Songbooks: Basic Folk Library PermaThread

Subject: Basic Folk Library PermaThread™
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Jul 01 - 04:52 PM

Note: this is a PermaThread™, a permanent reference on folk music books controlled by IanC and maintained by Joe Offer. Feel free to post messages below, but be aware that all messages posted in this thread are subject to editing and deletion.
Thanks to Ian and to John in Kansas for their hard work in assembling this information. Ian's Website is here (click)
-Joe Offer-

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A Basic Folk Library

This is a collated list of books suggested in the Mudcat PermaThread of the same name (see below), correct to the thread post of 5 October 2003 at 11:03 AM EDT. Most of the books will be out of print and only available at secondhand or specialist booksellers.
Any suggestions, additions, etc. via Personal Message (click) or the relevant Mudcat thread, please. Or you could e-mail me here -> ***Ian***

GENERAL BOOKS - Songs and Tunes, Research

COUNTRIES - Australia, Canada, England, Germany, Hawai'i, Ireland, Man, Scotland, USA, Wales, etc.

DANCE - Morris, Social Dance, Sword Dancing etc.

GENRES - Bawdy, Black, Blues, Country, Cowboy,Drinking, Humour, Hymns, Military, Mormon, Shanties+Worksongs, Spirituals, Yiddish etc.

PEOPLE - Individuals, Families and Groups from Joan Baez to Cyril Tawney

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS - Appalachian Dulcimer, Banjo, Concertina, Fiddle, Guitar, Mandolin, Melodeon, Tin Whistle etc.

SUBJECTS - Carols+Christmas,Folklore,Folk Tales,Gypsy Tradition,Historical Events,Individual Songs,Mining,Murder,Nursery Rhymes,Pirates,Poetry,Railroad etc.

ONLINE RESOURCES - Links to Online Resources

Last Updated : 02-08-02 [last Post : 08-Jun-02]

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Since this is getting to be a rather large piece of work, perhaps it would be appropriate to remind people that you can "search current page" in most web browsers.

In IE5, at least, you don't want the "Search" button on the bar at the top. This will try to search the entire www (the web, not the wobblies).

Click the "Edit" tag at the top of the screen, and select "Find (On this Page)" on the drop-down.
An alternate method is just to key "Ctrl-F", which is the standard mickeysoft shortcut to "Edit-Find.

JohnInKansas

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By the way, I will include all suggestions for books which are individually recommended by people here. Pointers to other sites may be useful, but I reserve the right to decide whether I link to them or not (I will if they are generally good). I'm not about to copy whole chunks of HTML from elsewhere, though.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Cheers!
Ian

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Also see:
Songbooks Threads

School Songbooks Threads

Subject: Folk Library - Introduction
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Jul 01 - 04:53 PM

Where to Look for Books

AbeBooks - Book Search Engine.
Brings up links to finds as in standard web searches. AbeBooks represents thousands of used book dealers worldwide and is a good source for folk books.

addall.com - Book Search Engine, currently searches 40 plus bookshops.
Brings up a comparison of the price in various shops, including carriage. Also has a good Used Books search.

Alibris - Major Book Search Engine.
Alibris has become one of the major book search sites, worldwide. Now listing over 36 million books.

BiblioFind - Amazon's Rare and Used Books Search.
Suggested by multiple postings on Mudcat. BiblioFind Amazon's Rare and Used Books finder.

BookFinder - Worldwide Book Search Engine.
A nice site, particularly good for used books. It even lists books in the Oxfam bookshops!

The Country Bookshop Plainfield, Vermont
Not a link, this one, but JohnInKansas recommends it. Specializes in used folksong and folklore books.

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Recently Added - Unsorted (as yet) Books

ASHMAN, GORDON "The Ironbridge Hornpipe" (??, 19??)
THE IRONBRIDGE HORNPIPE A Shropshire tune collection from John Moore's manuscripts edited by Gordon Ashman. Contents: Astley's hornpipe, Auld lang syne, The bateuse, The bath waltz, The Birmingham March, Blue bells of Schotland, The blue stocking, Broom on the crowdeknows, Buy a broom, Calder fairs, Captain white, Castle rag hornpipe, Chetsworth house dance, The Chine orange hornpipe, Colledge hornpipe, Cook's hornpipe, The Copenhagen waltz, The cuckoo solo, Dance (No title, tink a tink), Dance, The Dandy O, The dashing white seargant, Daughter of Israel, Denis Bullyruddery, The devil's dream, Downfall of Paris, Drops a brandy, Drunken parson, Duke of Glocester's new march, Duke of Wellington march, The duke of York's march, Dumble durn deary, Dutch ship, The dusty miller, and many others.

MERRYWEATHER, JAMES and SEATTLE, MAX "Lawrence Leadley, the Fiddler of Helperby" (Dragonfly Music, 1994)
Subtitle: The life and music of a Yorkshire fiddler. This is an excerpt of 10 tunes from the book, which the authors / publishers have given their permission to make public here on the 'net. They were typed up by Warren Armstrong, whose brainchild this project is; thanks to him, and to James & Matt, for making it possible. The "Web version" only shows the 10 tunes that are present; but the abc file includes "dummy" entries for all the others as well, containing all the header info, title, key, time signature, etc, but no "dots" - if you want to get those you have to buy them, I'm afraid. Follow this link for the publisher's contact details.

RITCHIE, JEAN (ed) "The Newport Folk Festival Songbook" (New York, Alfred Music, 1965)
57 songs by 57 artists, with a foreword by Pete Seeger and photographs by David Gahr. The contents list appears in the Mudcat posthere. Jean Ritchie writes "I was a Newport Folk Festival trustee during most of its run, and in the early sixties, I was asked by Alfred Music Publishing to do this book for them. Other Newport trustees agreed. I asked each performer who'd been a festival participant up to that time, to choose a favorite song that he/she had sung at the Festival. Each of them provided a photograph and a bio, or wrote about his/her life in letters to me (I still have the originals). The book had a short life, as it took the publishers a long time to issue it, had meantime moved their offices to California and the people interested in the Newport Festival had gone. That's life! I'm sure there were very few sold; I have only two of them in my library."

ROONEY, JAMES "Bossmen : Bill Monroe and Muddy Waters" (Da Capo Press, 1991) )
I am currently re-reading "Bossmen" by James Rooney. It is about Bill Monroe & Muddy Waters. Most of the book is interviews with Bill & Muddy. It is a very interesting read, they both discuss their influences, how they developed their own particular style of music, the people who came through their bands etc. It's a neat book. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned a lot. ISBN: 0306804271. Amazon reviews here and another review here..

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Recently Added - Links

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Latest Changes - 02-08-2002

27-09-01 Added New Subsection - PEOPLE / Francis O'Neill
08-03-02 Minor additions since last year
15-03-02 Added Internal Subsection Anchors and an Index for each Section
03-05-02 Added new Subsection INSTRUMENTS / Banjo (Tenor)
03-05-02 Added books and links from recent Mudcat thread "English Fiddle Tunes"
03-05-02 Added books and links from recent Mudcat thread "Favourite Books"
30-05-02 Added new Subsection PEOPLE / Albert E. Brumley
02-08-02 Major changes to Subsection GENRES / Spirituals

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Last Updated : 05-10-2003 16:30 [Last Post 5 October 2003 - 11:03 AM EDT]

Subject: Folk Library - General
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Jul 01 - 04:54 PM

A Basic Folk Library - General Books

Songs and Tunes
Research

General - Songs and Tunes

"The Collected Reprints from Sing Out!"
Volumes 1-6, 1959-1964 and Volumes 7-12, 1964-1973. From Sing Out! Publications

BLOOD, PETER and PATTERSON, ANNIE "Rise Up Singing" (Sing Out! Publications, 19??)
Lyrics only for a variety of more than 1,200 great songs --- pop, hymns, gospel, rounds, sea shanties, folk songs, blues. Sing Out! Publications Page here.

BONI, MARGARET BRADFORD "The Fireside Book of Folk Songs" (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1947)
Folk songs from many (mostly Western) nations, selected and compiled by MBB. Out of print.

CHAPPELL, WILLIAM "Popular Music of the Olden Time" (2 vols) (London, 1855-8)
Subtitled: A Collection of ancient songs, ballads and dance tunes, illustrative of the National Music of England. With short introductions to the different reigns, and notices of the airs from writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Also a short account of the minstrels.
Reprinted 1965 by Dover Publications (New York) as "The Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time" (2 vols) with a new introduction by Frederick Sternfeld.

CHILD, FRANCIS JAMES (ed.) "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads" (Houghton Mifflin, 1882 to 1898, Dover, 1965)
Regarded by many as the definitive work on traditional ballads. Good review here. There is a list of the "Child Ballads" with many of them online at Lesley's Contemplator site and a Concordance here. There's also an article on "Early Child Ballads" here.
Reprinted (hard-cover) by Cooper Square, 1962.
About to be reprinted, with corrections, by Loomis House Press September 2001. Announcement here.

COHEN, JOHN and SEEGER, MIKE "The New Lost City Ramblers Song Book" (Oak Publications, 1964)
Full of old string band standards from the twenties through the forties. Most, if not all, have been recorded at one time or another by the New Lost City Ramblers.
Reprinted by Music Sales Corp, 1997. as "The Old-Time String Band Song book". ISBN: 0825601797

FRANK, LYNN "Songs for Swingin' Housemothers" (San Francisco CA, Fearon Publishers, 1963)
This is a great resource if you can find a used copy, but it's long out of print. It's a collection of a lot of strange songs (folk and otherwise) designed for college sing-a-longs.

GOTTLIEB, ROBERT and KIMBALL, ROBERT "Reading Lyrics" (Pantheon Books, 2000)
Well, I suppose it isn't folk, but I think it's appropriate for folk musicians to know the songs of Tin Pan Alley. I just came across this book. The dust jacket blurb says the book has "more than a thousand of the finest lyrics from 1900 to 1975. A celebration of our greatest songwriters, a rediscovery of forgotten masters, and an appreciation of an extraordinary, popular art form." The lyrics appear to be strictly from American songwriters, the so-called "standards." I don't see any folk or blues, or rock 'n' roll. There are songs I love to sing. I know the tunes, but the lyrics help my fading memory. I'm sure I'll spend hours singing my way through this gem of a book. "Reading Lyrics" doesn't have photos and has only biographical information about the songwriters - but the selection of songs is terrific.

KIDSON, FRANK "Traditional Tunes: A Collection of Ballad Airs" (Oxford, Chas. Taphouse & Sons, 1891)
83 English folk Songs from Yorkshire and South Scotland.
Reprinted 1970 by Scolar Press (Menston, Yorkshire, UK) with a new foreword by A.E. Green.
Also availble in an appendix to the reprint of William Chappell's "Old English Popular Music" (New York: Jack Brussel, 1961).

KINSLEY, JAMES (ed) "The New Oxford Book of Ballads" (Oxford University Press, 1969)
This edition by Kinsley is often regarded as a better source than the Quiller-Couch version below.

LANG, ANDREW "A Collection of Ballads" (London, Chapman and Hall, 1910)
Poetry collection of popular ballads presented by novelist and poet Andrew Lang. Available as a Project Gutenberg e-text here, or (slightly better formatted) here.

LAWRENCE, VERA BRODSKY "Music for Patriots, Politicians and Presidents" (New York, MacMillan, 1975)
Music for Patriots, Politicians, and Presidents: Harmonies and Discords of the First Hundred Years.

LEACH MacEDWARD (ed) "The Ballad Book" New York, A. S. Barnes & Co, 1955
A great source for ballad lyrics.
Reprinted in 1977 by Oak Tree Publications.

QUILLER-COUCH, ARTHUR (ed) "The Oxford Book of Ballads" (Oxford, Clarendon, 1910)
These 176 selections by the master anthologist exhibit such lyrics familiar to this day as "I Saw Three Ships" and long epical ballads like the 3334-line Robin Hood Ballads. The 1969 edition by Kinsley (above) is, however, regarded as a better source.
AVAILABLE ONLINE (* may not display correctly in some versions of Netscape *) New York, Bartleby.Com, 2001.

SILVERMAN, JERRY "Folk Song Encyclopedia" (2 vols) (Mel Bay, 19??)
Contents - Vol 1, Vol 2.

SIMPSON, CLAUDE M. "The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music" (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1966)
For tunes.

SPAETH, SIGMUND "Read 'Em and Weep" (New York, Halcyon House, 1926 & 1945)
SPAETH, SIGMUND "Weep Some More, My Lady" (New York, Halcyon House, 1927)
Very interesting and entertaining studies of the old, sappy classics. Spaeth (1885-1965) also wrote an handy book called "Barber Shop Ballads and How to Sing Them", and a number of other books on old popular music and on classical music.

WRIGHT, F. E. "Songs That Never Grow Old" (New York, Syndicate Publishing, 1909)
This is a nice collection of familiar songs. There are some interesting photos of singers in the first several pages. Not an "essential" book, but it's nice.

General - Research

A good online bibliography for ballads is The Traditional Ballad Index. Bruce Olson's site here is also invaluable.

BOYES, GEORGINA "The Imagined Village" (Univ. Manchester Press, 1993)
The subtitle for Georgina Boyes's excellent study, "Culture, Ideology, and the English Folk Revival", may lead readers to think that names such as Martin Carthy, Ashley Hutchings, or June Tabor will figure heavily in her book. They do not. For the most part, the book is about not what we think of today as the "revival," but the original revival, dating to about the turn of the century, during which such crucial concepts as "folklore," "folksong" and "the folk" first came to be tested. It is a fascinating and detailed look at the very origins of the idea of English folk culture, doled out with large portions of scholarly gravity and a small side of biting wit.

BRONSON, BERTRAND HARRIS "The Singing Tradition of Child's Popular Ballads" (Princeton University Press, 1976)
An abridged one-volume collection of the "The Traditional Tunes ..." below.

BRONSON, BERTRAND HARRIS "The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads" (4 vols) (Princeton University Press , 1959 to 1972)
The Bertrand Bronson volumes of the Child ballads are essential to a folksong library, but they are painfully expensive these days.

BRUNNINGS, FLORENCE E. "Folk Song Index" (New York, Garland, 1981)
Subtitled "A Comprehensive Guide to the Florence E. Brunnings Collection". A labor of love indexing a personal collection of more than 49,000 songs in books and magazines and on recordings. Indexed by title, variant title, and tune.

COHEN, NORM "Traditional Anglo-American Folk Music" (New York, Garland, 1994)
Subtitled "An Annotated Discography of Published Recordings". A reference source for finding recordings (mostly LPs, with some cassettes and CDs) of British and American traditional music. The first two sections are primarily noncommercial field recordings (artists and groups, anthologies) the third and fourth sections are primarily commercial 78-rpm recordings. Includes album title, artist, producer/editor, where/when recorded, publication date, nature and author of annotations, and the selections included on the recording, followed by a summary of the album's contents, context, the background of the performers, unusual songs or tunes, musical styles, etc.

FOWLER, DAVID "A Literary History of the Popular Ballad" (Duke University Press, 1968)
Provides "...a chronology of ballad origin in development, and a description of the evolution of ballad style from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries in England and Scotland".

FULD, JAMES J. "The Book of World Famous Music: Classical, Popular and Folk" (New York, Crown, 1966)
This is not a songbook, and properly not even a folk music book (the subhead is "Classical, Popular, and Folk"). It is, however, a useful and portable reference for copyright and first appearance information. Good review here and another one here. Currently in its 5th Edition (New York, Dover, 1999).

HARKER, DAVE "Fakesong" (Milton Keynes, Open University Press, 1985)
Subtitled "the manufacture of British 'folksong' 1700 to the present day".

HART, MARY L. et al "The Blues: A Bibliographic Guide" (New York, Garland, 1989)
By Mary L. Hart, Brenda M. Eagles, and Lisa N. Howorth. An exhaustive compilation of blues-related citations including such subjects as blues and society, blues instruction and blues research. Contains author and title indexes.

HENDRICKSON, ROBERT "Mountain Range:A Dictionary of Expressions from Appalachia to the Ozarks" (Checkmark, 1997)
Here's one which has proven useful at times. Mebbee this'n ain't sumpin' ya holt with tho, but it's morrin a mite fair...........It's pretty good really!!! Review here.

HICKERSON, JOE "The Archive of Folk Song: A Bibliography" (Washington D.C., Library of Congress, 1988)
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.

HUSTVEDT, SIGURD, BERNHARD "Ballad Books and Ballad Men" (Harvard Univ. Press, 1930)
Subtitled "Raids and Rescues in Britain, America, and the Scandinavian North Since 1800". This is a sequel to the author's Ballad criticism in Scandinavia and Great Britain during the eighteenth century, published in 1916. It contains a great deal of detailed information about the editors of important ballad collections, especially Child. Appendices include The Grundtvig Child correspondence (from the Danish Folklore Collection, Royal Library, Copenhagen, and the Child Memorial Library, Harvard University) and The Grundtvig-Child index of English and Scottish ballads.
Reprinted, 1970, by Johnson Reprint Corp., New York

LEACH, MacEDWARD and COFFIN, TRISTRAM P. (eds) "The Critics and the Ballad" (Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 1961)
Essays on the ballad.

MILLER, TERRY E. "Folk Music in America: A Reference Guide" (New York, Garland, 1986)
1927 annotated entries, encompassing bibliographies and discographies as well as monographs and articles. Primarily valuable as a guide to research in "Anglo-American" folk musics (folksongs, instrumental music, hymns), although the selection and annotations are useful throughout. Miller's chapter introductions also serve as lucid overviews of the research trends in the various kinds of American folk music.

PORTER, JAMES "The Traditional Music of Britain and Ireland: A Research and Information Guide" (New York, Garland, 1989)
An extensive bibliography, the subject of which is traditional music rather than song as such.

RICHMOND, W. EDSON "Ballad Scholarship: An Annotated Bibliography" (New York, Garland, 1989)
An impressive, annotated guide to international ballad research.

ROSENBERG, NEIL (ed) "Transforming Tradition: Folk Music Revivals Examined" (Univ. Illinois Press, 1993)
The book provides a great range of ways to think about revivalism, and it is an excellent historical study of folk music from the 1950s and 60s. Amazon Review here.

Last Updated : 14-03-02 18:00

Subject: Folk Library - Countries
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Jul 01 - 04:55 PM

A Basic Folk Library - Countries

Australia
Canada
England
Germany
Hawai'i
Ireland
Man
Scotland
USA
USA (Regions)
USA / UK / Ireland
Wales
Wales / Scotland / Ireland / England

Countries - Australia

NOTE: A bibliography of Australian Folk Songs here.

EDWARDS, RON "The Big Book of Australian Folk Song" (Rigby, 1976)
Ron also published "Great Australian Folk Songs" through Ure Smith Press in 1991. It is shown in the colophon as "First published by Rigby, 1976." and appears to be the same book. Details for this are: Edwards, Ron; "Great Australian Folk Songs;" Ure Smith Press, 1991. Copyright R. G. Edwards 1976. ISBN 0 7254 0861 8; 507 pages, including 92 pages of indices etc; Words, music, collection dates and sources. Review here.

SCOTT, BILL "The Complete Book of Australian Folk Lore" (Sydney, Ure Smith, 1976)
Compiled and annotated by Bill Scott. Illustrated with plates and with musical examples.

Countries - Canada

BARBEAU, MARIUS "Jongleur Songs of Old Quebec" (Rutgers, The State University, 1962)
A good collection of jongleur and voyageur songs recorded by the author between 1916 and 1925 along the St. Lawrence. Melodies, French texts and singable English translations plus full commentaries and bibliography.

