Hi, Corn Field -

All the Rise Again books I've seen are spiral bound, and I've seen hundreds. I asked editor Peter Blood, and he's not certain what bindings Hal Leonard is going to come up with. The "paperback" book that's currently $16.03 at Amazon, has a cover that's 9 inches by 12 inches. The "spiral-bound" book that's listed as $25 at Amazon. has a smaller size, 7.5 by 10 inches - and it's temporarily out of stock. So, for now, the larger format is cheaper at Amazon. I ordered a dozen of the cheaper books, and was surprised to get them in large format.

On their concert tour, Peter Blood and Annie Patterson are selling the large books for $25 and the small ones for $20, tax included. The large books were printed first, about August 15. I'm guessing the small books started printing about the end of August. We're having trouble keeping up with demand on the small books right now, but I imagine things will balance out by sometime in October.

Sing Out! did print some "perfect-bound" (glued, not spiral) versions of Rise Up Singing, but the spiral bound books have been far more popular. My guess is that Hal Leonard will stick with spiral binding for both sizes of both books.

I went to Peter and Annie's weekend workshop at the Quaker Center in the redwoods of Ben Lomond, California, over Labor Day. It was delightful. In their sessions, Peter and Annie concentrated on songs the audience wasn't likely to know. During free time, groups gathered in various locations to try out other stuff. We had a lot of fun with the Motown, Rock, British Invasion, and Surfin' chapters. Not particularly folk music, but it sure was fun.

-Joe-