songbook bibliography

Subject: songbook bibliography
From: Alice
Date: 22 Sep 97 - 05:47 PM

Dick, we discussed awhile back (was it LaMarca's idea?) the advantages of having a bibliography of songbooks, possibly also with the table of contents. I have to admit with all my good intentions but no extra time, I haven't done anything about sending you some of my reference information. After entering Lanigan's Ball in the Looking for Lyrics thread I commented on the worthy endeavor of a bibliography. I THEN checked the database to find that Lanigan's Ball was there. Is there some way to flag the database search more clearly for newbies who are requesting lyrics and for those of us absent minded members who jump into typing songs before we check DT?

Alice in Montana

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Sep 97 - 06:07 PM

I'm sure you already saw this URL, Alice, but maybe this is a more appropriate place to post it:
http://home.istar.ca/~anderman/
It's some guy in Toronto who has a huge number of songbooks for sale, and I couldn't believe the variety available. Trouble is, they ain't cheap. Guess I'll have to restrict my search to thrift shops and used book stores. A person could go broke.

As for typing songs already posted, we have that nice search box in the upper right corner of the screen on many pages. If you put up too many reminders, they just get lost in the clutter. If people request lyrics that are already listed in the database, the rest of us can just post a gentle pointer - but I think it's important to preserve the friendly tone of this group by always remembering to be gentle. Harshness gets amplified in a forum like this, and it can really hurt feelings.
I think it might be better not even to bother posting reminders to those who post lyrics already in the database - unless it gets out of hand. As I said somewhere else, sometimes it might be good (within reason) to post lyrics within a thread that's discussing a song, rather than pointing to the location of the lyrics in the database. Otherwise, we don't all know what we're talking about.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Alice
Date: 23 Sep 97 - 12:06 AM

Joe, I am very aware of the box in the upper right corner, but I think it may need a note next to it saying "look here for lyrics". The little statement "search the Digitrad Database" makes sense to alot of us, but doesn't necessarily translate to everyone as "look here for lyrics". (I know this sounds picky, but it's true.) Anyway, as you say, it is nice to have the lyrics in a thread when we are discussing a song. BTW, I sent a message to your personal page thanking you for the address to the songbook site when you posted it to the looking for lyrics thread. Pricey books, but yet another place for me to find titles to check out of libraries!!

Alice in Montana

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Alice
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 05:12 PM

I am reviving this from back in 1997, since I think it would be helpful to create a list of titles of songbooks that we can recommend to those who visit or reside at (sleep in the corner of) the Mudcat Cafe. People who want the music notation, chords, etc are often referred to a book. Since Mudcat is linked to Amazon.com and B&N.com, the booklist could be used for searching titles and authors.
Anyone care to add a list of their favorite songbooks? I own alot, but I'll start with just a couple titles.

The Folk Songs of North America, by Alan Lomax, Doubleday and Company

Ramblin' Boy and other songs by Tom Paxton, Oak Publications

O'Neill's Music of Ireland, new and revised, Oak Publications

Seventy Scottish Songs, selected and arranged by Helen Hopekirk, Dover Publications

The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem Song Book, Tiparm Music Publishers, Inc, (52 songs)

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 08:14 PM

Rise Up Singing (The Group-Singing Song Book) edited by Peter Blood and Annie Patterson, published by Sing Out Publications, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: JVZ
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 08:24 PM

The Folksinger's Wordbook, Compiled & edited by Fred & Irwin Silber, published by Oak Publications, NYC

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From:
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 10:08 PM

"Folk Songs of the United States" - Calif. State Dept. Education.

This is not really my favorite, and I was going to post this to What did you Learn thread of a couple of weeks ago. But since this is active....

Yesterday I bought this booklet for 50cents in a thrift store. FSUS was used in California elementary schools during the 1950s into the 60s. The material gives insight into the music education of the period, and is more important when one considers music is almost non-existant in Calif. schools today.

Some songs would probably not be in a current book, if such existed owing to current sensibilities [read PC]. For instance "Jacob's Ladder" because of references to Jesus and the cross, and "De Bluetail Fly" because of the use of Negro dialect would certainly be omitted today.

Songs range from "Skip to My Lou" to "New River Train" (both to 11 verses!) to "Buffalo Gals" and 40 odd more. They are complete with staff and autoharp chords (the school instrument of choice, I suppose). Also, songs are credited as to regional origination and source, some sources dating to the 19teens.