FOWKE, EDITH "Folksongs of Quebec" (2 vols) (?Waterloo Music, 19??)
The book has excellent notes, combs backs so it lies flat, and is available from Empire Music in Vancouver over the net

FOWKE, EDITH "Traditional Singers and Songs from Ontario" (???, 19??)

FOWKE, EDITH and JOHNSON, RICHARD "Folksongs of Canada" (2 vols) (Waterloo Music, 1975)
These books have excellent notes, comb backs so they lie flat, and are available from Empire Music in Vancouver over the net

FOWKE, EDITH "Folklore of Canada" (M & S Pub., 1976)
Contains many songs as well as the folklore. 349 pp. The 1990 reprint is subtitled "Tall Tales, Stories, Rhymes and Jokes from Every Corner of Canada".

IVES, EDWARD D. ("SANDY") "Drive Dull Care Away: Folksongs From Prince Edward Island" (Inst. Island Studies, 1999)
If you are at all curious about the field work of a folklorist this book is for you. In the book you meet the men and women in whose heads the songs were preserved. These people were anxious to help, knowing the importance of the work and happy to find someone who was interested in them and their songs. The book also includes a number of photographs of the contributors and the area in which they live, the words and music to 62 songs and a CD of the original field recording of 14 of those songs. Reviewed in a Mudcat thread by Maemanson here.

IVES, EDWARD D. ("SANDY") "Folksongs of New Brunswick" (Fredericton, Goose Lane Edition, 1989)
Sandy Ives' song collection from New Brunswick."

PEACOCK, KENNETH "Songs of the Newfoundland Outports" (Nat. Mus. Canada, 1965)
Published by the National Museum of Canada as "Bull. 197", 3 volumes, 1035 pp. Indispensable not only for Canada, but for songs brought over from UK.

Countries - England

BELL, ROBERT (ed) "Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England" (London, Parker, 1857)
Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England, Taken Down From Oral Recitation and Transcribed From Private Manuscripts, Rare Broadsides and Scarce Publications. A revision, with additions, by Bell of Dixon’s volume of the same title. Project Gutenberg e-text is here and another version (better formatted) here.

BRUCE, J. COLLINGWOON and STOKOE, JOHN (eds) "Northumbrian Minstrelsy" (Newcastle, Soc. Antiquaries, 1882)
A Collection of the Ballads, Melodies, and Small-Pipe Tunes of Northumbria. One of the great early collections of regional song, even though both tunes and words have been subjected to editing, and the provenance of some of the songs is not immediately evident.
Reprinted by Llanerch Press, 19??. ISBN 1 86143 039 6

D'URFEY, THOMAS "Wit and Mirth: or, Pills to Purge Melancholy" (6 vols) (London, Playford, 1698-1720)
Thomas D'Urfey, 1653-1723, English song writer and dramatist. His comedies for the stage were forerunners of the ballad opera. In 1699-1700 Wit and Mirth; or, Pills to Purge Melancholy, which included his own witty, satirical songs and many older tunes adapted to new lyrics, played in London. This was a major source for ballad operas, including the tunes of John Gay's Beggar's Opera.

JONES, LEWIS (ed) "Sweet Sussex: Folk songs from the Broadwood collections" (Sutton Coldfield, Ferret Publications, 1995)
Folk songs from the Broadwood collections, both words and music, "... faithfully written down exactly as they were sung by country people in the Weald of Sussex". (ISBN 0 9526363 0 1)

KARPELES, MAUD (ed) "The Crystal Spring : English Folk Songs Collected by Cecil Sharp" (Oxford Univ. Press, 1975)
A collection of 143 of the English songs collected by Cecil J. Sharp. The melodies are supplemented with Pat Shaw's chords for guitar or piano accompaniment. A welcome updationg of good traditional material. The paperback version was issued in 1987.

KNOWLES, JAMIE (ed) "A Northern Lass: Traditional Dance Music of North-West England" ()
A particular favourite of mine, a collection of tunes from North West England(Cheshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire and the Lake District) from the last four centuries. Contains 118 tunes suitable for all melody instruments, standard treble clef notation with chord symbols. Photos, tune history, playing tips, discography, bibliography. There are some real beauties in here, especially the 3/2 pieces. The title tune is a lovely 4 part reel in G minor, full of the wistful delicacy for which this genre is famous. The suggested chord changes are exquisite. There is a review here.

LLOYD, A. L. "Folk Song in England" (Granada, 1975)
Lloyd attempts to systematically trace the development of the genre from what he viewed as its origins in agrarian songs, dances and plays into industrial song. The main strength of Folk Song In England probably lies in its authoritative use of language rather than any overt historical accuracy.

MACKAY, CHARLES (ed) "Cavalier Songs & Ballads of England 1642-84" (London, 1863)
The classic collection of English Civil War songs from one side of the conflict. Available as a Project Gutenberg e-text here and also (better formatted) here.

O'SHAUGHNESSY, PATRICK "Twenty-One Lincolnshire Folk Songs" (Oxford University Press 1967)
O'SHAUGHNESSY, PATRICK "More Folk Songs From Lincolnshire " (Oxford University Press 1970)
O'SHAUGHNESSY, PATRICK "Yellowbelly Ballads, Part One" (Lincolnshire & Humberside Arts, 1975)
O'SHAUGHNESSY, PATRICK "Yellowbelly Ballads, Part Two" (Lincolnshire & Humberside Arts, 1975)
Mr. O'Shaughnessy did a magnificent job editing these volumes, in which most of the songs come from Percy Grainger's collection. The thorough and painstaking research that went into these works, both in the presentation of the songs and in their annotations, is commendable and these books cannot be recommended highly enough. A useful site about the songs in these books, including a number of lyrics is here.

PALMER, ROY (ed) "BUSHES AND BRIARS - Folk Songs collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams" (Dent, 1983)
A selection, edited by Roy Palmer. Reviewed here. (ISBN 1 86143 072 )2)
Reprinted by Llanerch Press, 19??

PURSLOW, FRANK (ed) "Marrow Bones" (EFDSS Publications, 1965)
PURSLOW, FRANK (ed) "The Wanton Seed" (EFDSS Publications, 1968)
PURSLOW, FRANK (ed) "The Constant Lover" (EFDSS Publications, 1972)
PURSLOW, FRANK (ed) "The Foggy Dew" (EFDSS Publications, 1974)
Four books of songs, mainly from Dorset and Hampshire, from the Hammond and Gardiner collections, which were influential for the post-war revival and remain very useful; some of the texts and tunes are emended, but this is indicated in the notes.
Rumour has it that these books are to be reprinted by EFDSS in September 2001.

SEDLEY, STEPHEN (ed) "The Seeds of Love" (London, Essex Music, 1967)
"collated from broadsides in Dorset and Essex". Contains a good deal of background information on the songs within.

SHARP, CECIL J. (ed) "One Hundred English Folksongs" (******, 1916)
English folk music collector Cecil J. Sharp (1859-1924) was one of the most renowned musicologists in the area of true folksong, and these 100 folksongs were all collected by him from actual singers all across Britain, The tunes are presented precisely as they were originally taken down from the lips of the singers. Arranged for medium voice and piano, these songs are among the best in the English folk tradition. Review here.
Reprinted by Dover in 1989 (ISBN 0-486-23192-5)

STEWART, R. J. "Where is St. George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong" (Bradford-on-Avon, Moonraker, 1977)
Pagan remains and cabbalism in English folk music.
Reprinted by Blandford Press, NY in 1988

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, RALPH and LLOYD, A. L. "The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs" (Penguin, 1975)
Originally published in 1959, reprinted 1968 and 1875. A lovely collection of English songs, all of which are in the Digital Tradition database and a mudcat thread HERE.

Countries - Germany

NOTE: Thanks especially to Wolfgang and Wilfried for this section. Please also see the Mudcat thread German Folk Music.
Many of the comments below are from this German Songbooks Collection web page.

"Das Lagerliederbuch, Lieder gesungen, gesammelt und geschrieben im Konzentrationslager Sachsenhausen" (Pläne Verlag, 1980)
This book (songs sung, collected, and written in Sachsenhausen concentration camp) is a reprint of a handwritten illegal booklet existing in Sachsenhausen concentration camp (1942) in which the inmates collected their songs, old and new. The famous anti-Nazi songs (e.g., peatbog soldiers/Moorsoldaten) are in there as well as common German folksongs. Some of the songs are even the same songs as found in the Hitler youth songbook of their wardens. About 130 songs without tunes and annotations, attention in reprinted handwriting, not always easy to read.

BREUER, H. "Der Zupfgeigenhansl : Das Liederbuch der Wandervögel" (Lpz, Friedrich Hofmeister, 1908)
The title translates as: "Johnny Guitar : songbook of the wandering birds". About 250 songs with tunes and chords; attention some reprints are in the original 'fraktur' writing (a page in Fraktur as an example) that makes reading difficult if you are not used to it. Wandervogel is the name of a pre-WWI youth movement, who have "built our empire in the woodlands". In protest against city civilization and its cheap musical culture they turned back to the roots: nature and the old German folksongs. In spite of their romantic sentiments they fought hard in WWI; Hans Breuer, editor of the Z., was KIA at the Western Front. There is a particularly good edition by Scherrer, Royal Bavarian Chamber Guitarist, with easy accompaniments for guitar. There have been many reprints, the latest being by Schott Verlag (Mainz, Schott Musik International (ED 3586) ISBN 3-7957-4002-9).

BUHMANN, H. and HAESELER, H. P. "Das kleine dicke Liederbuch" Little Thick Songbook (3rd ed., 1983)
Published by the authors, the 3rd edition is now out of print but may be reprinted soon. Contains more than 300 songs with tunes, chords and short annotations. These are songs that are sung in Germany today, most still in German, from old folksongs to very new songs from the hit parades. The book is the German equivalent to 'Rise up singing'. Wolfgang says "If you want to buy only one book to be able to sing with Germans when meeting them, you should buy this book". From a scholarly point of view, the book should be used with caution, as lyrics may be corrupted, changed or whole parts left out. The comments to the songs also have a strong leftist bais.

ERK, LUDWIG AND BÖHME, FRANZ M. "Deutscher Liederhort" (3 Vols) (Leipzig, 1893/4)
Ludwig Christian Erk (1807-1883) devoted his life to folksongs and music education. He gathered a vast private collection of folksongs. He wanted to publish a comprehensive book of German folksongs, but the nearest he came to this was his Deutscher Liederhort (1856). F. M. Böhme reorganized and enlarged this work into three volumes. Erk was a very influential person in German schools, as he published more than 100 editions of folksong and school-song collections.
Reprinted in 1963 by Olms in Hildesheim.

KLUSEN, E. "Deutsche Lieder" (German songs) (Insel Verlag, 1980)
1,000 years of German song, arranged in various categories. Includes about 800 songs with tunes and annotations. A great collection from the earliest known songs until today, with no discernible political bias. Wilfried recommends this book for people who want to sing with Germans.

KRÖHER, HEIN and OSS "Das sind unsere Lieder" These are Our Songs (Frankfurt am Main, Büchergilde Gutenberg, 1977)
218 songs with tunes and short annotations. More international in the choice of songs than Schmeckenbecher and Stern. A rare find in it is a German version of "Whiskey in the jar".

SCHILLING, K. and KÖNIG, H. "Der Turm" The Tower (Novelle, Wiesbaden, 1957)
New editions are continuously altered and updated. More than 500 songs with tunes and chords, but not annotated. Attention: my fairly recent edition is still in a difficult to read handwriting print. This is used by the numerous scout organizations in Germany (together with their own official songbooks). It's roots are in the romantic non-boy-scout youth movement of the early fifties. It doesn't contain many traditional German folksongs, but songs from this movement. A second volume was published in the early 60s, containing mostly international folksongs, some old compositions of the 16th century for 4-5 voices and a special section "the crazy tower" with a lot of funny songs.

SCHMECKENBECKER, E. and FRIZ, T. "Es wollt' ein Bauer früh aufstehn" a farmer wanted to rise early (Pläne Verlag, 1978)
222 songs with tunes and short annotations. More old German songs than Hein and Stern.

SCHMIDT, H. W. "Uns geht die Sonne nicht unter, Lieder der Hitler Jugend" (Koln, Tonger, 1934)
This book ("The sun doesn't go down for us, songs of the Hitler youth") is out of print in Germany, no reprints allowed, occasionally available via internet bookshops at around $400. About 150 songs with tunes and without any comment, attention only available in Fraktur print (see Zupfgeigenhansl). Wolfgang says "I have long considered not mentioning it here but I have decided to include it for its historical value and to add an antidote (see the first entry)". Many of the songs are common German folksongs, only about 20% of them are explicit Nazi songs. Some versions do not have tunes.

STEINITZ, W. "Der grosse Steinitz" (2 Vols) (East-Berlin, 1955)
Subtitled "Deutsche Volkslieder demokratischen Charakters aus sechs Jahrhunderten" (The big Steinitz, German folksongs of a democratic character from six centuries). Later reprints, e.g. by Zweitausendeins, are probably out of print today and very hard to find. About 300 songs not counting variants and parodies, no tunes, scholarly annotated comment, including discussion of variants of the songs. The nearest to Child. Edited in the GDR, therefore a predictable political bias with notable omissions, but a great book nevertheless.

STERN, A. "Lieder gegen den Tritt" Songs Against Cadence (Asso Verlag, 1960)
Subtitled "Politische Lieder aus fünf Jahrhunderten" (Political songs from five centuries). More than 300 songs with tunes and short annotations. More political songs than Kröher and Schmeckenbecker.

VON ARNIM, L. and BRENTANO, C. "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" The Boy's Magic Horn (3 vols) (Heidelberg, Mohr und Zimmer, 1806-8)
Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim published Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a collection of more than 700 folksongs, in 1804-1807. The collection has a classified index: Geistliche Lieder, Handwerkslieder, Historische Romanzen, Liebeslieder, Trinklieder, Kriegslieder. Brentano and Arnim did not attempt to preserve pure texts and frequently added to the songs, but they did include the sources of the songs whenever these were available. Although the collection is not a scholarly treatment, it exercised great influence upon 19th century lyric poets and inspired scholarly research into folksong. There have been many reprints (e.g. from DTV, 3 volumes, 1984). There are about 1500 songs without tunes, but explanation to the songs. Many of the songs are not sung today.
Last reprinted 1999. Available from Amazon via Distribooks International.

Countries - Hawai'i

NOTE: Hawai'i used to be a kingdom but was taken over by USA. There are many folk, cowboy and other songs that are being collected.
There is a good list of Hawai'ian books at HawaiianSong here and a useful history of Hawai'i here.
There is also a History of Labour in Hawai'i here and a useful bibliography here.

ELBERT, SAMUEL H. and NOELANI, MAHOE "Na Mele o Hawai'i Nei, 101 Hawaiian Songs" (Honolulu, Univ Hawai'i Press, 1970)
A good basic song book, in print, with words in Hawaiian and English (no music). Na Mele o Hawai`i Nei is a must for those involved in Hawaiian music. It is one of the few collections of Hawaiian songs of its kind, with translations and some very interesting background information about the songs and composers.

PUKUI, MARY K. and KORN, ALFONS L. "The Echo of Our Song, Chants and Poems of the Hawaiians" (Univ. Hawai'i Press, 1973)
This anthology is an excellent introduction to Hawaiian mele. It covers a wide variety of compositions, including very old song-poems of the Pele and Hi`iaka cycle, the pre-Christian Shark Hula, post-missionary chants and gospel hymns. Both Hawai'ian and English. There is a review here (you will need to scroll down to it).

Countries - Ireland

NOTE: Resources on Irish Singing here and here.

BEHAN, DOMINIC "Ireland Sings" (London, Essex Music, 1965)
A collection of about 100 old and contemporary Irish songs, with music. Contains many original titles by Behan himself under his own name and two of his many pseudonyms (Fintan Connoly and Wolfe Stephens. Named after his two sons Fintan and Stephen).

BREATHNACH, BREANDAN "Folk Music and Dances of Ireland" (Dublin, Mercier Press, 1977. )
A Comprehensive Study Examining the Basic Elements of Irish Folk Music and Dance Traditions

BULMER, DAVE and SHARPLEY, NEIL "Music of Ireland" (4 vols) (Louth Lincs., Celtic Music, 1974-1978)
A nice collection of music in 4 small volumes. During the 1970s Dave Bulmer and Neil Sharpley published a series of four books of Irish traditional music called Music From Ireland. Most of the tunes were collected from sessions and contemporary players, so the settings are pretty close to what is played today. A tune list for the books is here.

CARSON, CIARAN "Last Night's Fun" (Pimlico, 19??)
A book about Irish Traditional music by the poet, musician and philosopher. Review here.

COYNE, DECLAN "The Lilting Sons of Country Folk" (Culleenirwan, Dha Lon Promotions, 2000)
A dip into Irish Music in Mid & South Roscommon, The Personalities and Events, Past and Present. A new book of local musical lore from the southern half of Co. Roscommon, Ireland, it's a work of immense charm and one most people will likely not otherwise come across. The author, Declan Coyne, is a sometime singer, one-time fiddler and an everyday dairy farmer with a diploma in Community Development Practice. Where the book succeeds admirably is in presenting an approximately 100-year slice of the musical life of a region of rural Ireland. In doing so, it reveals a great deal about Ireland's living folk song tradition through its ballad singers and composers. It is a book that puts faces on songs and color to the countryside. 224 pages with many pictures. Good review here.

CROKER, T. CROFTON (ed) "Popular Songs, Illustrative of the French Invasions of Ireland" (4 vols) (London, Percy Society, 1845-7)
Edited, with introductions and notes, by T Crofton Croker. Includes "The Genuine and Curious Memoirs of the famous Captain Thurot", etc. edited from the edition of 1760.

DUFFY, CHARLES GAVAN (ed) "The Spirit of The Nation" (Dublin, The Nation, 1843)
Ballads and Songs by the writers of "The Nation" with Original and Ancient Music arranged for the Voice and Pianoforte (2nd enl. edn. Dublin & London 1882, new ed. Dublin: Duffy & Son 1898). Some information about "The Nation" here.

FAOLAIN, TURLOUGH "Blood On the Harp"
Turlough Faolain tells of Ireland from the mists of antiquity to the 1800's. A good historical summary in song.

GALVIN, PATRICK "Irish Songs of Resistance (1169-1923)" (London, Oak, 1962)
An important compendium, now out of print, it does a pretty good job in 100 odd pages of providing a brief history of the period as background to a selection of maybe 60 Irish songs.

HAMMOND, DAVID "Songs of Belfast" (Skerries Co. Dublin, Gilbert Dalton, 1978)
This is an excellent little book comprised mostly of North of Ireland childrens street songs. The book contains 60 songs, also mill workers songs and the well known "I`ll tell my ma" etc.

HARDIMAN, JAMES (ed) "Irish Minstrelsy or Bardic Remains of Ireland" (2 vols) (London,Robins, 1831)
With English Poetical Translations and bibliographical references. 1971 edition introduced by Máire Mhac an tSaoi.
Reprinted New York, Barnes and Noble, 1971

HARTE, FRANK "Songs of Dublin" (Dublin, Gilbert Dalton, 1978)
MORTON, ROBIN "Songs of Ulster" (Dublin, Gilbert Dalton, 1978)
Ó CANAINN TOMÁS, "Down Erin's Lovely Lee : Songs of Cork" (Dublin, Gilbert Dalton, 1978)
Nice little collections of songs for folks that can't afford the Sam Henry. Biography of Frank Harte here.

HEALY, JAMES N. "The Second Book of Irish Ballads" (Cork, Mercier Press, 1964)
Second of a series of three books, occasionally published. The 2nd book has some tunes in it.

HUNTINGTON, GAIL and HERMANN, LANNI "Sam Henry's Songs of The People" (Moulden, 19??)
The book is a terrific collection of (mostly Irish) folk songs, with tunes for most. Lots of good background information, too.

