We are starting to pick up a little momentum with our little nascent song circle here in Dixie.   Finding we attract interested singers with lovely voices, mostly female, and they just don't know hardly any trad songs. They know they want to learn some, preferably ones they can harmonize in small groups, and they keep calling them Celtic although to me they are just Irish/Scottish/British/US/Canadian/Aussie folk songs.   I think they want the trendier stuff done by the cool bands, though they are also interested in the less trendy ballad tradition.

Anyway, the question has come up, what CDs should they listen to to learn good stuff? I was stumped. To me it has been a lifetime of listening to songs from every source imaginable and collecting one here and one there. I don't know how to begin, and certainly don't have a pair of female tradsong anthologies lying around. It does seem a too-tall order to get a packaged packet of Your Song Heritage plopped in your lap. But then again, we have to meet interested people where they are, don't we?

We're going to get some of the experienced people on our mailing list to give us their ideas, but still I thought this would be a wise time to call upon the power of the Mudcat.   What say y'all? Are there any such miraculous CDs out there, or would we have to pull together a cut here and there from many sources, and if so, what cuts ought we pull together? (And lest we get offcourse too early, I refuse to entertain these possibilities: I am Stretched on Your Grave, Kilkelly, or any long list of "I'm A Victim Cause You Left Me". (I'll take one Victim Song if it's really good))