I just picked up a terrific book called Windjammers: Songs of the Great Lakes Sailors (by Ivan H. Walton and Joe Grimm - published in 2002 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit). Ivan Walton, a folklore professor at the University of Michigan, completed virtually all of his collecting and writing by 1952, two years before co-author Joe Grim was born. Walton died in 1968, his work uncompleted. Grimm assembled Walton's work into a fine book, full of lyrics, tunes, sketches, and photographs. The book includes a 15-cut CD of some of Walton's field recordings.

You can get the book at the website of Great Lakes folksinger Lee Murdock for $25 paperback and $40 hardcover. The paperback may be a bit cheaper at some of the online bookstores.

This is one delightful book.

-Joe Offer, born in Detroit and raised on the Wisconsin shore of Lake Michigan-