JOLLIFFEE, MAUREEN "The Third Book of Irish Ballads" (Cork, Mercier Press, 1970)
A useful collection of about 70 Irish songs. About half have tunes notated. Some old favourites and some less common. Background notes and comments from the author - who used to edit the "Ireland Sings" column in the magazine "Ireland's Own". Out of print, but still turns up in bookshops.

LOESBERG, JOHN (ed) "Folksongs and ballads popular in Ireland" (4 vols) (Ossian, 19??)
Good sources of songs. Much of the contents is probably duplicated in "Soodlums" and they are cheaper. The books have 50 songs in each. They are not all Irish songs by a long shot. Its a good hit parade of stuff.

MCDONNEL, JOHN (ed) "Songs of Struggle and Protest" (Skerries, Gilbert Dalton, 1979)
This is in the same Gilbert Dalton series as "Songs of Cork, Dublin, etc.". Its a good collection of left-wing (more or less!) songs from many countries, with a reasonable number of Irish ones. Music for all of them. Some background articles, a bibliograpy and a discography.

MAC MATHÚNA, SÉAMUS "Traditional Songs and Singers" (2nd ed) (Monkstown, Co. Dublin, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, 1993)
A few songs are in Gaelic, a few Gaelic-English and the rest in English, 22 in all. There is a lot of info of the songs and singers, people like Paddy Tunney, Geordie Hanna, Len Graham, Paddy Berry, Micheal O Suilleabhain,Una de Faoiteand, Tomas O Coisdealbha (Tom Phaidin Tom) and others.

MASON, REDFERN "The Song Lore of Ireland: Erin's Story In Music and Verse" (New York, Baker and Taylor, 1911)
*** I don't have any further information on this book. Please contact me if you can help. Thanks, Ian ***

MUSIC SALES CORPORATION (author) "Soodlums Irish Ballad Book" (Oak Publications Co, 1982)
A mix of traditional and modern songs with tunes; it has scanty notes and some nice photos. The book is not very handy to take to gigs and such as it is not very portable. Review here.

Ó BÁOILL, SEÁN "The Irish Song Tradition" (Cork, Ossian, 1976)
This book, which begins with an essay on Irish musical form, tonality, and metre (not all of which should be believed), contains 25 songs, six of them in Irish.

Ó LOCHLAINN, COLM "The Complete Irish Street Ballads" (London, Pan Books, 1984)
Irish collector and performer. 1st editions 1939 [Vol. 1] and 1968 [Vol. 2].

O'LOCHLAINN, COLM "Irish Street Ballads" (The Three Candles, 1965)
O'LOCHLAINN, COLM "More Irish Street Ballads" (The Three Candles, 1965)
A choice collection, made by Colm O Lochlainn, of 102/100 songs - all well worth singing. Many of them are of respectable antiquity, 200 years or so, and many more were made in recent times, e.g. "The Foot and Mouth Disease", "Bachelor's Walk", "The Ragman's Ball". Grave and gay, old and new, rich and rare, free and easy, this book holds many songs which will be loved the world over. Reprinted some years ago in paperback and reasonably available. Comhaltas' web site is here.

O'KEEFFE, DANIEL D. "The First Book of Irish Ballads" (Cork, Mercier Press, 1955)
First of a series of three books, occasionally published. There are no tunes in the 1st book.

O'NEILL FRANCIS "O'Neill's Music of Ireland" (******, 1903)
The largest collection of Irish music ever printed, 1,850 tunes, and contains over 90% of traditional music being played today. This collection was published in 1903, as a result of the efforts of Capt. Francis O'Neill and many traditional musicians attending the Chicago Music Club, circa 1890-1900. Review here.
Reprinted numerous times, most recently by Mel Bay, 1997

O'SULLIVAN, DONAL "Songs of The Irish" (Dublin, Mercier Press, 1981)
An Anthology of Irish Folk Music and Poetry with English Verse Translations.

ÓG, SEÁN and Ó BÁOILL, MÁNUS "Ceolta Gael" (2 vols) (Baile Átha Cliath, 1994)
Book 1 contains 91 songs and music. There are a selection of love songs, emigration songs, sad and patriotic songs, lullabys etc. Book 2 is a song book for the person who likes to sing from time to time. The words and music to 72 Irish songs make up this collection, which includes Love songs, funny songs, immigration songs, patriotic and sad songs. All are written in the Irish Language. ISBNs 0853424101, 0853427380.

PETRIE, GEORGE "The Petrie Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland" (Dublin, 1855)
Widely regarded as one of the most important nineteenth-century collections of traditional Irish music. It contains nearly two hundred melodies collected by Petrie as well as song texts in Irish and English and detailed notes by Petrie about the sources of the songs or pieces. Review here.

SHIELDS, HUGH "Shamrock, Rose and Thistle: Folksinging in North Derry" (Blackstaff Press, 1981)
This collection draws on the repertoire of singers from Magilligan Parish in the north of Co. Derry, the most famous of whom was the late Eddie Butcher. In addition to texts and airs (transcribed to reflect the actual twists of performance, thus not for the faint-hearted), Shields provides interesting notes about the songs themselves, performance practices, and the life of those who sang them.

TUNNEY, PADDY "The Stone Fiddle: My Way to Traditional Song" (Dublin, Gilbert Dalton, 1979)
Paddy has been much recorded; his book, which is primarily a book of reminiscences, contains texts and tunes to twenty-nine of his songs.

VALLELEY, FINTAN "The Companion to Irish Traditional Music" (Cork University Press, 1999)
Anyone with an interest in the music and song MUST have a copy of this monumental (450 pages or so) tome. The contributors are all experts in the field and the coverage is vast. Sure - there are people muttering about who's left out and who's left in - this is Ireland after all! Despite some problems and idiosyncracies, this will be the standard reference until someone else has the patience and dedication to replace it. MusTrad review here, Amazon review here and another good review here.

WALLIS, GEOFF and WILSON, SUE "The Rough Guide to Irish Music" (Rough Guides, 2001)
Most books on Irish music seem to be focused on the early history of the music, but there was little about the last 50 years. The first part of the book gives an excellent background on the history of Irish music and its evolution over the last fifty years. The next sections give profiles of key artists and bands with recommendations about their best CD's. Amazon reviews here.

ZIMMERMAN, GEORGES-DENIS "Songs of Irish Rebellion" (Dublin, Allen Figgis, 1967)
Georges Zimmerman, a Swiss professor, published a book in 1965 called "Irish Political Street Ballads and rebel Songs 1780-1900". It was subsequently published in Ireland and USA as "Songs of Irish Rebellion", with the original as subtitle (bit of a misnomer, really, since it includes Orange songs). Although written for an academic audience originally, it's a fascinating book with a great collection of songs, many with tunes. It's essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in the connections between Irish song and Irish politics. Buy it!
Reprinted May 2002 by Four Courts Press. ISBN 1-85182-629-7 .

Countries - Man

NOTE: The Manx Heritage Site here contains a number of useful Manx resources (including some used below).
There is a useful history of music in The Isle of Man here and a bibliography of works by Mona Douglas here.
Many of the online links below are from A Manx Notebook here.

BROADBENT, S. K. (ed) "The Manx Quarterly" (Isle of Man Examiner, 1907-1923)
The Manx Quarterly, 'an illustrated Review and Magazine' was issued by S.K.Broadbent's Isle of Man Examiner 1907-1923 (last issue #29) - it was particularly useful for obituaries for the period and for news of both individual Manx emigrants and Manx organisations overseas. Such information was later carried by Ellan Vannin. Selected pages available online here.

CLAGUE, JOHN "Cooinaghtyn Manninagh - Manx Reminiscences" (Castletown IoM, Backwell, 1911)
Contains many interesting notes on history, customs, folklore and folk-medicine, gathered by him. It was only just completed before his death in 1908 and was published posthumously in 1911. We must not omit to place it on record that the doctor himself was an expert musician, and that he was responsible for creating a hymn tune which has been included in several collections, namely that entitled Crofton. Available online here. There is an article on John Clague here.

GILL, W. H. (ed) "Manx National Songs with English Words" (Boosey and Co., 1896)
Manx National Songs with English Words selected from the MS. Collection of The Deemster Gill, Dr J. Clague, and W.H.Gill and arranged by W.H.Gill. Available online here.

HARRISON, WILLIAM (ed) "Mona Miscellany" (Douglas IoM, The Manx Society, 1873)
A selection of proverbs, sayings, ballads, customs, superstitions and legends peculiar to the Isle of Man. Available online here.

MOORE, ARTHUR W. (ed) "Manx Ballads and Music" (Douglas IoM, Johnson, 1896)
Manx Ballads and Music (Celtic Language and Literature : Goidelic and Brythonic) by Arthur W. Moore (Editor). Available online here.

WORLD MANX ASSOCIATION "Ellan Vannin" (World Manx Association, 1923-1928)
Ellan Vannin was the biennial magazine of the World Manx Association - first issue December 1923. Ran for 9 numbers ceasing in 1928. It replaced The Manx Quarterly which carried such reports from 1918-1924. Includes articles on Manx Songs, Manx Carols etc. Selected pages available online here.

Countries - Scotland

NOTE: A bibliography of Scots Gaelic music here.

BROADWOOD, LUCY E. (ed) and TOLMIE, FRANCES (coll) "105 Songs of Occupation from the Western Isles" (Lampeter, 1997)
A reprint of the famous collection by Frances Tolmie (1840-1926) that first appeared in an issue of the Journal of the Folk-Song Society in 1911. With an Introduction by Lucy E Browadwood, one of the editing committee for the Journal, 'Notes and Reminiscences' and 'A singer's memories of Life in Skye' by Miss Tolmie and a 'Note on the Modal system of Gaelic Tunes' by Annie G. Gilchrist. With English translation and music in Staff notation.

BRANDER, MICHAEL "Scottish & Border Battles & Ballads" (Clarkson N. Potter, 1975)
A very well-researched and expertly collected selection of ballads that chronicle the time between the Battle of Largs (1263) and the famous Battle of Culloden (1746). Review here. (ISBN 0-517-552500-3 LC-75-44444)

KENNEDY-FRASER, MARJORY "Songs of The Hebrides" (3 vols) (London, Boosey, 1909-21)
Full title "Songs of the Hebrides, and other Celtic songs from the Highlands of Scotland". Hebridean songs in Scots Gaelic. Here is an interesting article by Kennedy-Fraser on Hebridean scales, published in conjunction with the books.

LOESBERG, JOHN "Traditional Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland" (3 vols) (Ossian, 19??)
"We have really used these books quite extensively (e.g., Burns Night, preapring for St Patrick's Day gigs). We use them for lyrics (my wife and I), guitar chords (me) and melody lines for flute or penny whistle (my daughter). They also include some (limited) historical notes on many of the songs. We highly recommend them."

ORD, JOHN "Bothy Songs and Ballads" (John Donald, 1990)
An interesting article on Bothy Ballads here.

SHULDMAN-SHAW, PATRICK et al "The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection" (8 vols) (Mercat Press, 19??-1988)
Edited by Patrick Shuldman-Shaw, Emily Lyle, & Adam McNaughtan. The eight volumes of The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection published by Mercat Press have thousands of texts and tunes of songs collected around 100 years ago in the North East, discussion on the songs, and details of the singers.

Countries - USA

BONI, MARGARET BRADFORD (ed) "The Fireside Book of Favorite American Songs" (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1952)
Tunes from the gay 90s (that's 1890s, and no, that's not what Gay meant), spirituals, folk songs, Civil War songs, lovely old American hymns (stolen from other sources, yes, but here printed in their American versions). The editors weren't trying to create authentic arrangements, so some of the chords are a hipper than would have been played 100 years ago, but nothing that works against the spirit of the music, nothing jarringly modernistic. Amazon review here.

CHAPPLE,JOE MITCHELL "Heart Songs" (National Magazine & Chapple Publishing Co., 1909)
No matter what conclusions one might draw from its contents, Heart Songs is a lasting tribute to the musical culture of turn-of-the-century America and to the foresight of publisher and compiler Joe Mitchell Chapple. Review here.

EMRICH, DUNCAN "American folk poetry: an anthology" (Boston; Toronto, Little Brown, 1974)
Joe Hickerson prepared a superb bibliography for Duncan Emrich's American Folk Poetry. This is a collection of texts, no tunes, but good footnotes pointing to sources, and a wonderful selection of songs.

GILBERT, DOUGLAS "Lost Chords: The Diverting Story of American Popular Songs" (Doubleday Dorand, 1942)
Some fascinating stories about the songs in his book.

KENNEDY, CHARLES O'BRIEN (ed) "A Treasury of American Ballads Gay, Naughty, and Classic" (New York, McBride, 1954)
Interesting songs. Text only.

LAWS, G. MALCOLM Jr. "American Balladry from British Broadsides" (******, 1957)
A Guide for Students and Collectors of Traditional Song.

LAWS, G. MALCOLM Jr. "Native American Balladry" (******, 1964)
For hundreds of ballads, Laws give an identifying number, the title (and local variations), a summary of the ballad story, a sample stanza, and a list of sources for printed texts of the ballad.

LOMAX, ALAN "The Folk Songs Of North America" (Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1960)
The folk songs of North America, in the English language / by Alan Lomax ; melodies and guitar chords transcribed by Peggy Seeger ; with one hundred piano arrangements by Matyas Seiber and Don Banks ; illustrated by Michael Leonard ; editorial assistant, Shirley Collins. Contents here.

LOMAX, JOHN A. and ALAN "American Ballads and Folk Songs" (MacMillan Co., 1934)
With this ample collection of authentic ballads and songs, you can immerse yourself in the rich tradition and heritage of American folk music. Discover the diversity, spontaneity, free-flowing melody and sheer invention of scores of songs sung by cowboys and convicts, lumberjacks, hobos, miners, plantation slaves, mountaineers, soldiers and many others. Review here.

MALONE, BILL C and STRICKLIN, DAVID "Southern Music, American Music" (University of Kentucky Press, 1979)
The South - an inspiration for songwriters, a source of styles, and the birthplace of many of the nation's greatest musicians - plays a defining role in American musical history. It is impossible to think of American music of the past century without such southern-derived forms as ragtime, jazz, blues, country, bluegrass, gospel, rhythm and blues. ... As usual, Malone's bibliographic essay at the end of the book is a wonderful resource in itself. This short study (236 pp) is well worth seeking out - very readable and informative. It is available through Amazon.

SANDBURG, CARL "The American Songbag" (Harvest/HBJ Books, 1957)
A great folk song collection for all, but especially for Americans. Sandburg's American Songbag is a national treasure. "I suppose the words and music of these 280 songs, ballads, and ditties that people have sung forever could be found elsewhere, but where?" ISBN: 015605650X.
Reissued by Harcourt, 1990, with an intro by Garrison Keillor

SANDBURG, CARL "The New American Songbook" (******, ****)
This is the supplement to "The American Songbag".

SCOTT, JOHN ANTHONY "The Ballad of America" (New York, Grosset & Dunlap, 1967)
Includes a couple of background paragraphs on most of the songs in the volume.

SEEGER, RUTH CRAWFORD "American Folk Songs for Christmas" (Garden City, N.Y, Doubleday, 1953)
This is a book for which there has been a long-felt need, a collection of songs from the old-time Christmas. Review here.
There is a current version by The Shoestring Press (1999). ISBN: 0208024670.

WARNER, ANNE (ed) "Traditional American Folksongs from the Anne & Frank Warner Collection" (Syracuse Univ. Press, 1984)
The first published collection of folksongs the Warners gathered while travelling America. Includes music, background information on the singers, the history behind the songs, illustrations, bibliography and indexes.

Countries - USA (regions)

BAYARD, SAMUEL P. (ed) "Hill Country Tunes: Instrumental Folk Music of SW Pennsylvania" (American Folklore Society, 1944)
The tunes are from Southwestern Pennsylvania. Many are reels, schottisches, and quadrilles.

BELDEN H. M. (ed) "Ballads and Songs Collected by The Missouri Folklore Society" (U of Mo Press, 1940)
*** I'm sorry but I haven't been able to find out any more about this book. Can anybody help? ***
Reprinted in the 1960s

BROWN, FRANK C. "The Frank C. Brown collection" (not published)
As far as I can see, there is no published book of this collection of material from North Carolina. It is housed at Duke University (here). The advice for this is to be a little cautious ... Quote 'I can't tell you the page number, but I had to laugh when I saw that they printed "T for Texas, T for Tennessee" with the notation: "We have not found this piece reported in other collections." Randolph would have recognized it!'.

CAZDEN, NORMAN et al (eds) "Folk Songs of The Catskills" (Univ New York, 1958)
Norman Cazden, Herbert Haufrecht, and Norman Studer, editors. Cazden's collection (mostly Catskills) was apparently published as The Abelard Folk Song Book. Review here.

COX, JOHN HARRINGTON "Folk-Songs of the South" (Gretna, Pelican, 1998)
This is a reissue of Professor Cox's original 1925 edition with a foreword by Arthur Kyle Davis Jr. The book contains 185 songs in 398 versions or variants, with 29 tunes for 26 different songs. As Davis points out, although the songs were 'actually collected almost exclusively in West Virginia', the title of the book 'is accurate in that the songs included are really the heritage of similar regions throughout the South and, to a lesser extent, the whole country'.

FLANDERS, HELEN HARTNESS
For the New England Region, books by Helen Hartness Flanders (and various collaborators) describe the Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury Vermont (4500 folk songs and ballads collected over a 30 year period). The titles are:

Vermont Folksongs and Ballads

A Garland of Green Mountain Song

The New Green Mountain Songster

Ballads Migrant in New England

Ancient Ballads Traditionally Sung in New England (4 volumes)

The official site for the collection is here at Middlebury College Library.

LINGENFELTER, Richard E et al "Songs of the American West" (Univ. California Press, 1968)
By Richard E Lingenfelter, Richard A Dwyer and David Cohen. This is a very useful book.

LINSCOTT, ELOISE HUBBARD "Folk Songs of Old New England" (MacMillan, 1939)
A wonderful singing-and-activity book brimming with well over 100 folk songs and ballads, nursery songs and singing games, lumbermen’s songs, sea chanteys, country dances, minstrel songs, Child ballads and many more. Many selections are local to New England, others are known elsewhere in the United States. A substantial number are related to English, Scottish and other European traditional music. ISBN 0-486-27827-1

McNEILL, W. K. "Southern Folk Ballads" (2 vols) (August House, 1987-8
McNeil compiled this 2-volume set. It is a significant piece of scholarship, although not as comprehensive as even the one-volume Randolph Ozark Folksongs.

McNEILL, W. K. "Southern Mountain Folksongs: Traditional Songs from the Appalachians and the Ozarks" (August House, 1992)
This is a short work and covers very few songs - but McNeil tells a really good story about every song he covers. Maybe it's not comprehensive, but it's very enjoyable and interesting reading. McNeil is the editor of the August House American Folklore Series, a darn interesting collection of books. He's the folklorist at the Ozark Folk Center, and Mudcatters Arkie and Dale Rose are privileged to work with him there.

MORRIS, ALTON C. "Folksongs of Florida" (Univ. of Florida Press, 1990)
The only published collection of Florida folksongs.From more than a hundred singers, Alton Morris gathered these 243 folksongs in the late 1930s. Still in print.

RANDOLPH, VANCE "Ozark Folksongs" (4 vols) (Columbia, Missouri, 1946-1950)
Vance did more research among old songsters than almost any other folksong collector, most of whom limited their studies to the more scholarly collections. There is a Vance Randolph page here and the Vance Randolph Collection page is here.
Note: A single-volume abridged version was published by University of Illinois Press in 1982 and this is the version you're most likely to find in the bookshops.

