Frank,

I love your list, and taught many of the songs you've listed students in my guitar classes with very good luck--I even taught "Go to Sleep, You Weary Hobo" once, but the folks in the class knew the song--familiarity was the most important, at least in the beginning, because it meant that they had one less thing to think about--I think that I might take the lists you've put together and go over it with your students the first time you get together to find out which ones they know, and which ones they like--

About fifteen years ago, I was hired to teach beginning and advanced guitar classes at a community arts center--the course was to emphasize contemporary popular music, so I bought a stack of the latest records and found the ones that could be played and sung easily then worked up the term's lesson plan--First class session, I found that most of the students didn't know any of the songs, and the ones that did didn't want to learn them--the wanted to learn to play folk songs!

Best to find out what they are familiar with, you may be surprised by it--In the Pines, for instance, was recorded by Nirvana, so a lot of young people know it--Bud and Travis were featured a lot on the TV show "Northern Exposure", and now people are listening to them again--"Man of Constant Sorrow" is bound to be familiar to a lot of people because of "O, Brother, Where Art Thou?" as are some of the other tunes--

The Weavers tunes are always a big hit with beginning guitar players, because virtually everyone knows them, and my beginners were always delighted that they had learned "The Midnight Special" because it seemed like such a real song(it has a driving beat and it's about prison and trains--you can't get any more real than that!)--(I think someone even asked to learn "The Frozen Logger" once)

House of the Rising Sun seems to be universally known, and beginners are often amazed to know that it is possible for them to learn it--