I just stumbled across this thread. I'm glad I did. As others have said, that are some very good comments here. And I also agree that there is no RIGHT or WRONG to this issue.

I attended a song circle gathering about a month ago. It was the first song circle I'd been to in many years. Because of the bad weather that night, there were very people there, but I was delighted to see two friends I've sung with many times over the last 25 years.

However, I was really startled and dissapointed to witness the complete domince of the dreaded Blue Book, "Rise up singing." Everyone, except me, had their copy out and the entire sing session was controlled by what was in the book. It even sunk to where a few people would simply ask, "Bruce, can you sing number 117?"

I tried to break that mindset a couple of times by adding a song, at my proper turn of course, that was NOT in the book but followed the theme what was just sung. To me, this is a very large part of my enjoyment of song session: the spontaneous music that just happens because of the variety and depth of singer's repetoires. And you get NONE of that with your head buried in a book!

Should the book be banned? Of course not. There are mnay folks at singing sessions that need it in order to participate. But, the sessions should NOT be limited to, or controlled by, just the book.

Just my two cents worth. I'm enjoying this thread. CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson (in the Seattle area)