Recently I learned that a song of mine, WALKIN ON MY WHEELS, is going to be included in a CD called "Teaching Tolerance" to be produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center and distributed to every school in the U.S. (Whoa!)

The song was recorded by Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer on their CD, Nobody Else Like Me. It was previously recorded by Dan Crow, and his publishing company, Childsong Music, is now the publisher of the song. When I spoke to Cathy Fink last month, she said, "You really should take over the publishing."

I'm clueless here...what does it mean to be the "publisher" of a song? How do I go about "taking over the publishing"--and should I? What is the difference between the "mechanical license" (which SCLC says they obtained from Childsong Music) and the "sound recording license" (which they say they obtained from Rounder Records, Cathy and Marcy's label)--and what other licenses are there? (I'm sure I signed something for Dan Crow concerning this, but it's been lost along the way of my several moves over the last ten years.) I recall joining BMI at the time I registered all my songs with the Copyright Office (that would have been about 1988 or so), but seem to remember that the application asked if I had a "publishing company", and I said no.

Anybody have any expert advice on all this?

Aloha,
Mark