(Hi, I'm new. But I have searched the thread base for this idea and came up empty -- which may just mean I didn't use the right terms.)

I've been having this fantasy, and I described it in my blog like so:

I've been fantasizing about building a CD with public-domain music, presented in various ways to encourage singing. IE: It'd be able to present (and print) the sheet music, or play the music and present the lyrics for people to sing (and with the display option for automatically scrolling REALLY LARGE TEXT, for people with bad eyesight or Temporary Insobriety Syndrome) and various other options. Sort of a folk song treasury with karaoke options.

So, besides donated new tracks, I'd be searching out public domain songs, similarly to the way folk songbook compilers did in the past. I figure if I make it super-useful, even religious people would use it when singing old hymns and spirituals. And one subversive intent would be that Baptists might look around in the index and find (for instance) old labor organizing songs.

(The rest of the message is here: http://www.livejournal.com/users/justjohn/119338.html )


So anyway, I started looking on the Web, and it looks like this place has already done a lot of the legwork. So I'm wondering if anybody's made a portable version of the Mudcat database, or if not, whether the above project sounds like a worthy thing to try. The fantasy is of a CD that would be freely given away and that people would be encouraged to copy.