I'd say it was four-bits well spent...now if I only could read music and play (autoharp).--John (not jon)

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Alice
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 10:29 PM

For anyone reading this thread and considering a purchase of a book that is listed, the point of this is to encourage support of the MUDCAT!! Order the book through the Mudcat links to Amazon.com or Barnes&Noble.com.

more...
Stephen Foster Song Book, Original sheet music of 40 songs, selected by Richard Jackson, Dover Publications

The Old Time Fiddler's Repertory, University of Missouri Press

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: rich r
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 10:34 PM

Here's some more from Sing Out! Publications:

The Collected Reprints Vols 1-6

The Collected Reprints Vols 7-12

Where Have All The Flowers Gone by Pete Seeger

More:

American Favorite Ballads - Pete Seeger (Oak PUblications)

The Bells of Rhymney And Other Songs - Pete Seeger (Oak Publications)

Folk Songs Out of Wisconsin - Harry Peters (State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

American Songbag by Carl Sandburg (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich)

American Ballads And Folksongs - Lomax and Lomax (Dover)

rich r

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 11:55 PM

Cowboy Songs & other Frontier Ballads by John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax.

First published in 1910, now put out by Macmillan Publishing in a 1986 soft cover version with a new foreword by Alan Lomax.

The other one I can't find now, because it got relocated from the piano bench, but it was red and I think the title is Sing Out, America.

I've made a hobby of buying old school music books and giving them to my sister who is a music teacher, but I've kept a few. When I dig them out, I will post them. They really do show the depth and thinking of the times. Most seem to be more sophisticated in what they expect of children than what I know of now, I think because it was assumed that most children experienced a lot of music in their daily lives, as these are mostly from pre-tv times.

katlaughing

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Night Owl
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 01:31 AM

"Little Boxes and Other Handmade Songs" by Malvina Reynolds;
"The Incompleat Folksinger" by Pete Seeger;
"The Leadbelly Songbook" edited by Moses Asch and Alan Lomax;
"Country Blues Songbook" by Stefan Grossman, Hal Grossman and Stephan Calt..(includes history of the blues);
"Fingerpicking Fiddle Tunes" by Ken Perlman and....
"Guitar Picker's Fakebook" (fiddle tunes). I first got to know guitar with "The Peter Paul and Mary Songbook" published by Pepamar Music Corp...(doesn't seem to have any date on it, but has great chord diagrams for Ukelele and Banjo as well, still use it once in a while.) kat.....I 'rescue' old elementary school songbooks and Hymnals from the dump as well...(can't bear to see them destroyed) They're here......SOMEWHERE!!!!Now that I have this all typed....it occurs to me to ask.....Alice....did you want songbooks that are/may be out of print??????

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Banjer
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 05:59 AM

A lot of the books I have collected up are no longer in print, but most towns have a used book store or two that can be a wonderful source for music books. I found, at a little place here in St. Petersburg called the Attic Bookshop, a wealth of books. One of my favorite is A Treasury of Stephen Foster, Random House, 1946. Another oldie is a soft cover book, Memories of Stephen Foster, an Album of Songs by America's Best Loved Composer, (they thought nothing of using a paragraph for a title back then). I don't know how old it is but it is priced 50 cents net and was published by Edward B. Marks Music Corporation, RCA Building. Radio City, NY. I also quite often refer to the Banjo Players Songbook, Oak Publications. Harry Reeser instruction books for the banjo are also on my COLLECT list.

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Frank in the swamps
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 07:15 AM

The books that are no longer in print are what's a noodgin' my noggin. Does anybody out there know anything about the legality of posting facsimiles of books that are no longer in print? The listing of books that are available is very helpful, but how can we share those odd little treasures some of us may have which are no longer on the market?

I believe most of the books I have are (fairly) easily available, but not all. I'm destined to buy a scanner (fairly) soon 'cuz kinfolk need baby pictures, and I'd be happy to pass along anything that I have that is difficult to find. Given the size and extent of our community, I expect there are a lot of out-of-print books available. Can we share these without turning our April fools joke into an April fools reality?

Frank i.t.s.

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 04:07 PM

Good question Frankits. I've got several which are out of print, too and I have a scanner.