RANDOLPH, VANCE "Roll Me In Your Arms" (Fayetteville, University of Arkansas Press, 1992)
RANDOLPH, VANCE "Blow the Candle Out" (Fayetteville, University of Arkansas Press, 1992)
Two volumes of "Unprintable" Ozark Folksongs & Folklore Folk Rhymes & Other Lore. Randolph provides an exposition of the material along with a discussion of its historical context, how the information was collected and some comparisons with other similar treasures. While this book (vol 2) is a bit pricey, it is worth every penny and might be the finest thing to come out of Arkansas in the 1990's. Vance Randolph page here. Note that the 2nd volume "Blow The Candle Out" is not yet out of print. Amazon review here.

ROHRBURG, LYNN (ed) "Songs of All Time" (Cooperative Recreation Service, 1946)
Songs of All Time is a small paperback book, handy for campfires and schools. The songs were collected at the Pine Mountain and Hindman settlement schools, Berea College and other points in the Southern Highlands. Edna Ritchie helped to edit one of the later editions (1957) and wrote the foreword. (Jean Ritchie says "Edna never had anything else published, although she wrote and produced endless plays for her students, made up wonderful stories for us at home, and even composed a song or two. She sang like an angel, and made one LP recording for Folk-Legacy, about thirty years ago").

THOMAS, JEAN "Ballad Makin' in the Mountains of Kentucky" (New York, Henry Holt, 1939)
A narrative and collection of folk songs from the Cumberlands, collected by Jean Thomas, herself from Kentucky. Some tunes collected from females. There's some biographical information on Jean Thomas here and a whole load of source material (some of which she undoubtedly used in the production of her book) catalogued here in the Dwight Anderson Memorial Music Library.

Countries - USA / UK / Ireland

Lesley's Contemplator site has a useful bibliography here.

WILGUS D. K. "Anglo-American Folksong Scholarship since 1898" (Rutgers University Press, 1959)
Will direct you to other worthwhile studies.

Countries - Wales

NOTE: The Celfyddydau Mari Arts Archive of traditional arts material from South Wales here.

WILLIAMS, MARIA JANE "Ancient National Airs of Gwent and Morganwg" (Welsh Folk Song Society, 1988)
"Ancient National Airs of Gwent and Morganwg, collected and arranged by Maria Jane Williams", a facsimile of the 1844 Edition with introduction and notes on the songs by Daniel Huws published by the Welsh Folk Song Society, 1988. One of the early collections with music and words, and the first by a woman. ISBN 0 907158 30 7.

KINNEY, PHYLLIS and EVANS, MEREDYDD "Canu'r Cymry: Detholiad o Ganeuon Gwerin" (2 vols) (Welsh Folk Song Society, 1984)
Canu'r Cymry: Detholiad o Ganeuon Gwerin (Welsh Folk Songs). A two volume collection of Welsh folk songs. Unaccompanied, Welsh words only, with additional Solfa notation, extensive background notes on each song in English and Welsh by the distinguished academic editors, Phylis Kinney and Meredydd Evans. A total of 82 songs covered in the two volumes, most of which are only available in these collections. Vol 1 (1984) - ISBN 0 900426 58 6

SAER, D. ROY (ed) "Caneuon Llafar Gwlad" (2 vols) (National Museum of Wales, 1974,1994)
Caneuon Llafar Gwlad (Songs from the Oral Tradition), published by the National Museum of Wales - Welsh Folk Museum. Each contains 30 songs, mostly transcribed from field recordings made by the Museum (from 1957-1964 and from 1965-1967). Vol I 1974 - ISBN 0 85485 026 0. Vol II: 1994 ISBN 0 7200 0406 3.

DAVIES, J. GLYNN "Fflat Huw Puw a cherddi eraill" (Gwasg Gomer, 1992)
A collection (as described by the author in 1923) of "old Welsh and old English melodies, and shanties and sea songs picked up on Welsh ships some thrity years ago." ISBN 0 86383 842 1.

HAMILTON, ALEX "Blodau'r Grug: 100 o Alawon Dawnsio Gwerin Poblogaidd Cymru" (Welsh Folk Dance Society 1992)
"Blodau'r Grug: 100 o Alawon Dawnsio Gwerin Poblogaidd Cymru / 100 Popular Welsh Folk Dance Tunes", selected and arranged by Alex Hamilton, revised by Robin Huw Bowen, published by The Welsh Folk Dance Society 1992. One of the standard collections used by musicians for folk dance teams and twmpathau (folk dances).

Countries - Wales / Scotland / Ireland / England

KENNEDY, PETER (ed) "Folksongs of Britain and Ireland" (London, Cassell, 1975)
This has songs in Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, English, songs for drinking, unrequited love, weddings, etc. There are so many beautiful folk songs that can be played on any instrument ... 360 songs, a fine book.
Reprinted by Oak Publications, 1984

MILNER, DAN and KAPLAN, PAUL "A Bonnie Bunch of Roses: Songs of England, Ireland and Scotland" (Oak Publications, 19??)
150 traditional songs from the British Isles. Historical, informative and witty discourse about each song, with notes on original sources, a discography and a bibliography. Complete with guitar chords and special tunings.

PALMER, ROY "A Book of British Ballads" (Llanerch, 1998)
This fascinating and enjoyable collection, previously published as 'Everyman's Book of Ballads' in 1980, has once more become available through the enterprise of a small publishing company from Wales. In this volume, Roy Palmer has included a wide variety of texts and tunes from many varied sources. There are recently written pieces, like Roger Watson's The Christmas Hare, music hall items like The Mistletoe Bough, broadside ballad standards like The Banks of the Sweet Dundee as well as some unusual versions of Child ballads. Review here.

Last Updated : 05-10-2003 16:30

Subject: Folk Library - Dance
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Jul 01 - 05:25 PM

A Basic Folk Library - Dance

Morris
Social Dance
Sword Dancing

Dance - Morris

NOTE: The Morris Ring's official bibliography is available here and there is another by Tom Keays here.
There is also a brief Biography of Cecil Sharp here.

FORREST, JOHN "The History of Morris Dancing, 1438-1750" (University of Toronto Press, 1999)
If you are academically inclined I suggest reading this book. I don't necessarily agree with his interpretation of the evidence but he has compiled a lot of interesting material. ISBN 0802009212. Synopsis from Amazon: "This analysis shows that morris dancing does not have pagan or ancient origins. It examines the passage of dance ideas between groups of people who have conventionally been considered folklorically distinct and ties morris traditions into the wider area of communal customs and public celebrations."

Dance - Social Dance

NOTE: A history of Western Social Dance with bibliography here. Includes an online copy of Arbeau's "Orchesographie"
There is an online version of Playford's "Dancing Master" here.

BARNES, PETER "The Barnes Book of English Country Dance Tunes" (Canis Publishing, 1986)
This is a collection of 426 of the most commonly used English traditional dance tunes, for all instruments. Chords are included for piano or guitar accompaniment, and there is an extensive appendix on accompaniment tips for all the various types of dances. This collection has sold thousands of copies all over the United States and is considered to be the standard source for both the Playford and 'barn dance' styles of English traditional dance music. Metal spiral binding to lie flat for easy sight-reading. This book, originally published in 1986, has been completely revised and expanded with new typesetting, 120 new tunes, accompaniment tips, indices and cross-references. "I haven't heard anyone else's comments on it, but I'm enjoying learning tunes from it." Available direct.

RAVEN, MIKE "1000 English Country Dance Tunes" ()
1000 plus tunes, from the 13th to the 20th century. Morris, ceremonial and sword dances, jigs, reels, waltzes, cotillons, polkas, scottisches, marches quadrilles, branles, old English hornpipes, square dances, long dances, mazurkas and galliards not to mention laments, listening music and exotic novelty dances. Available from Hobgoblin Music.

TOWNSEND, A. DAVE "A First Collection of English Country Dance Tunes" (Oxford, Ferret Music, 1982)
Contains 130 traditional English dance tunes. They are part of the common repertoire of musicians playing English music for barn dances, ceilidhs, and country dances.

Dance - Sword Dancing

NOTE: There is a very full bibliography of Sword Dancing books here and a selected one here.

ALLSOPP, IVOR "Longsword Dances from Traditional and Manuscript Sources" (Northern Harmony, 1996)
The book includes full notations of all 27 longsword dances and sword play texts from British sources (mainly from Yorkshire but including dances from Shetland and the Isle of Man). To put this in perspective, Sharp's 3-volume study, "The Sword Dances of Northern England", contains 9 longsword dances. Lots of diagrams and all music for the song- and dance-airs beautifully engraved by John Roberts. There are also photographs of teams and some key sword dance researchers, and maps with each notation to help create a sense of "place" for each dance. Sections are added on the design of swords and locks with graphic representation of existing information on the actual implements used by historical sides, reprints of articles by Trevor Stone and Melusine Wood, and an expanded version of Rhett Krause's article on the shapes and methods of making sword locks. This is a "must-have." These are tried-and-true notations worked out by Ivor Allsop (of Barnsley Longsword, formerly of Handsworth, formerly Squire of the Morris Ring, and a recent EFDSS Gold badge honoree) and used in his teaching at the Whitby festival, at Pinewoods camp, and at many other places.

SHARP, CECIL J. "The Sword Dances of Northern England" (3 vols) (London, Novello, 1911-1913)
This is the standard manual on English long sword and rapper dances, but Sharp's introductions include his interpretations of the history and ritual significance of the dance in all of Europe. In regard to specific dance descriptions, part I includes: Kirkby Malzeard and Grenoside long sword; Swalwell and Earsdon rapper; and Abbots Bromley horn dance. Part II: Sleights and Flamborough long sword; Beadnell rapper. Part III: Escrick, Handsworth, Ampleforth, Askham Richard, and Haxby long sword; Winlaton and North Walbottle rapper. Very thorough and useful dance descriptions, with diagrams, tunes, and photos. It has been reprinted several times, most recently by EFDSS in 1985 (part III is a reprint of the 1951 edition, revised by Maud Karpeles). Different editions include some variations, for example in the material on the Ampleforth dance.

Last Updated : 03-05-2002 12:30

Subject: Folk Library - Genres
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Jul 01 - 05:34 PM

A Basic Folk Library - Genres

Bawdy
Black
Blues
Country Music
Cowboy Songs
Drinking
Humour
Hymns and Religious Songs
Military and Soldier Songs
Mormon Songs
Shanties, Sea Songs and Work Songs
Socialist Songs
Spirituals
Yiddish

Genres - Bawdy

LEGMAN, GERSHON "No Laughing Matter" (Bloomington, Indiana Univ. Press, 1968)
Legman was the leading scholar of erotic folk literature, dialog and song. Endless and ground-breaking accomplishments bringing this material to the scholarly community. Happily responsible for brilliantly editing & printing Randolph's long-supressed great Unprintable collection of Ozark bawdy song & expurgated verses. Claimed to have the (perhaps apocryphal) Hugil bawdy collection. Legman obituary and further information here.

LOGSDON, GUY (ed) "The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing" (Univ. Illinois Press, 1995)
The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (and Other Songs Cowboys Sing). One of the finest works to come out in recent years on cowboy songs, in addition to being the first good collection of the cowboy's bawdy material. A must for anyone who is a student of cowboy music--or anyone who just likes the sound of dirty subject matter rhyming. Review here. ISBN 0-252-06488-7

RANDOLPH, VANCE "Roll Me In Your Arms" (Fayetteville, University of Arkansas Press, 1992)
RANDOLPH, VANCE "Blow the Candle Out" (Fayetteville, University of Arkansas Press, 1992)
Two volumes of "Unprintable" Ozark Folksongs & Folklore Folk Rhymes & Other Lore. Randolph provides an exposition of the material along with a discussion of its historical context, how the information was collected and some comparisons with other similar treasures. While this book (vol 2) is a bit pricey, it is worth every penny and might be the finest thing to come out of Arkansas in the 1990's. Vance Randolph page here. Note that the 2nd volume "Blow The Candle Out" is not yet out of print. Amazon review here.

Genres - Black

ALLEN, WILLIAM FRANCIS et al "Slave Songs of the United States" (New York, Simpson, 1867)
"Slave Songs of the United States", collected by William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison, was the book that first introduced songs like "Follow the Drinking Gourd","Run, Nigger, Run!" "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" Roll, Jordan, Roll"(and many others) to the wider world. The Dover reprint is inexpensive and wonderful. Amazon review here and another good review here.
Dover (1995) has reprinted the original version, with a preface by Harold Courlander

COURLANDER, HAROLD "Negro Folk Music U.S.A." (Dover, 1992)
Among the first and finest studies of African-American folk music, this book focuses primarily on the origins and musical qualities of typical genres ranging from simple cries and calls to anthems and spirituals, ballads and the blues. Traditional dances and musical instruments are examined as well. Authentic versions of 43 songs are presented, along with a valuable bibliography and discography. ISBN 0-486-27350-4.

DETT, ROBERT NATHANIEL (ed) "Religious Folk Songs of the Negro As Sung at Hampton Institute" (Hampton Institute Press, 1927)
Robert Nathaniel Dett, one of the pioneering black composers and a leading arranger of Negro spirituals, was the choir director at Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) from 1913 until 1932. While at Hampton, he published "Religious Folk-Songs of the Negro" (1927), which became one of the standard collections of spiritual arrangements. The spirituals showed a different, more profound character, he wrote in his foreword to "Religious Folk-Songs of the Negro." These hymns of the slaves are "the reverberation of a great cry of soul whose burden is of age-old promises of eternal freedom, of feasts of milk and honey, and of the divine glory of a love all-inclusive." Dett believed "the slave brought with him from Africa a religious inheritance which, far from being shaken in any way, was strengthened by his American experience . . . an Oriental regard for parable and prophecy" and "an ability to improvise his troubles into art-forms." His 1927 edition of the spirituals "in their natural and untarnished settings" included both well-known songs and tunes he had collected from black congregations in the rural South and Midwest.
(reprinted 1972)

EPSTEIN, DENA J. "Sinful Tunes and Spirituals, Black Music to the Civil War" (Univ. Illinois Press, 1977)
Epstein expertly culls available documentary evidence, including contemporary accounts as well as such sources as runaway slave notices mentioning that the slave in question was a fiddler, to fill in a lot of gaps in our knowledge of how African music developed when it was transplanted to North America. The book is well-written and full of groundbreaking research. It's absolutely essential if you are interested in this subject. (Amazon review)

SEWARD, THEODORE F. (ed) "Jubilee Songs As Sung by the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University" (New York: Bigelow and Main., 1872)
The Fisk University in Nashville (for black students) opened in January 1866. George L. White (a northerner and son of a blacksmith) was musical. At Fisk, he trained a mixed chorus of 11 students which by 1870 was giving concerts in nearby cities. Because the university was in dire need of funds, they took to the road for an extensive concert tour to raise money - New York, Boston etc. The first edition of 'Jubilee Songs As Sung by the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University' was compiled by Theodore F. Seward and published in 1872. It contained 28 spirituals. The second edition, published in the same year, had 64 spirituals and the last edition, in 1892, had 139. By that time, according to the publishers, 130,000 copies had been sold. Jubilee Singers site.

WORK, JOHN W. "American Negro Songs" (Crown, 1940)
A big book of mostly spirituals, long intro material re: spirituals & blues. Tunes, lyrics, no chords. 230 Folk Songs and Spirituals, Religious and Secular. From joyous gospel to deeply felt blues, this wonderful collection contains vintage songs sung and played through the years by black Americans - at work, in church and for pure entertainment. Included are spirituals, blues, work songs, and a variety of social and dance songs.
Republished unabridged by Dover (1998).

Genres - Blues

NOTE: There are useful bibliographies of The Blues here and here.
The Blues History site here has some useful information and there is a brief history of The Blues here.
There is an article on Women and The Blues here and an article on The Banjo and The Blues here.

ALYN GLEN "I Say For Me a Parable" (New York, Da Capo, 1993)
The Oral Autobiography of Mance Lipscomb, Texas Bluesman. 2 Reviews at Amazon.

BASTIN, BRUCE "Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast" (Univ. Illinois Press, 1995)
Bruce Bastin is probably the leading expert on the blues styles of the East Coast of America, and this book is a superb analysis of the history of blues in a range of regional centres. Amazon review here.

BOOTH, STANLEY "Rhythm Oil" (Pantheon, 1991)
Stanley Booth is from Memphis and the book is basically a series of articles that he has written over the years about music in Memphis. He ties them together very nicely. Some neat stuff about Furry Lewis, Mississippi John Hurt's funeral, Elvis, Otis Redding, and an awful lot about Stax Records amazing stable of artists such as Booker T, Steve Cropper, Donald Dunn, Issac Hayes etc. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned a lot. Amazon reviews here.
Reissued by Da Capo Press, 2000

BROOKS, LONNIE "Blues For Dummies"Foster City CA, IDG Books Worldwide, 19??
This reference includes what you would need to know to use a good songbook well, and to make sense out of all the tune-trading that we blues lovers love to do. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to know more about the blues. The biographies and photos alone would be worth the $24.99 cover price. Reviewed in a Mudcat thread by WYSIWYG here.

CALT, STEPHEN "I'd Rather be the Devil: Skip James and the Blues" (New York, Da Capo, 1994)
Skip James' blues sounded like no one else's. Sung in a keening falsetto, accompanied by a guitar in an open minor tuning or by staccato piano runs, James' blues was simultaneously mournful and angry. Stephen Calt's biography is a merciless look at the frustrated and disappointed man that made that music. Review here.

CALT, STEPHEN and WARDLOW, GAYLE DEAN "King of the Delta Blues: Charlie Patton" (Newton Rock Chapel Press, 1988)
This book is the final word in the elusive character known as Charley Patton. 3 Reviews at Amazon.

COHN, LAWRENCE (ed) "Nothing But the Blues: The Music and the Musicians" (Abbeville Press, 1993)
It has the appearance of a large coffee table book but, in content, it is nothing of the sort. It has excellent photos and essays by Sam Charters, Dave Evans, Dick Spottswood, Charles Wolfe, Mark Humphrey etc. ISBN 0-7892-0607-2.

COOK, BRUCE "Listen to the Blues" (New York, Da Capo, 1995)
Based on original interviews, this is filled with profiles of people like Leadbelly, Skip James, Son House and Bessie Smith. With new photos and a new discography, this book is an astute and readable introduction to the Blues.

EVANS, DAVID "Big Road Blues: Tradition & Creativity in the Folk Blues" (Da Capo Press, 1982)
An extraordinarily fine book on the blues based on meticulous, imaginative, and persistently thorough field work. The significance of the book goes beyond the blues to provide a concrete model for an analysis of other genres of oral literature in other cultures. Review here.

FINN, JULIO "The Bluesman: The Musical Heritage of Black Men and Women in the Americas" (London, Quartet, 1986)
A really interesting book. Finn is a blues musician who has read most of the basic blues sources and has put it all together into a rather bitterly written book on the subject. It gives a remarkable insight (if you can put up with the "adult" language).

GODRICH, JOHN and DIXON, ROBERT M. W. "Recording The Blues" (Stein and Day, 1970)
A seminal study of whys and whens of early recording industry. There are 'afterword' essays by the authors, with Howard Rye taking over the mantle of the late John Godrich.

GROSSMAN, STEFAN "Rev. Gary Davis/Blues Guitar" (Oak Publications, 1997)
Fans of fingerstyle guitar will love this CD and the book of transcriptions. Rev. Gary Davis has a distinctive style of playing and singing and is a very (VERY) good guitarist. A better book for beginners might be Stefan Grossman's collection of Mississippi John Hurt tunes. Still, an excellent publication. the CD that comes with the book would be worth the purchase price by itself.

