I got pretty good at this licensing stuff when I worked on the Rise Again songbook - and I'm willing to do it for anyone who needs help. Our publisher, Hal Leonard, already had agreements for a lot of the songs we used, but there were dozens left over that Peter Blood and I had to get licenses for. We got a lot of help from Mudcatters, by the way. We weren't always successful, and had to leave a lot of good songs out of the book, like "Flower of Scotland" and "Dublin in the Rare Old Times," because the copyright holders or songwriters refused permission.
It was really cool to get a wakeup call from Iris Dement one morning, granting us permission for her songs. She's been an idol of mine for years.
-Joe-