Like you, Night Owl, it's hard for me to pass them by. The one I posted earlier as sing Out America is actually "America Sings" copyright 1935 Robbins Music Corp., also 50 cents net. There's a lot of Dvorak, Foster, patriotic sogns, as well as songs form other cultures. The ad in the back says they are "Robbins pocket-size Song Books" and included: Victory Song Book, Songs for America; Americn Cowboy Songs, Stephen Foster: Immortal memories, and 101 Hymns of the Hour of Charm (which was a radio program)

My oldest, to date, is inscribed by the recipient in 1897 and is the "Music Reader Number One: A Natural Course in Music". Has a lot of elementary theory and copositin as well as songs in it. From American Book Company by Frederic H. Ripley (principal of the Bigelow School in Boston) and Thomas Tapper (instructor in comp. & theory, Amer. College of Musicians) OOOOoooo! I am impressed!

Maybe we should have a separate thread for best loved old and out of print music books?

kat

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Bruce O.
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 05:05 PM

I see precious few books of authentic folksongs as sung by traditional singers listed above. Where are,
Sharp and Karpeles-Appalachian,
Frank Brown-North Carolina collection,
Belden's Missouri collection,
Randolph's Ozark collection,
Eddy's Ohio collection,
Brewster's Indiana collection,
Morris's Alabama collection,
Owen's Texas collection,
Hudson's Mississippi collection
Gardiner and Chickering's Michigan Collection,
Reed Smith's,
Fuson's,
Dorothy Scarborough's,
Evelyn Wells',
Mackenzie's,
Warner's,
Cox's,
Doerflinger's,
and all the New England collections by Barry, Flanders, Greenleaf and Mansfield and Whittier, and the Canadian collections of Creighton, Fowke, Kenneth Peacock, and MacEdward Leach, and others?

All the English ones before 1950 are listed, with all their songs, in Margaret Dean Smith's 'A Guide to English Folk Song Collections'. Subsequent are two books by Fred Hammer, by 2 by O'Shaugnhnessy-Lincolnshire song, several books by Roy Palmer, 4 by Frank Purlsow, and 'Cecil Sharps Collection of English Folksongs' with many texts finally unexpurgated. There are now 7 volumes in 'The Greig-Duncan Folk-Song Collection', plus other books of Scots ballads by the principal editor, Emily Lyle. Ord's Bothy Ballads is another Scottish one.

For Irish we have Sam Henry's Song of the People

and songs collected by Tom Munally in FMJ, and the now defunct 'Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society', whose contents are listed on my website.

[There are still collections made by the WPA in the 1930's that have never been published, and these are mostly deposited in University libraries. There is a published index to the Virgina collection.]

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: lingolucky
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 05:14 PM

the best songbook i have was privately printed. i got it from the author. it's titled 'folk songs and almost folk songs, collected, edited and transcribed by lynnval m. smith, copywright 1985. I've been out of touch with smith for more than 10 years, but i frequently use his book. it has words, and guitar chords, lots of words, and melody line for more than 200 familiar song0 . i would be appreciative if anyon can put me in touch with him. lane goldsmith lingolucky

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From:
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 11:06 PM

Responding to the complaint of the dearth of listing of books of "authentic folk songs", I submit a few more:

Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman by William Main Doerflinger (1972 Macmillan Company, originally published in 1951 under the title "Shanteymen and Shantyboys")

Songs and Ballads of the Maine Lumberjacks with Other Songs from Maine by Roland Palmer Gray (1925, Harvard University Press)

Lore of the Lumber Camp by Earl Clifton Beck (1948, Univ of Michigan Press)

They Knew Paul Bunyan by Earl Clifton Beck (1959, Univ of MIchigan Press)

BAllads and Songs of the Shanty-Boy by Franz Rickaby (1926, Harvard Univ. Press)

Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia by Helen Creighton (1966 Dover Publications, originally published 1932, J M Dent & Sons Ltd. )

Singing Our History: Canada's Story In Song by Edith Fowke and Alan Mills (1984 Doubleday Canada)

Ancient Ballads Traditionally Sung in New England, Correlated with the Numbered Francis James Child Collection. Volume I. Ballads 1-51. by Helen Hartness Flanders (1960, Univ. Pennsylvania Press)

Folk Songs of Old New England by Eloise Hubbard Linscott (1993 Dover reprint of 1962 second edition. First edition 1939 Macmillan Comapny)

American Labor Songs of the Nineteenth Century by Philip S. Foner (1975 Univ of Illiniois Press)

Songs of the Cowboys by N Howard (Jack) Thorp (1984 Univ Nebraska Press reprint of 1921 edition.)

Songs of the Cowboys by N Howard (Jack) Thorp. (1966 Bramhall House. Reprint of 1908 edition News Print Shop, Estancia, New Mexico with "Variants, Copmmentary, Notes and Lexicon by Austin E, and Alta S. Fife).

