Yes I did cut my teeth on House Of The Rising Sun etc, but I'm still for tossing Rise Up Singing, I agree it's fun to get every body singing together but on something that was exiting in the 60's please, give it a rest, there are still uncharted waters out there, the same waters where these old gems came from. My gripe with the old stand bys and books are that the more they get recycled the less we hear of songs that we could complain about in 25 yrs from now, and the effect this has on our expections and standards. Why learn The Rambler From Clare when everyone will sing Danny Boy just ONE MORE TIME. I droped out of singing circles 15 yrs ago when I kept getting asked for the same songs over and over again until I hated the songs and only recently started singing them to my kids. LaMarca you can sing my song to death if you like, I'll take the heat, which brings me to contempory trash. Anyone want a new song about the SUN or MY BABY GIRL or WHAT GROWS IN MY GARDEN that doesn't grow in yours, get a life. It seems that alot the contempory stull thats being aired is written by singers who's talent lies in promoting and alot of the great hard to find songs are dying because of underexposure (see above thread). This leads to the talented singer/songerwriter who needs the exposure to ply their trade like the broadside ballad hawkers of the last century. Again this might lead to the talented getting lumped together with the talentless, at festivals, where cheaper is a major factor of survival, and where traditional & contempory performers may struggle with one another for their bread, and who's to say who's better or who's worth more,(the promoters thats who), and when the venues start to fade away we can all sing COME BY HERE where the clubs, festivals and airwaves used to be. And people call me pathalogicaly affirmative. Barry Finn Cont. may