So is this thread about what you're / we're working up to do at the Getaway this fall?

Good God! Who thinks that far ahead? I can barely remember what I want to sing when it's my turn next in a sing-around. If the question were "What would you sing / get ready to sing if the Getaway were this weekend, I'd probably mention my latest composition, "Son of Davy," which I did with Sidekicks at the Washington Folk Festival on Saturday. I need to keep doing it for two reasons -- one, so people will get to hear it and maybe like it, and two, so I can remember it in its finished form. Songwriting means not only writing, but editing, and performing means remembering the final version, ignoring all the alternate lines and phrases which crop up from your memory, so singing it a lot helps "set" it.

As for songs mentioned above, I sing a combined "Diamond Joe" version, with the Tom Rush verses melded to the "come and get me" chorus that comes from a song about a steamship line. We (Sidekicks) started doing it that way so's we'd have a nice trio chorus to sing. Now it's sort of set that way in my mind.

I wrote a short chorus to "Sandy Sam & Rusty Jiggs" (from Tom Paxton's take on "Tying a knot in the Devil's Tail") for the same reason. When you work in a group with a harmony singer like George Stephens, you look for opportunities to add choruses, even if none was there.

Hmmm... this has the makings of a workshop -- "Improvements(?) to Folksongs" -- at the Getaway. Worth a thought, anyway.

Bob