The Kingston Trio Vocal Album No. 2. (1959 Highridge Music Inc.)

Gotta go now

rich r

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 01:15 AM

Better include the bawdy song collections from the great Ozark collector, Vance Randolph, edited by Gershon Legman: Roll Me in Your Arms and Blow the Candles Out, published by the University of Arkansas Press. My copies are on the other side of the house, but I think that's the right publisher.

While we're on the subject of bawdy material, remember Ed Cray's The Erotic Muse (is that the right title?). Also, I just saw Logsdon's The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing, and Other Songs the Cowboys Sang remaindered and available from Hamilton Bookseller in Falls Village, CT. He has a web site you can reach with a simple search. The same catalog has several of Jerry Silverman's books from Mel Bay Publications offered at less than half price. For folks who just want to sit around and sing good songs, and to heck with the academics, Silverman once did a two-volume collection that was titled Folksong Encyclopedia, or words to that effect, but I don't know the publisher. (Dammit, I'd better move this computer up to the library!)

The Abelard Songbook, by Norman Cazden, has some fine songs for folks to learn. And we'd be remiss if we failed to mention Ruth Crawford Seeger's excellent collections of songs for children. What are the titles? American Songs for Children? Animal Songs for Children? Christmas Songs for Children? I'm just not sure. But maybe these will lead you on to further study.

Sandy

(with editing by Joe Offer)

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 01:28 AM

Don't know what happened to the start of that last paragraph! It was supposed to read: "The Abelard Songbook, by Norman Cazden..." etc. Wish I had Joe Offer's editing cookie so I could remove that wayward "k" in the word "half." I'm the world's worst proofreader! Too impatient, I guess. By the way, here's a quick way to get to Mel Bay Publications Songbook list. Hope I manage to do this right!

Sandy

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 02:39 AM

Doggone it! Another correction I overlooked! The author of The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing is LOGSDON. You'll have to supply the missing "s" in the above e-missive. Also, I just checked the Hamilton Book web page for both Logsdon and Silverman and came up empty. Both are listed in their newest printed catalog (mine just came today), so you might want to go to the bottom of their web page and click on "get catalog," or whatever. Here's their web page index: Hamilton, Bookseller. If this doesn't work, it's not Joe Offer's fault, it's mine.

Sandy

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Banjer
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 04:43 AM

Scanner available here also. Somebody explore the ins and outs of legality. If one scans to a hard drive is that really reproducing? Then later if one transmits to another computer, that too would not really be reproducing. Hmm... Let us know, show us a sign and the oldies but goodies can be shared. If not for profit nor commercial use, would that be OK??

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 04:43 AM

I guess most of my favorites got listed - Doerflinger, the five Lomax books, Sandburg's American Songbag, Folksinger's Word Book, Jerry Silverman's Folk Song Encyclopedia (still in print), Sam Henry, Warner's Traditional American Folk Songs. Oh, here's one that didn't make the list: Hard Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People,, by Lomax, Guthrie, and Seeger (Oak Publications, 1967) - lots of the activist songs from the first half of this century.

If you have a lot of songbooks, finding a particular song can be a problem. I started making a database of all the songs in all my songbooks, but the job got very tedious, very fast. Then I discovered the UTK Song Index, the index of the vast songbook collection of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. I found out UTK had already indexed most of the songbooks in my collection. To expand that collection, I use http://www.bookfinder.com/, which searches several Internet used book stores.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 01:22 PM

Joe, m'lad, you are an angel! Saved this old duffer from total humiliation! I was terribly foggy last night, after being nailed to the Macintosh for several days, trying to get the graphics done for some new CD releases. Couldn't see straight, much less think.

Has anyone mentioned Austin Fife's collections of Western songs or Glenn Ohrlin's Hell-bound Train? Katie Lee also did a fun book of Western material called Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle.

Sandy

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 05:50 PM

Whoa, there, Betsy! How could we have failed to mention that excellent collection of English, Irish and Scottish songs and ballads put together by Mudcat's own Dan Milner, AKA "Liam's Brother?" The Bonnie Bunch of Roses, 150 songs, with musical notation and suggested guitar chords. Good versions, too!

And, guess what! It's available from Folk-Legacy, no less. Soon you'll be able to get it through the Mudcat, too, and repay Max for that awful April Fool's post!

Bet you're all surprised.

