack TRS-80 don't they call it trash-80??)computers.