"Ich hatt' einen Kameraden" finally arrived the day before yesterday.

The book is beautifully printed, and even with my limited German it's obvious that it is a very scholarly work, from the point of view of military history as well as folklore. It has the words and lyrics to hundreds of songs. It made me want to run out and sign up for German lessons. I am definitely going to learn some of these songs.

There are two CDs included. They are nothing less than stunning. The singing is a little rough, but very effective. The arrangements are unlike any German music I've ever heard. This is why I started this thread in the first place. The songs .... I hardly know what to say. Can you imagine what it was like for someone like me, who knows a bit about Irish folk music, but next to nothing about the German equivalent, to hear " 's ist Alles lauter Falscheit" sung to the tune of "The Bonny Light Horseman"? This is the story of the ordinary soldiers of the Napoleonic wars becoming real in the 21st century. Now I wonder, did the Germans learn this tune from the Irish or vice versa?

Not cheap at all, but worth every pfennig.

Wolfgang: I owe you one(in fact, several)for putting me on to these CDs.

Edmund