Sandy

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 04:30 PM

At the risk of incurring the wrath of the Folk Police, I wonder if somebody could recommend a good book of 60's "folk" songs I could start searching for. You know, songs like "Time" from the Pozo Seco Singers, that somebody requested in another thread, and stuff by all those pop folk groups like the Highwaymen and Brothers Four and Chad Mitchell Trio and New Christy Minstrels and others that make Bill D squirm. I've got to get some songs ready for my next trip to Washington, ya know....
-Joe Offer-

Hey, you think Bill would let me get away with singing "Up With People"???

Up, up with people,
You meet 'em wherever you go
Up, up with people,
They're the best kind of folks we know
If more people were for people
For people everywhere
There'd be a lot less people to worry about
And a lot more people who care.

I can't believe I used to sing that song with gusto....

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Alice
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 04:41 PM

re: the question about out of print books, Joe posted the link to bookfinder.com. Don't forget inter-library loans. The point of this thread topic was to develop a page at the Mudcat (like the list of links) that would provide a list of titles and authors as a resource for those who are looking for song/tune books.

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: MMario
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 04:45 PM

Having just been through this with some textbooks that are out of print...

If the document/book is out of print but copyright is still in force then YES, it is illegal to scan or otherwise reproduce other then for purpose of quoting or other "fair use" purposes (I THINK that's the term - it's very limited)

However, if the document/book has entered public domain, then all bets are off.

MMario

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Susan of DT
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 10:18 PM

If you are scanning songs from books, send or post them to us for inclusion in the Digital Tradition.

Are we looking for a few favorite books to sing from or an exhaustive bibliography?

I have a file of all my music book as of a while ago, that I can post if there is interest. I could make one alphabetical list of these postings, if people want.
The most awesome collections I have seen belong to Sandy Paton and Lani Hermann. Lani's are on disk somewhere. SANDY - Am I wrong in assuming yours are not cataloged on a computer?
Some of my favorites for singing from are:
The Copper Family Song Book - A Living Tradition
Norman Buchan and Peter Hall, The Scottish Folksinger

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 10:41 PM

Susan, I'd love to see your list of songbooks. Why not post it here, along with comments about the ones you like best? I'm always looking for songbooks to add to my collection. The database is wonderful, but I love my library of books and I'd love to see suggestions for additions.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Big Mick
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 10:50 PM

Boy, Sandy, I was about to raise hell like only the old Big Mick can if someone hadn't put Danny's book in. ****grin****.

Also, we should include The Little Red Songbooks from the IWW in the listing. I will also post a list of more Irish in a day or so.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 10:55 PM

I've been looking for a "Little Red Songbook" for quite a while. Anybody got one they'd like to sell and a non-capitalistic price? Click on my name to send me e-mail
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 11:01 PM

Years ago, during slow times, we had a secretary who made a card file of the books, but it was long before we became acquainted with the new age of technology, and it was aoon obsolete. We can no longer afford a secretary, since we have to hire someone now to do the shipping that I used to do. Anyway, Susan, you're right, our library is not catalogued on computer (or on anything else that's up to date). I'd like to do it, but, as you probably remember, my computer is on this side of the place, and the library is on the other. Now, if I had a laptop... Ah, well, maybe I'll recruit another volunteer to aid the old geezer here.

Back on topic: didn't Peter, Paul and Mary put out a songbook, as Judy Collins and Joan Baez certainly did? I'll run a check on the used book shop sites and Amazon, if Joe Offer doesn't beat me to it.

Add to Hard-Hitting Songs (above), Edith Fowke and Joe Glaser's Songs of Work and Freedom and Guy Carawan's Ain't You Got a Right to the Tree of Life. And I'll probably want to add a few more after I check proper titles, etc.

Sandy

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 11:18 PM

Joe: Go to this web site. You can order the Little Red Song Book from them, and put the money to good use, to boot. IWW SONGBOOK There's another Canadian IWW web site that I can't find right now that offers the new Canadian IWW songbook, which includes a couple of songs by a well-known Mudcatteer from Toronto.

Sandy

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Mark Roffe
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 11:44 PM

One of these is old, and the other's even older, but I just checked www.bookfinder.com and found them both available and reasonably priced: 1) Very highly recommended "Journey to Freedom," L.G. Dowdey, Chicago, Swallow Press, 1969 - lyrics, chords, and poetry from ML King, Gandhi, Guthrie, Farina, Malvina Reynolds, Seeger, Che, Tennessee Williams, and lots of others!! 2) Kinda fun "Read 'em and Weep (The Songs You Forgot to Remember)," Sigmund Spaeth, New York, Halcyon House, 1926/1939 - turn of the century Americana.

