John, I looked for Songs of the American West, by Lingenfelter/Dwyer, for over a year. There was a copy availabel through http://www.bookfinder.com for something like $250. I finally found one for $30 from another Bookfinder merchant. It's a great book - well worth the thirty bucks. There are now quite a few copies available through Bookfinder in the $30-$40 range. It covers all the West, but I haven't found a betterbook for the songs of California.
What I'm looking for now is Songs the Whalemen Sang, by Gale Huntington - $75 at Bookfinder, which is too rich for my taste. I'm also looking to supplement my limited collection of Canadian songbooks.

Dover Press has reissued two Lomax songbooks, American Ballads and Folk Songs (1934) and Our Singing Country (1941). I suppose they have to wait until the price goes down on the rights to Cowboy Songs (1910, 1938), Best Loved American Folk Songs (1947 - also known as Folk Song USA), and The Folk Songs of North America (1960). The University of Nebraska Press just reissued Hard-Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People (A. Lomax, W. Guthrie, P.Seeger, 1967).

-Joe Offer-