HARRISON, DAVID "The World of Blues" (Studio Editions, London, 1995)
Harrison is the blues reviewer for 'fRoots' (formerly 'Folk Roots') magazine.

LOMAX, ALAN "The Land Where the Blues Began" (Dell, 1993)
You should check out Alan Lomax's book, "The Land Where the Blues Began", it is not only one of the best books on the blues, it is tells about a part of US history that seldom is written about. Reviews here.

OLIVER, PAUL "Blues Fell This Morning: Meaning in the Blues" (2nd ed.) (Cambridge University Press, 1984)
First published in the early sixties, this extensively revised edition of a classic study contains many newly recovered examples of the "blues" as well as a text updated in the light of developments over the past thirty years with respect to Civil Rights reform. Amazon review here. Other books by Paul Oliver include:

OLIVER, PAUL "Songsters and Saints: Vocal Traditions on Race Records" (Cambridge University Press, 1984)
OLIVER, PAUL "The Story of the Blues" (Pimlico, 1997)
OLIVER, PAUL "Screening the Blues: Aspects of Blues Tradition" (Da Capo Press, 1968)
OLIVER, PAUL "Savannah Syncopaters: African retentions in the Blues" (London, Studio Vista, 1970)

Paul Oliver is a major writer on Blues subjects, see the tribute page here.

OLIVER, PAUL et al "Yonder Comes the Blues" (Cambridge University Press, 2001)
By Paul Oliver, Tony Russell, Robert M. W. Dixon, John Godrich and Howard Rye. A reissue in a single volume of 3 short books on aspects of the blues originally published in the 70s by Studio Vista and long out of print.

ONDAATJE, MICHAEL "Coming Through Slaughter" (Norton First Edition, 1976)
Bringing to life the fabulous, colorful panorama of New Orleans in the first flush of the jazz era, this book tells the story of Buddy Bolden, the first of the great trumpet players--some say the originator of jazz--who was, in any case, the genius, the guiding spirit, and the king of that time and place. A haunting, fictional (very few facts known) recreation, recommended reading for anyone interested in early jazz history. Review here.

PALMER, ROBERT "Deep Blues" (New York, Viking Press, 1981)
Palmer's love of the blues shines through in this exceptional book. He's not interested in showing off his knowledge of the form (although that knowledge is exceptional); he's interested in illuminating for the reader the roots of a great indigenous art form and how that form developed in the 20th century. In that effort, he succeeds masterfully. Reviews at Amazon and another excellent review here. ISBN: 0140062238

RUSSELL, TONY "Blacks, Whites and Blues" (New York, Stein & Day, 1970)
The first serious study of interplay between black and white musicians.

RUSSELL, TONY "The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray" (Harper Collins, 1997)
A less scholarly introduction to the blues. This has excellent recommendations for listening to a variety of blues and plenty of photos.

SHIPTON, RUSS "The Complete Blues and Ragtime Guitar Player" (****, 19??)
Starts out with basic blues strums, with picture chords, then into fingestyle blues. Includes a good number of popular songs.

TITON, JEFF TODD "Early Downhome Blues: A Musical & Cultural Analysis" (2nd ed.) (Univ. North Carolina, 1994)
New afterword by the author. New foreword by ALAN TRACHTENBERG. A musical and cultural analysis, with a 19 track music CD.

WARDLOW, G.D. "Chasin' That Devil Music: Searching For the Blues" (San Francisco, Miller Freeman, 1998)
The main focus is on the Delta blues singers of the early 20th century. Review at Amazon

Genres - Country Music

HINTON, Brian "Country Roads: How Country Came to Nashville" (Sanctuary, 2000)
Hinton, an obvious Bob Dylan fan, sets out to follow country music's path and lineage from its Celtic roots in another millennium, to its arrival in Nashville, Tennessee. Review here. Amazon reviews here.

Genres - Cowboy Songs

NOTE: There is a useful Cowboy bibliography here and a booklist by Frank Staplin here.

AXELROD, ALAN and FOX, DAN "Songs Of The Wild West" (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991)
The songs, 45 in all, coupled with the works of art from The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, reflect every facet of life during one of the most exciting periods in US history. Amazon reviews here.

BIG 3 MUSIC CORP. "American Cowboy Songs" (New York, New York, 19??)
B3-4354-R3 by the 'Big 3 Music Corp., N.Y., N.Y. 66 songs no text.
*** DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY MORE DETAILS ABOUT THIS BOOK? - If so, please contact me, Ian ***

CANNON, HAL (ed) "Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering" (******, 1985)
CANNON, HAL (ed) "New Cowboy Poetry: A Contemporary Gathering" (******, 1990)
As tough, lean, and honest as those who create it, cowboy poetry has entered our culture as literature. In these selections from some of today's and yesterday's finest practitioners, Hal Cannon has corralled the best of the genre. How good is it? The poems have the smell of sagebrush and campfire in them. You can't get any higher praise. Here are selections from some of today's and yesterday's finest practitioners: Curley Clark's "The Strawberry Roan", Badger Clark's "A Cowboy's Prayer", Georgie Sicking's "To Be a Top Hand", Baxter Black's "The Big High Lonesome", and Wallace McRae's "The Lease Hound".

FIFE, AUSTIN E. and ALTA S. "Cowboy And Western Songs" (New York, Clarkson and Potter, 1969)
A nice collection of 200 songs with music lines, guitar chords and what appears to be very complete verses. B/w sketches & flourishes by J.K. Ralston. Arranged topically.

LARKIN, MARGARET "Singing Cowboy, a Book of Western Songs" (Knopf, 1931)
Contains 42 songs, including the old favorites and many rarer songs never printed before. Music arranged for piano. Includes partial scores.
Reprinted 1963 by Oak Publications

LEE, KATIE "Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle" (Flagstaff Arizona, Northland Press, 1976)
Subtitled "A History of the American Cowboy in Song, Story and Verse". A very readable, funny book, with lots of history of the West and, in particular, Arizona and Tucson.

LINGENFELTER, RICHARD E. et al "Songs of the American West" (Univ of California Press, 1968)
By Richard E. Lingenfelter, Richard A. Dwyerand David Cohen.

LOGSDON, GUY (ed) "The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing" (Univ. Illinois Press, 1995)
See Bawdy Songs above.

LOMAX, JOHN A. and ALAN "Cowboy Songs and other Frontier Ballads"(MacMillan Co., 1938)
If you can hum "Home On the Range", you have been influenced by this book. Without it, folk music as you know it would be different. Seeing in 1908 that the cowboy's way of life was dying, John Lomax went out into the field and onto the range recording and transcribing This collection became the backbone of American folk music and its traditions. Amazon review here.

OHRLIN, GLEN and GREEN, ARLIN "The Hell-Bound Train" (Univ. Illinois Press, 1989)
A Cowboy Songbook (Music in American Life). ISBN 0252060717. ISBN 0252060717.

SILBER, IRWIN and ROBINSON, EARL (eds) "Songs of the Great American West" (New York, MacMillan, 1967)
92 songs celebrate the ups and downs of homesteaders, lumberjacks, cowboys, gold miners, railroad workers, outlaws and others. Complete lyrics, vocal score, simple piano arrangements, chord symbols. Historical notes, 127 period illustrations. Review here.

THORP, N. HOWARD (JACK) "Songs of the Cowboys" (New York, Clarkson N. Potter, 1966)
This was the first cowboy songbook published in America, and Thorp's lyrics were the beginning of the popularization of the American cowboy. This book lists 24 songs that can be learned and sung today. First published 1908.

TINSLEY, JIM BOB "He Was Singin' This Song" (Univ. of Florida, 1981)
A Collection of 60 romantic cowboy and western songs coverning the 50 year golden eera of popular standards between 1905 and 1957. Foreword by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Illus. by Johnny Hampton.

TINSLEY, JIM BOB "For a Cowboy Has to Sing" (Univ. Central Florida Press, 1991)
A Collection of 60 romantic cowboy and western songs coverning the 50 year golden era of popular standards between 1905 and 1957. Foreword by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Illus. by Johnny Hampton.

Genres - Drinking

SHAY, FRANK "My Pious Friends and Drunken Companions: Songs and Ballads of Conviviality" (Macaulay, 1927)
Both illustrated by John Held Jr. I guess you'd call these songs "barroom ballads". They're certainly entertaining, although I wish the book had tunes for more of the songs. There's a More Pious Friends sequel.
Reprinted as a single volume by Dover Publications, Inc., 1961.

Genres - Humour

GOODWIN, GEORGE (Ed.) "Song Dex Treasury of Humorous and Nostalgic Songs" (Song Dex Inc., 1956)
This is an early fake book, designed, I suppose for electronic organs. It has 740 songs, enough to make you cry a big bucket of tears.

Genres - Hymns and Religious Songs

NOTE: For more resources, see the Religion and Music Resource. For John Newton's hymns, see the Olney Hymns site.

The OREMUS searchable Online Hymnal is here.
Oremus contains public domain texts from six Anglican hymnals from the second half of the twentieth century. The hymnals from the United States are The Hymnal 1982 and The Hymnal 1940. From Canada, we have The Book of Common Praise (1938). And from England, but used in many parts of the Anglican Communion, The English Hymnal (1933), Hymns Ancient and Modern, Revised (1950), and The New English Hymnal (1986).

The Cyber Hymnal is here.
This site has over 2,700 Christian hymns and Gospel songs from many denominations. You'll find lyrics, sound, background information, photos, links, MIDI files and scores you can download. The People section is particularly useful.

DEARMER, PERCY and VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, RALPH "The English Hymnal" (******, 1906)
The most incredible collection of folk tunes was used for the hymns in this hymnal, due to Ralph Vaughan Williams being the music editor. Information about the development of The English Hymnal here.

MONK, WILLIAM HENRY (ed.) "Hymns Ancient and Modern" (London, William Cloves and Sons, 1861)
The original English hymnal. The first edition was published in 1861, and the "Standard Edition" in 1916. The 1983 version, published in Norwich by The Canterbury Press, is called the "New Standard Edition". There were also editions in 1922 and 1950.

SANKEY, IRA "Sacred Songs and Solos" (London, Morgan and Scott, 1891)
The standard nonconformist hymnal, originally produced in the USA but universally used in Britain also. The version quoted is the "revised and enlarged" version so there must have been an earlier edition.

SHELDON, JOHN "The Quaker Songbook" (Stainer and Bell, 1981)
I had to include this as it's Britain Yearly Meeting's contribution to the art. Has hymns, carols and songs of love war etc. including "George Fox" and "Simple Gifts". It's unfortunately out of print at the moment, but I've got a copy.

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, RALPH and DEARMER, PERCY "Songs of Praise" (London, Oxford University Press, 1936)
My school hymn book and still one of my favourites. Includes poems such as "Glad That I Live" set to music as well as many hymns in common with "The English Hymnal".

Genres - Military and Soldier Songs

NOTE: There is a useful bibliography here.

DALLAS, KARL "The Cruel Wars" (London, Wolfe Publishing, 1972)
100 soldiers songs "from Agincourt to Dunkirk" with melodies and guitar chords.

DOLPH, EDWARD ARTHUR and EGNER, PHILIP "Sound Off! - Soldier Songs from Yankee Doodle to Parley Voo" (New York, Cosmopolitan, 1929)
DOLPH, EDWARD ARTHUR and EGNER, PHILIP "Sound Off! - Soldier songs from the revolution to World War II" (New York, Farrar and Rinehart, 1942)
Music arranged by Philip Egner, illustrations by Lawrence Schick. These two volumes are the standard work on military and soldier songs for the USA. Some UK and European songs which were well-known to USA soldiers are included.

HOPKINS, ANTHONY "Songs from the Front & Rear" (Edmonton, Hurtig, 1979)
Subtitled "Canadian servicemen's songs of the Second World War". Useful book for Canadian songs. Includes many UK songs as well.

WARD-JACKSON, C H and LUCAS, LEIGHTON "Airman's Song Book" (Sylvan Press, 1945)
"Being an anthology of squadron, concert party, training and camp songs and song-parodies, written by & for officers, airmen and airwomen mainly of the Royal Air Force, its auxiliaries & its predecessors, the Royal Flying Corps ... ".Originally "Music edited by Leighton Lucas and decorations by Biro. The whole set out in chronological order to present a Historical Picture of the R. A. F. through its Own Songs. Indexed with a glossary. 190 pp." It was revised in 1967 (Oxford, Blackwood, 1967, 265 pp).

Genres - Mormon Songs

NOTE: Some information on Mormon Folklore from Utah here.

CHEYNEY, THOMAS E. (ed) "Mormon Songs From the Rocky Mountains" (Austin, Univ. Texas Press, 1968)
Subtitled "A Compilation of Mormon Folksong". A great folk song book with part of scores, many humorous including the unexpected such as "Drunkards from Bonanza" and songs poking fun at the problems of polygamy.

Genres - Shanties, Sea Songs and Work Songs

NOTE: There is a useful bibliography here and a collection of Shanties & Sea Songs here.
(Note: "Sea" is taken to include any large body of water - e.g. The Great Lakes)

ABRAHAMS, ROGER D. "Deep the Water, Shallow the Shore" (American Folklore Society, 1974)
Essays on shantying in the West Indies. Surveys the importance, historical and contemporary, of sea shanties in the British West Indies.

COLCORD, JOANNA C. "Songs of American Sailormen" (New York, Norton, 1938)
Chanties and sea songs; introduction by Lincoln Colcord.

CREIGHTON, HELEN "Maritime Folk Songs" (Toronto, Ryerson Press, 1961)
Musical transcriptions and chord symbols by Kenneth Peacock.

DOERFLINGER, WILLIAM MAINE "Shantymen and Shantyboys: Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman" (New York, 1951)
For twenty years, in the United States and Canada, William Doerflinger collected the words and music of the songs of the sailor and lumberman brought together in this book. Here are over 150 rousing sea shanties, forecastle songs, and lumber-woods ballads traditional in the days of sailing hips and logging camps. Review here.
Republished by Meyerbooks, Glenwood, Illinois, 1990.

FOWKE, EDITH FULTON "Lumbering Songs from the North Woods" (Austin TX, University of Texas Press, 1970)
A collection of lumbering songs from Ontario, ajoining areas of Quebec, Maine, New Brunswick, and Michigan.

HUGILL, STAN "Shanties from the Seven Seas" (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969)
Stan was the last living shantyman in the United Kingdom. He was also a scholar who gained his information and songs from primary sources. Referred to as the "shantyman's bible" there are over 400 tunes and lyrics here. Especially well-covered are the sailors' work songs of the 18th and 19th centuries. Good review here.

PALMER, ROY (ed.) "The Oxford Book of Sea Songs" (Oxford University Press, 1986)
This is a very nice collection of songs of the sea. The annotations are brief, but very helpful. The book was out of print, but it was reissued and expanded in August, 2001, as "BOXING THE COMPASS" Sea Songs & Shanties Edited by Roy Palmer. Good review here. Good review of "Boxing The Compass" here.

RICKABY, FRANZ "Ballads & Songs of the Shanty-Boy" (Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press, 1926)
Reviewed here.
Reprinted in 1998

TERRY, RICHARD RUNCIMAN "The Shanty Book Part 1" (London, Curwen, 1921)
The book itself is paperback, a bit bigger than A4 and contains the words and (piano) music of 30 shanties along with notes on each of them. The back page contains a list of other books from the publisher - Morris and Country Dances, Folk Songs and Singing Games but nothing of The Shanty Book Parts 2 onward. Apparantly there was a "Part 2", published by Curwen in 1926.

WALTON, IVAN and GRIMM, JOE "Windjammers: Songs of the Great Lakes Sailors" (Detroit,Wayne State University Press, 2002)
I just picked up this terrific book. 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. This is one delightful book - Joe Offer, born in Detroit and raised on the Wisconsin shore of Lake Michigan. The book is available from here. The paperback may be a bit cheaper at some of the online bookstores.

WHALL, W. B. "Sea Songs and Shanties" (Brown, Ferguson, 1910)
Whall was a self-opinionated and crusty old mariner, but his book is very well loved. Publishers' notes: "Of all the collections of Sea Songs and Shanties, Captain Whall's is at once admitted to be the most authoritative. With a musical training, young Whall ran off to sea, becoming a really fine seaman and navigator. His musical training served him well, and his fine collection of sea shanties will fill admirers of the sea with a healthy glow of pride in the old days of the sailing ship." The 6th edition (1927) has extensive introductory notes and is thus rather better than earlier editions.
Reprinted 1974 by Brown, Son & Ferguson, Ltd. Publishers, Glasgow

Genres - Socialist Songs

NOTE: There are a number of online Socialist Songbooks, including Liberator, Raised Voices, Singing of Struggle, The Socialist Songbook and Union Songs
See also The Socialist Action Song Index.

COLLINS, MAL et al "The Big Red Songbook" (Pluto Press, 1977)
Compiled by Mal Collins, Dave Harker and Geoff White. It's a UK Socialist Songbook, probably modelled on the IWW book.

INTERNATIONAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD "The IWW Little Red Songbook" (Columbia, SC., Harbinger, 1995)
Subtitled " Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent". The current edition is the 36th international edition. Contains 103 labor songs to fan the flames of discontent from around the world, with music. Includes songs by Joe Hill, Billy Bragg, Anne Feeney, Utah Phillips, and more. Versions have been published since 1904. The following versions are available online ... 1916, 1917 and 1923. The 36th edition and a reprint of the 1923 edition are available at the IWW website here.

SHEFFIELD SOCIALIST CHOIR "With One Voice" (Privately published, 19??)
The Sheffield Socialist Choir's 10th anniversary songbook. Available online here. Some people talk about "political songs" meaning "protest songs" but there are also songs of solidarity, hope and bright prospects. The songbook contains 124 pages containing 27 songs, their words and music in choral arrangement, what they tell us about those who created them and those who have sung them, anecdotes, photos, cartoons and graphics.

Genres - Spirituals

NOTE: There is a short bibliography here and an interesting article here.
There is a major Shape-Note Bibliography here and a Shape-Note Music Resources site here.
Educational resources from The Spirituals Project are here.
The Mudcat African-American Spirituals PermaThread is here

ALLEN W., WARE C., and GARRISON L. "Slave Songs of The United States" (New York, Simpson, 1867)
The most important of all collections of spirituals by William Frances Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison. Slave Songs of the United States is one of the great documents of America. Published shortly after the end of the Civil War, the songs were collected during the war, mostly from among Negroes living on the Islands off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina. An electronic text is available at The University of North Carolina.
Reprinted: 1965-Oak Publications, 1992-Clearfield, 1995-Dover Publications

CONE, JAMES H. "The Spirituals and the Blues" (New York, Orbis Books, 2000)
This book reviews some important interpretations of slave songs by authors such as Allen (Slave Songs of the United States) and Richard Wallaschek (Primitive Music [1893]). Cone then goes on to discuss the theological interpretations of the spirituals in relation to the experience of black slaves. Cone states that his purpose is to, "Examine the statement of black experience in the blues as compared with that in the spirituals, investigating their similarities and dissimilarities from both theological and historical view points". His work here is interesting because it examines the spirituals of slaves as an expression of their feelings and goes on to discuss the various meanings of God and Heaven in their songs.

CRUZ, JOHN "Culture On The Margins" (Univ Princetown, 1999)
This book recounts the "discovery" of black music by white elites in the nineteenth century, revealing how the episode shaped modern approaches to studying racial and ethnic cultures. Slave owners had long heard black song making as meaningless "noise." Abolitionists began to attribute social and political meaning to the music, inspired, as many were, by Frederick Douglass's invitation to hear slaves' songs as testimonies to their inner, subjective worlds. In tracing the emergence of a new interpretive framework for black music, Cruz shows how the concept of "cultural authenticity" is constantly redefined by critics for a variety of purposes from easing anxieties arising from contested social relations to furthering debates about modern ethics and egalitarianism. Jon Cruz is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Review here. Amazon reviews here.