Mark

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Alice
Date: 06 Apr 99 - 12:17 AM

A note on public domain: The Dover Publication books are clipart and music that is copyright free. The "Seventy Scottish Songs" for example, has this notice in the first pages:
DOVER MUSICAL ARCHIVES
All the selections in this volume are in the public domain in the United States. They may be used in these original versions or may be adapted or modified and used for any purpose, private public, educational, or commercial. No permission, fee or royalty payment is required. The above does not apply in countries outside of the United States where copyright protection may exist.

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 06 Apr 99 - 12:33 AM

Add Spaeth's Weep Some More My Lady to the above, a sort of a sequel. Right now I'm headed for the Bookfinder! Thanks.

Sandy

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 06 Apr 99 - 12:46 AM

Check this one out, if you want P P & M material: Peter, Paul and Mary Songbooks

Sandy (gettin' smarter with this internet stuff!)

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 06 Apr 99 - 11:18 PM

Mark: Thanks for the lead. I found a copy of Journey to Freedom through Bibliofind.com and just had the order confirmed.

How could we have failed to mention (or have I simply overlooked it in the earlier postings) Bertrand Bronson's The Singing Tradition of Child's Popular Ballads? The original four volumes may cost an arm and a leg these days (ask Bruce O.), but this paper bound one-volume condensation should be affordable, if one could find a copy. Princeton press, I think.

Karl Dallas published two good collections through Wolfe Publishing, Ltd., in London: The Cruel Wars, 100 Soldiers' Songs from Agincourt to Ulster and One Hundred Songs of Toil, 450 Years of Workers' Songs, with words, tunes, and suggested guitar chords. The first one included a version of "That Bloody War" that I collected in Tennessee from Abe Trivett. (page 172).

Sandy

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Bruce O.
Date: 06 Apr 99 - 11:51 PM

I would like to find a copy of Bronson's 'The Singing Tradition of the Child Ballads', too, because his melodic indexing system is described in the Introduction there. (The system used in Huntington and Herrmann's 'Sam Henry's Songs of the People', and the only system I've seen that I like, from what litle I know of it). However, I've never seen a copy for sale.

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Mark Roffe
Date: 07 Apr 99 - 03:10 AM

Sandy, I dogged your footsteps and checked bibliofind.com for "Journey to Freedom." That's a good site - there were two copies listed (bookfinder.com only listed one copy). Looks like the book's not easy to find - I'll bet the 1st edition was the whole output...unlike "Read 'em and Weep," which apparently had at least three editions (and dozens of copies are listed at bibliofind). I know you'll enjoy "Journey to Freedom"

Mark

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 07 Apr 99 - 01:16 PM

If someone wants a truly thorough folksong bibliography, take a look at the superb one compiled by Joe Hickerson (recently retired from the Archive of Folk Culture) and included as a fat appendix to Duncan Emrich's American Folk Poetry. Your library ought to have the book.

Sandy

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Jan 00 - 05:31 AM

I just came across a new trade paperback reprint of Hard Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People, which is available at the usual booksellers. Click here for a list of the songs in this terrific book.

Another thing I just found is the selection of music books from the University of Illinois Press (click here). Note all the great books they have in the Music in American Life series. I think I want one of each. Norm Cohen's Long Steel Rail was part of that series, but apparently it's no longer in print. Darn.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: songbook bibliography
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 22 Jan 00 - 02:23 AM

Five-volume set of "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads" edited by Francis James Child, publisher Dover Publications. Bibliofind.com lists this set at $11.50 apiece through Powell's Books (Portland, Oregon).

Subject: old song books
From: GUEST,vickie Baker
Date: 30 Jun 09 - 03:18 PM

I have 6 old song books dating back to the 1800's.
"Temperance and Gospel Songs by J. E. White, 1880
Spirit and Life no. 2 by .S. Lorenz, 1895
Gospel Hymns published by The John CHurch Co. & Biblow & Manin, 1883
The Chorus of Praise by Eaton & Mains, 1898
Sunday School Melodies byI. H. Meredith, 1914
Pious Songs by Baltimore: Armstrone & Berry, 1836

Do these books have any value? Please if you know the value and the cost of these books e-mail me at " [e-mail] "
Thanks
William& Vickie Baker