Sing Out! Magazine's 50th anniversary

Subject: Sing Out! Magazine's 50th anniversary
From: Mike Regenstreif
Date: 09 May 00 - 07:00 PM

Fifty years ago this month, in May 1950, Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine published its first issue. It remains essential reading for anyone interested in folk music.

More information on the magazine is available at the Sing Out! website.

On this Thursday morning's edition of Folk Roots/Folk Branches, all the songs will drawn from the pages of Sing Out!

During the show, I'll be talking with Sing Out! editor Mark Moss about the history of the magazine.

Folk Roots/Folk Branches is heard over the air on CKUT, 90.3 FM in Montreal, on Thursday mornings from 9-11:30 (eastern time).

We're also heard in RealAudio anywhere in the world. The CKUT RealAudio feed is available from the Folk Roots/Folk Branches website.

Mike Regenstreif

Subject: RE: Sing Out! Magazine's 50th anniversary
From: Sourdough
Date: 11 May 00 - 03:13 AM

For a long time, Sing Out reprints and The Peoples' Songbook were my major sources for songs that had heard but needed lyrics in order to be able to sing.

Come to think of it, you don't hear much about the Peoples' Songbook now. Maybe Rise Up SInging has supplanted it.

I think it was edited by Waldemar something (Hille?) and as I recall, he was a very interesting person but it is all getting so foggy....

Maybe Peoples' Songbook deserves its own thread.

Sourdough

Subject: RE: Sing Out! Magazine's 50th anniversary
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 May 00 - 03:52 AM

Hi, Sourdough - The People's Songbook was published in 1948, and I believe it was last printed in the 1960's. Editor was Waldemar Halle, consultant editor Herbert Haufrecht. The associate editors were big names, Alan Lomax, Earl Robinson, Pete Seeger, and Irwin Silber.
Silver edited a second book called Lift Every Voice! The Second People's Songbook, published in 1953. In 1961, Silber edited a book called Reprints from the People's Songs Bulletin, 1946-49. All these books had a distinctive common format, and the same format is seen in many books that came from Oak Publications in the 1950's and 1960's. I think the format must have come from early issues of Sing Out! Am I correct?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Sing Out! Magazine's 50th anniversary
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 11 May 00 - 08:02 AM

Having searched through the Sing Out on-line index of songs they've published in the last 50 years I am in absolute awe of the services to folk music. Well done to all involved!

I have almost the entire collection of Reprints. There are still a number of DT songs without tunes that are represented in the Reprints, but there remains a formidable number which were in the original Sing Out issues. I've searched the major State Libraries in Brisbane and Melbourne and the National Library in Canberra. It appears that none has ever had the good sense to collect Sing Out. If any Australians are able to refute this I would be very pleased to comb the collection some time. In the mean time we'll have to leave this to someone in the USA.

Regards, John

Subject: Sing Out! Reprints
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 May 00 - 02:47 PM

Hi, John - I wondered if we could compare Sing Out! reprints. I have the two "Collected Reprints" books. The pink book (out of print) has volumes 1-6, 1959-64 (covering songs published in the magazine 1950-63). The blue book (still in print) has volumes 7-12, 1964-73 (covering songs from the magazine, 1950-73). I'll give you a list of the starting and ending song in each volume, and I wonder if you could check and see if yours are the same:

• 1. (1959) This Land Is Your Land / Mighty Day
• 2. (1960) Pastures of Plenty / The Gallows Pole
• 3. (1961) Si Me Quieres Escribir / Duermete, Niño Lindo
• 4. (1962) Crawdad / Calton Weaver
• 5. (1963) He's Gone Away / Shady Grove
• 6. (1964) Guantanamera / We Shall Overcome
• 7. (1964) Lily of the West / We Shall Walk Through the Valley
• 8. (1965) Ramblin' Blues / I Wonder When I'll Get To Be Called A Man
• 9. (1966) Freedom Is A Constant Struggle / South Australia
• 10. (1967) Ain't You Got A Right / I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound
• 11. (1968) Walking Down Death Row / The Little Orphan Girl
• 12. (1973) Aiken Drum / Can The Circle Be Unbroken(note gap in dates)

Were there more of the individual "Reprints" booklets, or just the twelve that were issued in the two "collected" volumes? Do the individual volumes appear to be the same as what I've listed here for the combined editions?
I note that Peter Blood-Patterson, editor of Sing Out!'s Rise Up Singing songbook, was also involved in the publication of both of the "Collected Reprints" volumes.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Sing Out! Magazine's 50th anniversary
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 11 May 00 - 07:55 PM

Excellent question Joe, but it'll take me some time to do that for you. I've been building a study for my older son and my so-called personal study is in major disarray. I've been collecting them for almost 40 years and until recently I was under the impression that they were published annually from the year dot. I now know that this is not the case. You may get a quicker response from someone else.

What I have never seen in Australia are the two compendiums of Reprints - and I've certainly looked hard enough. Are they simply a re-hash of the 12 Reprints, or do they incorporate other material from the original periodical? Looking back at your post Joe I'm not too sure whether we are asking the same questions. I have never seen a Table of Contents of the two compendiums. We'll solve this one day.

Regards, John

Subject: RE: Sing Out! Magazine's 50th anniversary
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 May 00 - 11:19 PM

Hi, John - I'm thinking that the "Collected Reprints" books I have are simply bound duplicates of the smaller booklets you have. I'm hoping you will be able to check the first and last songs in each of your books and see if they correspond with the 12 volumes I've listed. Or can somebody else check for us?
Thanks.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Sing Out! Magazine's 50th anniversary
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 12 May 00 - 01:24 AM

G'day Joe Offer,

I just looked at the first 10 of Reprints from Sing Out (all that I have) and found some discepancies from your listing:
#1 - The is Land ... to I Walk the Road Again
#2 - Pastures of Pleny to Leibster Meiner
#3 - Wildwood Flower to Talking TJ Blues
#4 - Where have all the flowers gone to Crawdad
#5 - Heiland Laddie to Sail Away Ladies
#6 - The First Time ever I saw your Face to We Shall Overcome
#7 - Lily of the West to Jacob's Ladder
#8 - Ramblin' Blues to Don't Think Twice
#9 - There but for Fortune to Old Rattler
#10 - I will bring you flowers to Ain't you got a Right

It looks as if the contents are not necessarily ordered in the same way as they were in the small books. There may be all the songs (or not?). There is little detail on the Sing Out site (and the first compendium book - #1 to #6 is currently out of print).

I need to get the remaining two copies some time (I obtained the first 10 in the 60s and 70s). I thought I saw listings of later collections (books # 11 to #16...?) somewhere, but I can't be sure about that. If there are 4 more books then, on the past model, they won't have amalgamated them into a single volume yet.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Sing Out! Magazine's 50th anniversary
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 May 00 - 02:52 AM

Thanks, Bob - your list followed my book fairly closely, but each volume in mine seemed to have a few extra songs before and after the ones you listed. Every song on your list was in my books.I gather they're pretty much the same, but not exactly so.
-Joe Offer-