There seems to be large differences in lists of songs sung by song circles related to regions and when the songs were sung. I have a copy of the first song book/collection put together by Sally Ashford for the Seattle Song Circle when in began in 1977. These songs are quite different from those sung at the Seattle Song Circle today (which are largely out of Rise Up Singing). And song lists from other song circles that I have seen on the internet are very different again. That seems quite understandable as we all come from different backgrounds and were introduced to folk music at different times.

I worry about the "homogenizing" effect of widely-used song books like Rise Up Singing and Rise Again. The song list for Rise Again contains many songs that I am not familiar with, and most I gather are fairly new songs. Nothing wrong with that, there may be some good songs there, but where are the old songs that I grew up singing, and other great old songs that I continue to discover that have met the test of time. We need to keep the old songs alive!

Here is a collection of songs that I've assembled (mostly old) for use in community group singing and for a workshop on Song Collecting, which I will do at Dusty Strings in Seattle on Feb. 21, 2015.

Cheers, S. in Seattle