DIXON, CHRISTA K. "Negro Spirituals: from Bible to Folksong" (Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1976)
Crista Dixon's book provides background and stories for specific spirituals, including their Biblical origin. It is very helpful in understanding the relationship of bondage to the Christian orientation of slaves and particularly useful with regard to allegories/imagery in this literature. ISBN 0-8006-1221-3.

DOBIE, J. FRANK "Follow de Drinkin' Gourd" (Texas Folklore Society, 1928)
Those interested in the history of spirituals should read this book. It was reprinted in 1965. A good review here.

EPSTEIN, DENA J. "Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War" (Univ Illinois Press, 1977)
The most detailed history of African-American spirituals up to the publication of "Slave Songs of the United States". The last 2 chapters are about the 3 editors and the publication of the historic collection. The book is well documented from contemporary sources. Amazon review here.

FISHER, M. M. "Negro Slave Songs in the United States" (Russell & Russell, 1968)
Originally published in 1953, this is one of the first scholarly attempts at a thorough socio-cultural analysis of the cultural functions of the spirituals and other slave songs. The Negro spirituals and songs of the antebellum South were more than simple musical expression. They were, in Dr. Fisher's words, the oral historical documents of a people. As decoded by Dr. Fisher, the spirituals reveal data respecting their authors, their dates, their places of origin, their plans to escape, and their protest against slavery. Amazon review here. Biography of Miles Mark Fisher here.

HEILBUT, ANTHONY "The Gospel Sound - Good News and Bad Times" (NY, Limelight Editions, 1971)
A very informative book that gives the reader a genuine understanding of the origin of Gospel music. It reaches very deep into the life and times of the pioneers of Gospel. Each played their own part into evolving Gospel music to make it what it is today. Anthony Heilbut is an expert on the subject of gospel music, one of the most important musical forces in American history. His book is written from the perspective of a scholar, but one with a real passion for the music. Amazon reviews here.
Reprinted: 1997 by Limelight Editions ISBN: 0879100346. (25th anniv edition)

JACKSON, GEORGE PULLEN "White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands" (Dover Press, 1965)
George Pullen Jackson may have exhibited slight "racist" tendencies, but his White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands (originally published in 1933) and other collections (Spiritual Folk-Songs of Early America; Down-East Spirituals and Others; White and Negro Spirituals, Their Life Span and Kinship; Another Sheaf of White Spirituals) set the standard for other collectors. More details of Jackson's works, as well as some information on Shape-Note music here. Jackson published a number of other works of note, including "Down East Spirituals" (1953), "White Spirituals In The Southern Uplands" (1933), "Spiritual Folksongs Of Early America" (1937), "White And Negro Spirituals" (1943), "Story Of The Sacred Harp" (1944) and "Another Sheaf Of White Spirituals" (1952).

JOHNSON, J. W. and JOHNSON J. R. "American Negro Spirituals" (New York, DaCapo Press, 1989)
This book stays true to aural tradition and offers outstanding, non-Westernized arrangements of the aural traditional music of African American spirituals. The respect for and love of this fine music comes through in the author's comments, and the transcriptions retain the strong harmonic features that are often "arranged out" of collections of aural traditional music. Amazon review here.
Reprinted 1988 by Da Capo Press. ISBN: 0306800748.

ROACH, HILDRED "Black American Music: Past And Present" (2 vols) (Boston Ma, Crescendo Publishing Co, 1973)
A useful book, written when Ms. Roach was professor at the University of the District of Columbia. The book examines the spiritual aspects of black music, and concludes that the power of black music lies in its ability to protest and transcend oppression.
Secon Edition published by Krieger, 1992

SOUTHERN, EILEEN "The Music Of Black Americans: A History" (New York, W.W.Norton & Co, 1971)
This text provides comprehensive coverage of black American music, from the arrival of the first Africans in the English colonies to contemporary developments in African-American history. The book draws on authentic documents, from colonial times to the present, to illuminate the history of black music. The book provides thorough treatment of black women musicians, including Lil Hardin Armstrong, Marian Anderson, Billie Holiday, Leontyne Price and Ella Fitzgerald. (When the book was written, Ms. Southern was affiliated with Harvard University.) ISBN: 0-393-95279-7.
3rd edition. W. W. Norton and Company, 1997 ISBN 0-393-03843-2.

Genres - Yiddish

NOTE: There is a useful bibliography of Yiddish Song here.

SILVERMAN, JERRY "The Yiddish Songbook" (New York, Stein and Day, 1982)
Melodies with chord symbols. Yiddish (romanized) words with English translations. Guitar chord diagrams.

Last Updated : 05-10-2003 16:30

Subject: Folk Library - People
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Jul 01 - 08:27 PM

A Basic Folk Library - Individuals, Families and Groups

Joan Baez
Albert E. Brumley
Robert Burns
The Carter Family
Larrie Gorman
Woody Guthrie
Ashley Hutchings
Leadbelly
Christy Moore
Thomas Moore
Francis O'Neill
Peggy Seeger
Jimmy Shand
Cyril Tawney

People - Joan Baez

BAEZ, JOAN "The Joan Baez Songbook" (New York, Ryerson Music Publishers, 1964)
Containing 66 songs from her repertoire and with illustrations by Eric Von Schmidt, the book became a staple among guitar students and has been reprinted more than twenty times. This book is filled with classic folk songs/ballads/hymns/lullabies, etc. that shouldn't be forgotten. They're songs for adults and children alike that have formed the roots of many current songs and stories.

People - Albert E. Brumley

NOTE: Jim Dixon recommended the whole range of books published by Albert E. Brumley and Sons. Brumley posed a bit of a problem of categorisation as, though he is a publisher, he seems to have also written a number of Gospel Songs such as "I'll Fly Away" and "Turn Your Radio On". Also the books would have come under a number of headings (Gospel, General, Americal), and so been dispersed. Because of this, Albert E. Brumley has his own place here. Notes for individual books are taken from the website, except where noted. Joe Offer has volunteered the general review below.

The little songbooks, about 50 songs each, are $3.00, or $20 for the set of 8. There are three "Songs of the Pioneers" booklets in the set, one called "Lamplitin' Songs & Ballads," another called "America's Memory Valley." These books are a wonderful collection of corny old songs that are just plain fun to sing, from "I Ride an Old Paint" to "You've Been a Good Wagon But You done Broke Down." The other three are mostly gospel (Brumley wrote "I'll Fly Away" and "Turn Your Radio On"). The other books are "Great Inspirational Songs" and "Christian Hymnsongs" ($4.50 each); and "Radio Favorites" and "The Best of Albert E. Brumley" ($3.00, such a deal). You'll find the most popular hymns in the little booklets, so it might not be worth your while to get these others. I suppose it's sacrilegious to say so, but I find these songs go especially well with a six-pack. Thanks to whoever suggested these books. They're great! -Joe Offer-

BRUMLEY, ALBERT E. (ed) "All Day Singin' & Dinner on the Ground" (Brumley, 19**)
Contains many of the good old gospel songs and food recipes that were used at the all-day singings with dinner on the ground in the days of yesteryear. Over 100 old- fashioned recipes. Many of the beautiful gospel songs, featuring "Turn Your Radio On" and other old-time hymns.

BRUMLEY, ALBERT E. (ed) "America's Memory Valley" (Brumley, 19**)
Traditional songs that came from our forefathers, depicting happenings, their values and traditions. A mixed lot of songs from across the nation, songs about romance, tragedy, old plantation songs and much more. A collection of old-tyme songs, pictures and song history. A true treasure!

BRUMLEY, ALBERT E. (ed) "Best Of Albert E. Brumley" (Brumley, 19**)
A 160 page souvenir song book and picture album, containing an exclusive collection of Albert E. Brumley songs - believed to represent the best of the more than 800 songs he has written and spans his career. It also contains some of his biography, newspaper articles, illustrations and pictures. If you are a lover of gospel and sentimental songs, and especially if you are an admirer of Albert E. Brumley, this is the book for you ... You'll enjoy the Albert Brumley Songbook. It's "down home" as all get out, complete with recipies for those "All day Singin' and dinner on the ground" get-togethers. My fave? Parson Blaney's "smothered biscuits" (although I'd substitute onion powder for real onions in the "smotherins"). Rick

BRUMLEY, ALBERT E. (ed) "Golden Years of Gospel Singing" (Brumley, 19**)
This book takes a look back at the time when people gathered together to sing gospel songs and have dinner on the ground. You'll find an excellent selection of old gospel songs, pictures and a collection of gospel music history.

BRUMLEY, ALBERT E. (ed) "Great Inspirational Songs" (Brumley, 19**)
"The finest collection of all-time inspirational songs, gospel songs, special songs and standard church songs and hymns available anywhere". Contains 325 gospel songs in shaped notes.

BRUMLEY, ALBERT E. (ed) "Lamplitin' Songs & Ballads" (Brumley, 19**)
Has the old folk songs, mountain ballads, plantation songs, western songs and songs about mother, home and heaven. Sample songs: "A Child At Mother's Knee", "Silver Threads Among The Gold", "Dreaming Of A Little Cabin", "Two Little Girls in Blue", "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" and others.

BRUMLEY, ALBERT E. (ed) "Olde Time Camp Meetin' Songs" (Brumley, 19**)
Songs of a by-gone era, made popular in camp meetings and brush arbor revivals between 1850 and 1940. Contains: "Great Speckled Bird", "The Model Church", "Will There Be Any Stars", "Church In The Wildwood", "Keep On The Sunnyside of Life", "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" and others.

BRUMLEY, ALBERT E. (ed) "Radio Favorites" (Brumley, 19**)
A selection of older Sacred and sentimental songs of the past. America's favorite "Songs of the Air". You'll find 124 songs with four part harmony arrangements. Favorites contained in this book: "Just A Rose Will Do", "The Royal Telephone", "I'll Have A New Life", "Lord, Build Me A Cabin In Glory", "Supper Time", "That Glad Reunion Day", "Way Down Deep In My Soul", "The Rainbow of Love", "Looking For A City" and other all-time great songs.

BRUMLEY, ALBERT E. (ed) "Songs of the Pioneers" (3 vols) (Brumley, 19**)
#1 contains a collection of 60 "Golden Oldies" with words, music and guitar chord symbols. Book contains: "After the Ball", "Wildwood Flower", "Little Mohee", "Babes in the Wildwood", "Barbara Allen", "Frankie and Johnnie", "Red Wing", "Little Rosewood Casket", "Put My Little Shoes Away" and many more. #2 has a selection of songs and ballads of the romantic past. This book also contains guitar chord symbols with the music. Book contains: "Billy Boy", "Old Dan Tucker", "The Old Gray Mare", "Casey Jones", "I've Been Workin' On The Railroad", "Little Brown Jug", "The Orphan Girl" and many more. A 64 page book. #3 contains: "Blue Eyes", "My Old Kentucky Home", "Wabash Cannonball", "The Preacher and the Bear", "There'll Be A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight", "I Ride An Old Paint", "Tom Dooley", "Skip To My Lou" and many more. 64 Pages ... I have the "Songs of the Pioneers" series and except that the print is so small, they're great. Good items to stash in the instrument case, and simple, playable arangements. ~S~

People - Robert Burns

NOTE: The official Robert Burns site here has his complete works electronically (no melodies).

BURNS, ROBERT and ROY G. ROSS "The Merry Muses of Caledonia" (Univ. South Carolina, 1999)
Full title "The Merry Muses of Caledonia : A Collection of Favourite Scots Songs, Ancient & Modern, Selected for Use of the Crochallan Fencibles". This is his collection of bawdy songs, collected and/or written by him. It is not in the "Complete Works" above, not having been published publicly during his lifetime. Amazon review here.

HOVEY, SERGE "The Robert Burns Song Book, Volume 1" (Mel Bay, 1997)
A set of classical arrangements with excellent notes and historical detail. Hovey died in the middle of the project and sadly there will be no volume 2. Review here.

KINSLEY, JAMES "Burns: Poems and Songs" (Oxford University Press, 1971)

James Kinsley's book is a particularly useful example of a book of Burns' songs with melodies, and has been regularly reprinted.

People - The Carter Family

NOTE: A songbook of "Original Carter Family Songs" is Online here.

LEONARD, HAL "The Original Carter Family" (Peer International, 1980)
A Carter Family songbook with a biography by Johnny Cash. It has words and music (with guitar chords) for 11 of their "biggest" songs - No tablature though.

SOKOLOV, FRED "The Carter Family Collection" (Hal Leonard Publishing Corp., 1999)
Subtitled "32 Songs From the Royal Family of Country Music". It contains photos, an introduction, notes on each song, and an article entitled "Guitar Styles of the Carter Family. ISBN 0793588804. List of contents here.

People - Larrie Gorman

IVES, EDWARD ("SANDY") ET AL "Larry Gorman: The Man Who Made the Songs" (Bloomington, Indiana Univ. Press, 1964)
With Henry Glassie and John Szwed. Sandy Ives' studies of lumbercamp songmaker Larry Gorman.

People - Woody Guthrie

NOTE: The Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives here has a vast amount of information. The Mudcat biography of Woody is here.
Woody's biography from "Rolling Stone" is here and there is another good biography with pictures here.
There is a good Song Site here and a bibliography of books in The Library of Congress here.

GUTHRIE, WOODY "Bound For Glory" (New York, E. P. Dutton, 1968)
Woody's autobiography, illustrated with sketches by the author.

GUTHRIE, WOODY et al "Hard Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People" (Oak Publications, 1967)
This has been reissued. It was compiled by Alan Lomax, Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger.

KLEIN, JOE "Woody Guthrie : A Life" (Delta, 1999)
Klein uses all the resources he could possibly get to tell the life of the most important figure in American Music. Guthrie suffered throughout his life, and the author makes sure the reader understands that. He also points out that Guthrie was not the most polite person, but that he also was one who cared for people. The story of Woody's childhood right up to the time of his death is one that needs to be read by anyone interested in the music of America. ISBN: 0385333854. Amazon Review here.

People - Ashley Hutchings

NOTE: See also Fairport Convention.

HUTCHINGS, ASHLEY "A Little Music" (London, Island Music, 1976)
There are a handful of Fairport Convention Songs in this book by Ashley Hutchings, plus some from his later bands in the 1970's. Description here.

People - Leadbelly

ASCH, MOSES and LOMAX, ALAN "The Leadbelly Songbook" (New York, Oak Publications, 1962)
*** I don't have any further information on this book. Please contact me if you can help. Thanks. Ian ***

People - Christy Moore

MOORE, CHRISTY "One Voice: My Life in Song" (Hodder and Stoughton, 2000)
One of Ireland's best loved singers, he has taken a wholly original approach to this autobiography. At the heart of this unique book are the lyrics to some 250 songs from Christy's career. Reviews here, here and here.

People - Thomas Moore

NOTE: Lesley's biography of Thomas Moore is here and there is another good page, here.

MOORE, THOMAS "Irish Melodies" (10 vols) (Various publishers, originally 1808-1836)
This book is suitable for piano and voice and includes bass amd treble clefs for most selections. There is music of O'Carolan, dance tunes, airs, and harmonised vocal arrangements by Thomas Moore who lived from 1780-1852. Available online here. ISBN 0-931877-27-x.
Last republished as a paperback facsimile of the illustrated 1846 edition by Dover Publications, 2000

People - Francis O'Neill

NOTE: There is a biography of Chief O'Neill here.

CAROLAN, NICHOLAS "A Harvest Saved: Francis O'Neill and Irish Music in Chicago" (Ossian, 1997)
Biography of Francis O'Neill by Nicholas Carolan. Not a tune book, this is simply one of the best presented, most interesting and carefully researched books about the history of the music available. Nicholas Carolan is the Curator of The Traditional Music Archives in Dublin.

O'NEILL FRANCIS "O'Neill's Music of Ireland" (******, 1903)
The largest collection of Irish music ever printed, 1,850 tunes, and contains over 90% of traditional music being played today. This collection was published in 1903, as a result of the efforts of Capt. Francis O'Neill and many traditional musicians attending the Chicago Music Club, circa 1890-1900. Review here.
Reprinted numerous times, most recently by Mel Bay, 1997

People - Peggy Seeger

NOTE: Peggy Seeger's website is here.

SEEGER, PEGGY "The Peggy Seeger Songbook" (Oak Publications, 19??)
Peggy Seeger had her own songbook published about 3 years ago, which is available for about $30. Nice to have what she's done in one book, with some comments on each song.

People - Jimmy Shand

NOTE: There are Jimmy Shand obituaries online at Accordions.Com and The Stage.

CAMERON, IAN and SHEPHERD, ROBBIE "The Jimmy Shand Story" (Scottish Cultural Press, 1998)
A biography of the musician, Jimmy Shand. This book ranges from his boyhood in East Wemyss, Scotland, through the early years as an amateur accordian player, right up to the present day. It includes a listing of Shand's recordings on vinyl, cassette and CD, and also his sheet music compositions. A good review, with a lot of biographical detail here.

People - Cyril Tawney

NOTE: There is a discography with some biographical details here.

TAWNEY, CYRIL "Grey Funnel Lines: traditional song & verse of the Royal Navy 1900-1970" (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987)
A collection of songs from the navy rather than the merchant marine, compiled by the singer and former submariner. Review here.

Last Updated : 05-10-2003 16:30

Subject: Folk Library - Instruments
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Jul 01 - 10:03 PM

A Basic Folk Library - Instruments

Appalachian Dulcimer
Banjo (5-string)
Banjo (Tenor)
Concertina (Anglo-German)
Fiddle
Guitar
Mandolin
Melodeon
Tin Whistle

Instruments - Appalachian Dulcimer

NOTE: Further information about the instrument is available here. See also this article on Contemporary Mountain Dulcimers.

BRYANT, LARKIN "Larkin's Dulcimer Book" (Riverlark Music, 19??)
I have been working in "Larkin's Dulcimer Book" and it's great. An excellent, friendly, instruction book for beginning to intermediate players. Larkin's gentle playing presence comes through on the page in encouraging ways and her pie-chart description of musical values is invaluable! Spiral bound. Note/tab.

MAJOR, JAMES "The Dulcimer Chord Encyclopedia" (Mel Bay, 1993)
The first chord book in standard tunings for the Mountain Dulcimer. Thousands of chords, in 6 popular modes, 3 different tunings each. Indispensible for any serious dulcimer player.

REILLY, LUCILLE "Striking Out ... And Winning" (Shadrach Productions, 1992)
For Hammered Dulcimer, the best single text/instruction book on the market is "Striking Out ... And Winning" by Lucille Reilly. It is a very thorough and well written book with excellent diagrams and photographs. As a single entry, it's hard to beat. Amazon review here.

RITCHIE, JEAN "The Dulcimer Book" (Oak Publications, 1963)
Any basic library would be incomplete on Appalachian Dulcimer without Jean Ritchie's "The Dulcimer Book". She is the "mother" of the instrument and there is simple instruction here, with a wealth of folklore and stories about the instrument.

Instruments - Banjo (5 String)

NOTE: A bibliography of The Banjo's history is available here and here is Stuart Tod's Banjo Page. There is another good 5-string bibliography here.

BURKE, JOHN "John Burke's Book of Old Time Fiddle Tunes for Banjo" (Amsco, 1968)
The next best, which should be no 1 except it is a Tune Book and not suitable for a beginner, 'Old Time Fiddle Tunes for Banjo' by John Burke. This book is the favorite of clawhammer style banjo players. Over 70 tunes and a variety of tunings for the experienced player. 96 pages.

LINN, KAREN "That half-barbaric twang: the banjo in American popular culture" (Urbana, Univ. Illinois Press, 1994)
The Banjo in American Popular Culture (Music in American Life). Originally published in 1957.

