My favorite threads are the ones that really tear a song apart, and trace back all the leads and the history and the related songs, as far back as they go. We've had good luck with some of them. I think the Internet is a great tool for this sort of research - and it's getting better every day.

You do have to watch your sources, though, because not all are as credible as they might seem. I have a copy of The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles. It's a lovely book, nicely laid out and quite complete in what it covers - mostly the better-known Child ballads.
Then I found out (click here). It seems that when Niles was missing information, he filled in the gaps. Apparently, he fabricated a good deal of the information he published, which makes all of his work lack credibility. Too bad. He did some good stuff, but he should have been careful to differentiate between what was authentic and what was his own work.
I think I have most of the songbooks compiled by John and Alan Lomax, god the Father and god the Son of American folk music; and I'm happy to have them and use them a lot. Sometime last year, I was using some Lomax books to research a couple of songs, and I realized that much of the explanatory material in the Lomax books doesn't explain anything. Many times, they may tell a story that is vaguely related to the song, but it actually says nothing about the song itself. I asked Sandy Paton about it, and he kind of burst my Lomax balloon. It seems the Lomaxes are at times a bit lacking in their scholarship. This thread may open your eyes a bit.

So, I figured the best way to get a start was to lean on Sandy. I asked him for suggestions, and he sent me an introductory list and keeps adding to it. It would cost me gazillions of dollars to buy every book on his list, but it would be worth it. I haven't gone that far, but I've accumulated a pretty good collection. I get the biggest kick out of the e-mails I get from Sandy and from Dale Rose and Gene Graham, telling me about this or that bargain I can get at eBay or at www.bookfinder.com. I've taken their advice many times, and I've found some real treasures. Bob Bolton also gave me a list of Australian stuff I had to have. You can find a pretty good list of folk music reference material in the thread called A Basic Folk Library. You may be surprised to find that many of these books are in your local library, but some of us have gotten to the point where we beat the local library by a long shot.

If you're going to go off on the adventure of researching a song, be careful. Keep track of your sources, and don't be too quick to believe anybody. There's a lot of sloppy scholarship out there. If you post information about a song, remember that people may actually read what you say and believe you - so maybe you'd better be a bit careful about your scholarship. If you're guessing about something or if you question something you've found, say so - don't quote it as if it were gospel truth.

There are lots of good resources listed on our links page. My favorites are the Traditonal Ballad Index, the Levy Sheet Music Site, the American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress, the Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads, Mudcatter Bruce Olson's Web Site, Mudcatter Lesley N's contemplator site, Folk Music: an Index to Recorded Resources, and the UTK Song Index at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, which gives me an easy index to most of the songbooks that are taking over my living room.

Another thing you can do is just click on the name of Sandy Paton in any of his posts, and you'll find a wealth of information. Same with the posts of Art Thieme, Frank Hamilton, and several others. Sandy, though, is the real scholar. I wish he's write a book, but I guess we'll have to be happy with the wonderful booklets that come with his Folk-Legacy recordings. Sandy has done two CD's of recordings of traditional songs he collected in the field. One is called Brave Boys: New England Traditions in Folk Music. the other is a very recent release, Ballads and Songs of Tradition. Another must-have traditional music collection is Frank and Anne Warner Collection: Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still. Other very important recordings are Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music (Vol 1-3) and Volume 4. I also should mention Rounder's extensive (and expensive) Alan Lomax Collection. I suppose my Mentor Sandy would also like me to mention the 2-disc collections that are available at Yazoo Records, particularly "How Can I Keep From Singing?" and "The Story That the Crow Told Me. I imagine he'll have me buy the entire Yazoo catalogue by the time he's done.
And I won't mind a bit. I've learned an awful lot here, especially from Sandy Paton.
-Joe Offer-