MULLER, ERIC and KOEHLER, BARBARA "Frailing the 5-String Banjo: An Instruction Manual" (Mel Bay, 1973)
The best all round clawhammer banjo book is 'Muller & Koehler' Pub by MelBay. An excellent instruction for the beginning frailer with lessons in the basic frailing motion, the brush stroke, the pull-off, hammering, drop-thumb frailing, the roll, the triplet and lots of classic songs in tablature to practice. Book and cassette. ISBN 0-87166-878-5.

WEBB, ROBERT LLOYD (comp) "Ring the banjar: the banjo in America from folklore to factory" (MIT Museum, 1984)
The Banjo in America from Folklore to Factory. A history that's enjoyable to read, with pictures from gourd banjos to heavily inlaid Fairbanks banjos.

Instruments - Banjo (Tenor)

SULLIVAN, ANTHONY "Sully's Irish Banjo Book" (Cork, Ossian Publications, 1988)
I (and I would think many other) tenor banjo players started out with Sully's Irish Banjo book. His session books have also proved to be useful for getting a common repertiore of tunes and my set of has been out on more or less permanent loan to others getting started in Irish music for the last 8 years.

Instruments - Concertina (Anglo-German)

NOTE: There is a useful little bibliography for Anglo-German and English Concertinas here.

LEVY, BERTRAM "The Anglo Concertina Demystified" (New York, Front Hall Enterprises, 19??)
A clearly written tutor for the 30 button Anglo concertina. Also pretty useful for 20-button and 40-button Anglo models. Includes 2 cassettes.

Instruments - Fiddle

NOTE: Useful fiddle sites include Fiddler Magazine here and The Hardanger Fiddle Associatiation of America here.
Chris Bartram's article on The Southern English Fiddle Tradition here and An Appreciation of the Donegal Fiddle here.

COOPER, PETER "the Complete Irish Fiddle player" (Mel Bay, 1998)
Peter Cooper has put together an excellent introduction to the world of Irish fiddling. The book progresses through levels of difficulty, introducing the reader to the different tune forms (jigs, reels, hornpipes etc) and the different forms of ornamentation. The book comes with a double cd which has about 75 tunes on it, played slow and fast. It is a bit pricey. Amazon reviews here.

KAUFMAN, ALAN "Beginning Old Time Fiddle" (New York, Oak, 1997)
The 17 tunes presented in this book teach aspiring musicians how to play fiddle in the style of masters such as Papa John Creach, Sugarcane Harris, Howard Armstrong, Remo Biondi, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, and Lonnie Johnson. Covering the history of the blues fiddle, it also presents correct ways to introduce and end tunes, right- and left-hand styles, and backup techniques. The accompanying practice CD encourages musicians to play along and learn to achieve an authentic sound.

WILLIAMSON, ROBIN "English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes" (New York, Oak, 1976)
Over 100 tunes, this is an outstanding collection of the traditional music of Britain, graded from easy to advanced. Originally came with a little floppy mini record, now a CD. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot from it although I later found out that Robin's versions were not always the standard versions that everybody else played.
Reprinted, 1997

Instruments - Guitar

NOTE: Further information about the instrument is available at The Online Guitar Archive OLGA.
There is also a useful history of the (classical) instrument here.

DENYER, RALPH and SUMMERS, ANDY "The Guitar Manual" (Knopf, 1992)
Ralph Denyer's The Guitar Manual gives a grand discussion of different styles, music theory, sound reinforcement, biography, and technique. Book Description The most comprehensive resource available for beginning and experienced guitarists alike, whether acoustic or electric. Completely redesigned and with many more full-color photos than the original, this new edition surveys recent models and profiles current masters, includes an expanded lesson... Read more Reviews on Amazon here.

McQUAID, SARAH "The Irish DADGAD Guitar Book" (Ossian Publications, 1996)
The Dadgad tuning was developed for backing musicians and solo performers. This book explains Dadgad tuning and provides a complete set of chord diagrams, lists twenty-four Irish tunes arranged in guitar tab, and outlines basic music theory and structure with an empathesis on traditional Irish music. The Dadgad Demo Tape by Sarah McQuaid includes all the tunes listed in the book. Sarah McQuaid biography here.

SEEGER, PETE and LESTER, JULIUS "The Folk Singer's Guide to the 12 String guitar, as played by Leadbelly" (Oak Publications, 1965)
To learn from "The 12 string guitar as played by Leadbelly" by Pete Seeger and Julius Lester. I highly recommend this book. It was published in 1965 by Oak Publications. Until TRO/Folkways published my transcriptions of Lead Belly's music in "Lead Belly, no stranger to the blues" it was the only book that explained the way that Lead Belly actually used the 12-string guitar. The tablature is hand written by or edited by Julius Lester and Jerry Silverman. There are extensive personal observations on Lead Belly's music written by Pete Seeger.

SILVERMAN, JERRY "A Guitarist's Treasury of Song" (Mel Bay, 1995)
This huge collection of traditional and folk tunes includes song categories such as love songs, songs of the sea, fun songs, train songs, sentimental songs, and songs based on historic events. Written in simple leadsheet format with complete lyrics and chord symbols. Author/compiler Jerry Silverman contributes program notes for the more obscure tunes in this exhaustive anthology of American song. A good addition to his two-volume Folk Song Encyclopedia.

SILVERMAN,JERRY "Beginning the folk guitar; an instruction manual" (2 vols) (Oak, 1964)
Simplified,detailed course in the first stages of playing the folk guitar. In 2 volumes, Both excellent. Loads of tab and instruction. There used to be LPs (remember them) available to accompany them.

Instruments - Mandolin

NOTE: The Mandolin Page is here and The Bluegrass Mandolin HomePage is here. There is a Mandolin Chord page here.
Other interesting sites include Simple Gifts (Tablature), Comando, Mandolin Cafe and Mandolinist.com

Instruments - Melodeon

NOTE: There is a useful Melodeon page here.

MALLINSON, DAVID "Mally's Melodeon Methods: D/G System Absolute Beginners" (Mallinson, 19??)
Written by Dave Mallinson, the book is aimed at getting you to beat the bass in time correctly whilst fitting in a few simple melodies. Years of working out an efficient and logical way of playing are thus eliminated. More advanced books are also available from the author here.

Instruments - Tin Whistle

NOTE: A useful online Tin Whistle guide is the Ceolas Penny Whistle Guide.

COTTER, GERALDINE "Traditional Irish Tin Whistle Tutor" (Ossian, 1997)
This is a very good book by Geraldine Cotter (a former all-Ireland whistle champion). There is, separately available, an accompanying cassette by Geraldine of all the tunes in the book with guitar accompaniment.

JORDAN, EAMONN "Whistle and Sing" (2 vols) (****, 19??)
Two collections of Irish songs, reels, airs, jigs, and dance tunes all geared for the whistle and other traditional Irish instruments.

MCCASKILL, MIZZY and GILLIAM, DONA "The Complete Irish Tin Whistle Book" (Mel Bay, 1996)
Quite an instructive book, with some basic music theory, explanation of different grace notes, lots of tunes, and fingering charts to make it easier if you're not a whiz at reading music. ISBN 0-7866-2318-7. Review here. Amazon reviews here.

MCCULLOUGH, L. E. "The Complete Tinwhistle Tutor" (Pittsburgh, PA, Silver Spear Publications, 1976)
I really like this book and would guess that anyone who is already comfortable reading music would have no problem. It's pretty thorough, does a great job of explaining the various ornaments and techniques, and has a bunch of good tunes.

MAGUIRE, TOM "The Tin Whistle Book" (Music Sales Corp., 1997)
A small book for the absolute beginner who wants an introduction to the tin whistle. It's great. Good instruction, kept simple, and lots of practice tunes will keep you busy for months!

OCHS, BILL "The Clarke Tin Whistle Book" (Pennywhistle Press, 19??)
VERY easy format for beginners, and it does not assume learner knows how to read music. Comes with cassette tape. Often comes with purchase of Clarke Whistle. Details of the various deals available here.

WILLIAMSON, ROBIN "The Penny Whistle Book" (Music Sales Corporation, 1977)
This is really good, beginning with very simple yet beautiful tunes, clear instructions for fingering, and really interesting histories of each tune. Check it out. Amazon review here.

Last Updated : 03-05-2002 12:30

Subject: Folk Library - Subjects
From: IanC
Date: 20 Jul 01 - 07:24 AM

A Basic Folk Library - Subjects

Carols and Christmas
Folklore
Folk Tales
Gypsy Tradition
Historical Events
Individual Songs
Mining
Murder
Nursery Rhymes, Childrens' Songs and Games
Pirates
Poetry
Railroad

Subject - Carols and Christmas

NOTE: There is a useful reference for carols here.

DEARMER, PERCY et al (eds) "The Oxford Book of Carols" (Oxford Univ. Press, 1928)
By Percy Dearmer, R. Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw (Editors). A firm favourite with choirs for many years, this is a classic collection of traditional carols. Contents here.
Reprinted 1964

EHRET, WALTER and EVANS, GEORGE "The International Book of Christmas Carols" (Walton Music, 1980)
164 easy arrangements with chords for carols from around the word complete with lyrics in the original language as well as English. This special collection also includes historical background information on the observance of Christmas through the years and notes about specific carols to give added understanding. Songs are included from England, Italy, Latin America, Spain, Scandinavia, Poland, Czech Republic, and more. Contents here.

KEYTE, HUGH et al (eds) "The New Oxford Book of Carols" (Oxford Univ. Press, 1992)
By Hugh Keyte, Andrew Parrott and Clifford Bartlett (Editors). More than 700 pages long, this volume contains over 200 carols, along with a discussion of their history, suggestions for performance, and, often, more than one musical setting. Review here.

LANGSTRAFF, NANCY and JOHN "The Christmas Revels Songbook" (Revels Inc., 1985)
This unique collection includes processionals, traditional and ritual carols, children's songs, and rounds drawn largely from traditional sources spanning six centuries. Presented here in arrangements created especially for Revels, the songs are appropriate for school, community, and church use in Christmas, Winter Solstice, or Twelfth night Celebrations. Includes an excellent CD. ISBN 0964083620

POSTON, ELIZABETH "The Penguin Book of Christmas Carols" (Penguin Books, 1979)
50 Christmas carols compiled and edited, with arrangements, translations and notes, and an introduction by Elizabeth Poston. A scholarly work. Each carol is scored for at least four voices and sometimes there is also a descant line. Elizabeth Poston is probably the best arranger of Christmas Carols of the 20th Century.

Subject - Folklore

NOTE: There is a useful introductory article on Folklore here.

FRAZER, JAMES GEORGE, SIR "The Golden Bough" (New York, Macmillan, 1922)
A monumental study in comparative folklore, magic and religion, The Golden Bough shows parallels between the rites and beliefs, superstitions and taboos of early cultures and those of Christianity. It had a great impact on psychology and literature and remains an early classic anthropological resource.
Available online The Golden Bough at Bartleby.com.

LEACH, MARIA "Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, & Legend" (Harper Row, 1972)
(Originally published 1949-50, new ed. 1972; and a wee while ago in paperback). Edited by Maria Leach. This covers a lot of ground, but falls short in many many respects.

Subject - Folk Tales

NOTE: There is a useful article on Folk Tales by Doug Lipman - here and a comprehensive online resource here.

JACOBS, JOSEPH "English Fairy Tales" (******, 1890)
JACOBS, JOSEPH "More English Fairy Tales" (******, 1894)
In his preface to the first book, Jacobs remarks "WHO says that English folk have no fairy tales of their own? The present volume contains only a selection out of some 140, of which I have found traces in this country. It is probable that many more exist.". His two books are the classic collection of folk tales from England. Illustrated by John Batten.
Reprinted by Dover (1998), these are also available online - English Fairy Tales and More English Fairy Tales.

THOMPSON, STITH "The Folktale" (8 vols) (New York, Dryden Press, 1951)
His Motif-Index tries to list all the little events and personalities one finds in tales and ballads etc., though it's irritating to use sometimes.

Subject - Gypsy Tradition (poems, speech, songs)

NOTE: There is a Gypsy bibliography here.

COUGHLAN, TIM "Now Shoon the Romano Gillie" (Univ. Wales, 2001)
Subtitled "Traditional Verse in the High and Low Speech of the Gypsies of Britain", it is a very weighty tome. However, it reads very well and should be of interest. ISBN: 0-7083-1498-8.

Subject - Historical Events

GREAVES, C. DESMOND "The Easter Rising in Song & Ballad" (London, Kahn and Averill, 1980)
This book contains more than 30 songs with notation concerning the 1916 rebellion including "A Rebel Song (James Connolly)", "The Soldiers of Cumann Na mBan (Brian O';Higgins)", "James Connolly", etc. You can learn not only the songs but the Irish history.

Subject - Individual Songs

IVES, EDWARD ("SANDY") "The Bonny Earl of Murray: The Man, the Murder, the Ballad" (Univ. Illinois Press, 1997)
"The Bonny Earl of Murray" is one of Professor Ives' favorite ballads. In his book, The Bonny Earl of Murray, he gives the reader "the rest of the story" -- the story of the life and death of the Bonny Earl himself. He also traces the path of the ballad through history, following it through stanza shuffles and tune modifications, on and off the concert stage. Excellent review here.

MURPHY, SEAN "The Mystery of Molly Malone" (Dublin, 1992)
Investigates the authorship and history of the classic Victorian song, and the mythology which has grown up around it. The contribution of the book is summarised here.

SCHEIPS, PAUL "Hold the Fort!" (Smithsonian, 1971)
The Story of a Song from the Sawdust Trail to the Picket Line. See also the song ... Bliss, Philip Paul, 1838-1876. "Hold The Fort"

Subject - Mining

GREEN, ARCHIE "Only A Miner: Studies in Recorded Coal-Mining Songs" (Univ. Illinois Press, 1972)
Another important book that could be included under the heading 'Mining'.

LLOYD, A. L. (ed) "Come All Ye Bold Miners" (Lawrence & Wishart Ltd., 1952; revised 1978)
Ballads and songs from the mines. Good review here.

Subject - Murder

BURT, OLIVE WOOLLEY "American Murder Ballads and their Stories" (New York, Oxford Univ. Press, 1958)
In her book, American Murder Ballads and Their Stories, Olive Woolley Burt has collected scores of American folk ballads and verses about that sin of most dire consequence, murder. She has also sought out historical accounts (via newspaper articles, court records, and personal interviews) of the actual crimes that inspired the ballads which will prove to be quite helpful in our discussion of the relation of society to culture.

OWSTON, CHARLES E. "Murder, Betrayal and Death: Observations on Traditional Ballads" (Self published, 1999)
Murder Betrayal and Death is a self-financed work that is equally entertaining, both as a reference work or just a good read. It's probably just as well the author decided against listing UK folk songs related to sex alone, though, as the result would have to be the size of an encyclopedia! Available from Charles E. Owston, PO Box 162, Ardara PA 15615, USA. Review here.

Subject - Nursery Rhymes, Childrens' Songs and Games

NOTE: There is an interesting collection of early Nursery Rhymes here.

BUTTERWORTH, NICK "The Puffin Book of Nursery Rhymes" (Puffin, 1995)
A collection of 14 of the best-loved nursery rhymes which invites young readers to take a fresh look at favorite verses. With bright and witty illustrations, this is one book of nursery rhymes that should surely have a place on every child's night table.

LANG, ANDREW and BROOKE, L. LESLIE "The Nursery Rhyme Book" (London, Warne, 1898)
By Andrew Lang, Reteller of folk and fairy tales, and illustrated by Brooke.

MEEK, BILL "Moon Penny" (Cork, Ossian, 19??)
Subtitled "a collection of rhymes, songs and play-verse for and by children". A Collection of Rhymes, Songs, and Play-Verse for and by Children Gathered in Ireland. Ed. by John Loesberg, music transcribed by Bebhinn Ni Mheara". It's a great book with great illustrations.

O'BOYLE, CARMEL "Cut the Loaf: Irish Children's Songs" (Mercier Press, 1997)
A great little book. A selection of 50 of the most popular songs traditionally sung in English by Irish children. Melody line, guitar chords and piano accompaniments. 132 pages.

OPIE, IONA and PETER "The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren" (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1959)
Childrens Games in Street and Playground. Reviewed here and at Amazon here.
Reprinted by Oxford University Press, 1987

OPIE, IONA and PETER "The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes" (Oxford Univ. Press, 2nd ed.1997)
A brand new edition of the classic anthology of nursery rhymes, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes includes over 500 rhymes, songs, nonsense jingles, and lullabies traditionally handed down to young children. With each piece Iona and Peter Opie introduce a wealth of information, noting its earliest known publication, origin, and illustrating changes in wording over the years. 85 illustrations.

OPIE, IONA and PETER "The Singing Game" (Oxford University Press, 1985)
The standard work on singing-games and their history.

Subject - Pirates

FRANK, STUART "The Book Of Pirate Songs" (Sharon, Mass., Kendall Whaling Museum, 1998)
Stuart is the Director of the Kendall Museum & has written nautical/music books as well as penned a few songs & done some recordings in the sea music genre. Excellent book. Covers 62 songs starting back as far as "John Dory" (Child #284) going back to 1575 up to the Music Hall era & the Songsters. The chapters break it up into Old Ballads, Broadside Ballads, Women Buccaneers, Victorian Songs, Songs from Popular Songsters & last Related Ballads. The backround histories to the songs is extremely well researched & well done as are the backround of the song's subjects. The music is written out for most the songs as well as chords. ISBN 0-937854-05-0.

Subject - Poetry

CHAPPLE, JOE MITCHELL (ed) "Heart Throbs" (The Chapple Publishing Co., 1905)
Heart Throbs--In Prose and Verse Dear to the American People--and by Them Contributed in the $10,000 Prize Contest Initiated by the National Magazine, 1904-1905. See also "Heart Songs" (COUNTRIES/USA).

Subject - Railroad

NOTE: There is a bibliography containing most books about trains and railroads here.

COHEN, NORM "The Long Steel Rail" (Univ. Illinois Press, 2000)
About to be re-issued. Review here.

LYLE, KATIE LETCHER "Scalded to Death by the Steam" (Chapel Hill NC, Algonquin Books, 19??)
stories of railroad disasters and the ballads about them. ISBN-0-912697-01-6.
Reprinted 1991

Last Updated : 15-03-2002 16:00

Subject: Folk Library - Online Resources
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Jul 01 - 10:46 PM

A Basic Folk Library - Online Resources

Alphabetical pages for online Biographies, Song and Tune Sites, Performers' Sites and Publishers' Sites can be accessed by clicking the appropriate link.

Online Resources - Articles

Cecil Sharp In America
Article "Cecil Sharp In America: Collecting in The Appalachians"

Online Resources - Bibliographies

A Traditional Music Library
A Bibliography of online songbooks etc. with links.

Appalachian Women and Traditional Music (resource)
A bibliography and other links for resources about Appalachian traditional music and women.

EFDSS Folksong Bibliography
David Atkinson's English Folk Song: an introductory bibliography (1999) is now available online via the  English Folk Dance and Song Society. It is not limited to traditional song in England, though that is its main focus.

EFDSS Morris Dancing Bibliography
The EFDSS's Bibliography of books about Morris Dancing (Note the LIBRARY prefix - it also applies to Sword)

The Electric Book Company
A bibliography of e-texts available for sale.

Folklore and Society Series
University of Illinois Press "Folklore and Society" bibliography

David Herron's Chapbook
A list of folk song books in print in Britain and Ireland. Upkept by Dave Heron (Eckersley), The Traditional Song Forum.

Irish Music - Old Books
A catalogue of old books on Irish music.

Music In American Life Series
University of Illinois Press "Music In American Life" bibliography.

New College of California Guide to E-Texts
A bibliograhy of online e-texts.

Sources for Printed Music and Song Lyrics
This is part of "Music On & Off the Web: A Suite of Handouts" presented, Fall 1998; Revised April 1999 by Nell Ingalls, Research Librarian, Suburban Library System Reference Service.

The Scottish Folklore Page
A bibliography of books for sale on Scottish Folklore.

Women of Appalachia - Resources
A bibliography and other links.

Online Resources - Book Review Sites

Green Man Reviews
Source of many of the book reviews in these pages

Michael Raven's Songbooks
A review of Song books by Mike Raven.

Online Resources - Collections

American Folklife Centre (Library of Congress) Collections
A list of the collections available at the Library of Congress American Folklife Center. Includes a wide range of resources.

British and Irish Authors on The Web
Online books by a variety of British and Irish authors from Beowulf onwards. Useful for reference.

Women of Appalachia - resources

Frank C. Brown Collection
Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore.

Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection
Anyone interested in making arrangements to hear the field recordings should get in touch with Mr. Terry Simpkins ([e-mail]). He is most enthusiastic about people interested in the Collection.

The Princess Grace Irish Library of Monaco
The Princess Grace Irish Library of Monaco ... has loads of interesting info.

Village Music Project
A study of English Social Musicians from the 17th century onwards from their manuscripts.

Online Resources - Historical Information

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

History of Hymns Archive
United Methodist site. Upkept by William Reynolds.

WPA Life Histories Project
Writers' Project Association descriptions of life from the Federal Writers' Project (1936-1940). There's an online article here.

Online Resources - Miscellaneous

A Million Lives - Biography Resource
Enormous resource for short biographies of nearly everybody.

Canadian Journal For Traditional Music
A large archive of past issues of the journal, all available online, with some excellent articles.

CDSS
The US Country Dance and Song Society.

Finding Songs in Songbooks & Anthologies: A Users’ Guide
"Are you looking for the words and music to a favorite song your grandmother used to sing, or a copy of your favorite Beatles song? These indexes, and our "Song Index" and "Sheet Music" card files, are designed to assist both you and the librarians in locating songs in song books and anthologies." Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

Folklib Index
FolkLib Index - A library of Folk Music Links.

Leonards
Dealer's "for sale" page.

More Music
A music search page.

Music 1 records search
A record search page.

Pro Music Find record search
Another record search page.

The Radio Ballads review
Review of one of the most influential radio series ever broadcast in the UK.

Song Notes: A Companion to the Old Town School of Folk Music
Notes on a song book which Joe Offer claims he would kill for!!!.

Swinburne (1866) Poems and Ballads
Swinburne's most influential poetic work as an e-text.

Traditional MP3s
A page of MP3s of traditional music.

WFMA (World Folk Music Association)
The World Folk Music Association's web page.

Last Updated : 05-10-2003 16:30

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread™
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Jul 01 - 07:19 PM

Reserved for further expansion...

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread™
From: IanC
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 09:52 AM

reserved for expansion....

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread™
From: IanC
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 12:44 PM

reserved for expansion....

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread™
From: IanC
Date: 22 Aug 01 - 08:54 AM

reserved for expansion....

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread™
From: IanC
Date: 23 Aug 01 - 09:01 AM

reserved for expansion...

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread™
From: IanC
Date: 28 Aug 01 - 09:58 AM

reserved for expansion....

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread™
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Sep 01 - 02:38 PM

Please remember that this is a PermaThread. The original "Folk Library" thread is here (click), and might be a better place for discussion. In most of the PermaThreads, we ask people to submit suggestions but expect that their messages will be incorporated into the main work and deleted. There's some really good stuff here that I don't want to delete, but I may have to. We try to keep the PermaThreads short so they'll load in reasonable time.

Thanks.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread™
From: IanC
Date: 04 Mar 02 - 12:19 PM

Hi folks, I'm now back to a more active role, so within a week or so I should be able to start updating the library again.

Just one note, aimed a little at Dicho's post above.

The Folk Library is not exhaustive and the rule is that it contains ONLY books etc. specifically recommended by mudcatters (this includes me). If I find that an interesting section is light, I have usually worked on it by asking people to contribute from other relevant threads. I'll include Dicho's stuff above, but what he is suggesting also affects the categorisation. If anyone can supply a spirituals category which is more appropriate then please give it to. The place to do it is here.

Thanks
Ian

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread™
From: Folkiedave
Date: 25 Apr 03 - 05:14 AM

I have many of these for sale See my website - soon to be updated.

ALso many old records on vinyl Topic especially.

Dave Eyre
www.collectorsfolk.co.uk

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread™
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Oct 03 - 11:05 AM

*** ALL MESSAGES TO HERE HAVE NOW BEEN "HARVESTED". WHEN I'VE CHECKED THE SOURCES THE LIBRARY WILL BE UPDATED ***

Cheers!
Ian

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread™
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 Oct 03 - 07:33 PM

I copied everything from Ian's site today, and posted updates above. Nice work, Ian.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread™
From: IanC
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 08:12 AM

Thanks, Joe, for posting the updated version. Everything looks fine.

I've just been able to check all the links here, and it seems as though up to 20% of them are broken or at least bent. Looks like my next project will be to renew, replace or destroy all the non-working links.

Any further contributions are always very welcome as well ... with as much of information (publisher, dates etc.) as you are able to provide (I always try to check the accuracy), and a short review would be nice.

:-)
Ian

Thanks

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread™
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Jan 04 - 02:45 AM

Thread #66115   Message #1094617
Posted By: Stewie
16-Jan-04 - 10:09 PM
Thread Name: 'Folk-Songs of America' - online reissue
Subject: 'Folk-Songs of America' - online reissue

I don't think this has been mentioned in the forum. Someone kindly drew attention to this in the oldtime music newsgroup. 'Folk-Songs of America: The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection 1922-1932' LP has been reissued in its entirety - songs, notes, texts - in celebration of the 75 anniversary of the Archive of Folk Culture. To access the songs, click on 'Annotations and Texts' [Rosenberg], then on the actual numbers A1 through to B8 for individual tracks, texts and notes. The album includes Fred Lewey's performance of 'Old Ninety Seven'.

CLICK HERE

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread™
From: IanC
Date: 17 Jan 04 - 03:16 PM

Thanks Joe, it's in the queue!

:-)

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread™
From: IanC
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 11:38 AM

Soem useful comments about a variety of books have appeared in this thread:
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=66100

IT'S ALSO IN MY QUEUE!

:-)

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread™
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 02:26 PM

"Calypso Songs of the West Indies," 1943, by Massie Patterson and Lionel Belasco. New York.
Older calypso songs by Belasco, some dating to 1906.

"The Golden Age of Calypso," 1985, from Musical Traditions no. 4, and on line at: http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/calypso.htm

A good short article with excellent examples of lyrics from the 1930s

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread™
From: Stewie
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 05:39 PM

There is a vast amount of information on calypso in Ray Funk's Kaiso Newsletters which also are available on the Musical Traditions site:

Kaiso Newsletters

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread™
From: IanC
Date: 24 Mar 04 - 07:28 AM

Thanks Q and Stewie. I'll look into adding a new section on Calypso (and perhaps a West Indies section also). In the meantime, if anyone can recommend any books, let me know.

-)
Ian

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 May 04 - 03:28 PM

Sandy Paton sent me a link to a great online resource, MacEdward Leach and the Songs of Atlantic Canada. It includes texts and recordings of songs from Cape Breton Island (all in Gaelic) and from Newfoundland (including some instrumental pieces), as well as background information and photos.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Sep 04 - 03:33 PM

Take a look at this thread on the Botsford Collection of Folk Songs. Looks like there must be two editions, three volumes each. The one that came out in the 1920's has about 100 pages per volume, and the edition from the 1950's has closer to 250 pages per volume, Volume 1 is the Americas (plus Africa and Asia in later editions). Volume 2 is Northern Europe, and Volume 3 is Southern Europe. Bookfinder.com lists it at $10-$20 per volume for the earlier edition, $25-$40 for the larger, later edition.
Is this a collection I can't live without?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: IanC
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 11:55 AM

Thanks Joe

Looks like a "must have" from the point of view of your collection!

I still haven't found time to get back to updating this thread ... there are quite a few dead links I've noticed and a few books people have suggested here & there. Someday soon ...

:-)
Ian

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 04:36 PM

We haven't had many new contributions here lately, but here's a good one:

Thread #84168   Message #1552415
Posted By: Dave Ruch
29-Aug-05 - 04:30 PM
Thread Name: Wisconsin Folksong Collection online!!
Subject: Wisconsin Folksong Collection online!!


Apologies if this has already been posted or discussed here - I couldn't find any reference to it in prior threads.

There's a great new website with field recordings from two different Wisconsin folksong collectors. The real voices of the "informants", plus notes and even printable sheet music for each song!

The Collection contains Wisconsin field recordings, notes, and photographs made by UW-Madison faculty member Helene Stratman-Thomas as part of the Wisconsin Folk Music Recording Project, co-sponsored by the University of Wisconsin and the Library of Congress during the summers of 1940, 1941, and 1946; and recordings collected by song catcher Sidney Robertson Cowell during the summer of 1937 for the Special Skills Division of the Resettlement Administration.

The database is very search-friendly as well, so if you are looking for specific topics, songs, etc, they are very easy to find. What a great job they have done here.

I've spent way too much time at the website already today....

http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WiscFolkSong

Thanks, Dave!
-Joe Offer-

---

Here's an online resource that shouldn't be missed: A Traditional Music Library.

I figured out how to get this PermaTrhead back in order, so I'll be doing repairs here in the next few weeks. I have most it in order now, but there are a few more refinements to make.

-Joe Offer 1 Mar 2006-

Subject: Basic Folk Library PermaThread - Index
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 01:57 PM

Note: this is a PermaThread™, a permanent reference on folk music books controlled by IanC and maintained by Joe Offer. Feel free to post messages below, but be aware that all messages posted in this thread are subject to editing and deletion.
Thanks to Ian and to John in Kansas for their hard work in assembling this information. Ian's Website is here (click)
-Joe Offer-

---

A Basic Folk Library

This is a collated list of books suggested in the Mudcat PermaThread of the same name (see below), correct to the thread post of 5 October 2003 at 11:03 AM EDT. Most of the books will be out of print and only available at secondhand or specialist booksellers.
Any suggestions, additions, etc. via Personal Message (click) or the relevant Mudcat thread, please. Or you could e-mail me here -> ***Ian***

GENERAL BOOKS - Songs and Tunes, Research

COUNTRIES - Australia, Canada, England, Germany, Hawai'i, Ireland, Man, Scotland, USA, Wales, etc.

DANCE - Morris, Social Dance, Sword Dancing etc.

GENRES - Bawdy, Black, Blues, Country, Cowboy,Drinking, Humour, Hymns, Military, Mormon, Shanties+Worksongs, Spirituals, Yiddish etc.

PEOPLE - Individuals, Families and Groups from Joan Baez to Cyril Tawney

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS - Appalachian Dulcimer, Banjo, Concertina, Fiddle, Guitar, Mandolin, Melodeon, Tin Whistle etc.

SUBJECTS - Carols+Christmas,Folklore,Folk Tales,Gypsy Tradition,Historical Events,Individual Songs,Mining,Murder,Nursery Rhymes,Pirates,Poetry,Railroad etc.

ONLINE RESOURCES - Links to Online Resources

Last Updated : 02-08-02 [last Post : 08-Jun-02]

---

Since this is getting to be a rather large piece of work, perhaps it would be appropriate to remind people that you can "search current page" in most web browsers.

In IE5, at least, you don't want the "Search" button on the bar at the top. This will try to search the entire www (the web, not the wobblies).

Click the "Edit" tag at the top of the screen, and select "Find (On this Page)" on the drop-down.
An alternate method is just to key "Ctrl-F", which is the standard mickeysoft shortcut to "Edit-Find.

JohnInKansas

---

By the way, I will include all suggestions for books which are individually recommended by people here. Pointers to other sites may be useful, but I reserve the right to decide whether I link to them or not (I will if they are generally good). I'm not about to copy whole chunks of HTML from elsewhere, though. Thanks for the suggestions. Cheers!
Ian

---

Also see:
Songbooks Threads

School Songbooks Threads

Subject: Basic Folk Library PermaThread - introduction
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 02:13 PM

Where to Look for Books

AbeBooks - Book Search Engine.
Brings up links to finds as in standard web searches. AbeBooks represents thousands of used book dealers worldwide and is a good source for folk books.

addall.com - Book Search Engine, currently searches 40 plus bookshops.
Brings up a comparison of the price in various shops, including carriage. Also has a good Used Books search.

Alibris - Major Book Search Engine.
Alibris has become one of the major book search sites, worldwide. Now listing over 36 million books.

BiblioFind - Amazon's Rare and Used Books Search.
Suggested by multiple postings on Mudcat. BiblioFind Amazon's Rare and Used Books finder.

BookFinder - Worldwide Book Search Engine.
A nice site, particularly good for used books. It even lists books in the Oxfam bookshops!

The Country Bookshop Plainfield, Vermont
Not a link, this one, but JohnInKansas recommends it. Specializes in used folksong and folklore books.

---

Recently Added - Unsorted (as yet) Books

ASHMAN, GORDON "The Ironbridge Hornpipe" (??, 19??)
THE IRONBRIDGE HORNPIPE A Shropshire tune collection from John Moore's manuscripts edited by Gordon Ashman. Contents: Astley's hornpipe, Auld lang syne, The bateuse, The bath waltz, The Birmingham March, Blue bells of Schotland, The blue stocking, Broom on the crowdeknows, Buy a broom, Calder fairs, Captain white, Castle rag hornpipe, Chetsworth house dance, The Chine orange hornpipe, Colledge hornpipe, Cook's hornpipe, The Copenhagen waltz, The cuckoo solo, Dance (No title, tink a tink), Dance, The Dandy O, The dashing white seargant, Daughter of Israel, Denis Bullyruddery, The devil's dream, Downfall of Paris, Drops a brandy, Drunken parson, Duke of Glocester's new march, Duke of Wellington march, The duke of York's march, Dumble durn deary, Dutch ship, The dusty miller, and many others.

MERRYWEATHER, JAMES and SEATTLE, MAX "Lawrence Leadley, the Fiddler of Helperby" (Dragonfly Music, 1994)
Subtitle: The life and music of a Yorkshire fiddler. This is an excerpt of 10 tunes from the book, which the authors / publishers have given their permission to make public here on the 'net. They were typed up by Warren Armstrong, whose brainchild this project is; thanks to him, and to James & Matt, for making it possible. The "Web version" only shows the 10 tunes that are present; but the abc file includes "dummy" entries for all the others as well, containing all the header info, title, key, time signature, etc, but no "dots" - if you want to get those you have to buy them, I'm afraid. Follow this link for the publisher's contact details.

RITCHIE, JEAN (ed) "The Newport Folk Festival Songbook" (New York, Alfred Music, 1965)
57 songs by 57 artists, with a foreword by Pete Seeger and photographs by David Gahr. The contents list appears in the Mudcat posthere. Jean Ritchie writes "I was a Newport Folk Festival trustee during most of its run, and in the early sixties, I was asked by Alfred Music Publishing to do this book for them. Other Newport trustees agreed. I asked each performer who'd been a festival participant up to that time, to choose a favorite song that he/she had sung at the Festival. Each of them provided a photograph and a bio, or wrote about his/her life in letters to me (I still have the originals). The book had a short life, as it took the publishers a long time to issue it, had meantime moved their offices to California and the people interested in the Newport Festival had gone. That's life! I'm sure there were very few sold; I have only two of them in my library."

ROONEY, JAMES "Bossmen : Bill Monroe and Muddy Waters" (Da Capo Press, 1991) )
I am currently re-reading "Bossmen" by James Rooney. It is about Bill Monroe & Muddy Waters. Most of the book is interviews with Bill & Muddy. It is a very interesting read, they both discuss their influences, how they developed their own particular style of music, the people who came through their bands etc. It's a neat book. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned a lot. ISBN: 0306804271. Amazon reviews here and another review here..

---

Recently Added - Links

---

Latest Changes - 02-08-2002

27-09-01 Added New Subsection - PEOPLE / Francis O'Neill
08-03-02 Minor additions since last year
15-03-02 Added Internal Subsection Anchors and an Index for each Section
03-05-02 Added new Subsection INSTRUMENTS / Banjo (Tenor)
03-05-02 Added books and links from recent Mudcat thread "English Fiddle Tunes"
03-05-02 Added books and links from recent Mudcat thread "Favourite Books"
30-05-02 Added new Subsection PEOPLE / Albert E. Brumley
02-08-02 Major changes to Subsection GENRES / Spirituals

---

Last Updated : 05-10-2003 16:30 [Last Post 5 October 2003 - 11:03 AM EDT]

Subject: Basic Folk Library PermaThread - General Books
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 02:19 PM

A Basic Folk Library - General Books

Songs and Tunes
Research

General - Songs and Tunes

"The Collected Reprints from Sing Out!"
Volumes 1-6, 1959-1964 and Volumes 7-12, 1964-1973. From Sing Out! Publications

BLOOD, PETER and PATTERSON, ANNIE "Rise Up Singing" (Sing Out! Publications, 19??)
Lyrics only for a variety of more than 1,200 great songs --- pop, hymns, gospel, rounds, sea shanties, folk songs, blues. Sing Out! Publications Page here.

BONI, MARGARET BRADFORD "The Fireside Book of Folk Songs" (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1947)
Folk songs from many (mostly Western) nations, selected and compiled by MBB. Out of print.

CHAPPELL, WILLIAM "Popular Music of the Olden Time" (2 vols) (London, 1855-8)
Subtitled: A Collection of ancient songs, ballads and dance tunes, illustrative of the National Music of England. With short introductions to the different reigns, and notices of the airs from writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Also a short account of the minstrels.
Reprinted 1965 by Dover Publications (New York) as "The Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time" (2 vols) with a new introduction by Frederick Sternfeld.

CHILD, FRANCIS JAMES (ed.) "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads" (Houghton Mifflin, 1882 to 1898, Dover, 1965)
Regarded by many as the definitive work on traditional ballads. Good review here. There is a list of the "Child Ballads" with many of them online at Lesley's Contemplator site and a Concordance here. There's also an article on "Early Child Ballads" here.
Reprinted (hard-cover) by Cooper Square, 1962.
About to be reprinted, with corrections, by Loomis House Press September 2001. Announcement here.

COHEN, JOHN and SEEGER, MIKE "The New Lost City Ramblers Song Book" (Oak Publications, 1964)
Full of old string band standards from the twenties through the forties. Most, if not all, have been recorded at one time or another by the New Lost City Ramblers.
Reprinted by Music Sales Corp, 1997. as "The Old-Time String Band Song book". ISBN: 0825601797

FRANK, LYNN "Songs for Swingin' Housemothers" (San Francisco CA, Fearon Publishers, 1963)
This is a great resource if you can find a used copy, but it's long out of print. It's a collection of a lot of strange songs (folk and otherwise) designed for college sing-a-longs.

GOTTLIEB, ROBERT and KIMBALL, ROBERT "Reading Lyrics" (Pantheon Books, 2000)
Well, I suppose it isn't folk, but I think it's appropriate for folk musicians to know the songs of Tin Pan Alley. I just came across this book. The dust jacket blurb says the book has "more than a thousand of the finest lyrics from 1900 to 1975. A celebration of our greatest songwriters, a rediscovery of forgotten masters, and an appreciation of an extraordinary, popular art form." The lyrics appear to be strictly from American songwriters, the so-called "standards." I don't see any folk or blues, or rock 'n' roll. There are songs I love to sing. I know the tunes, but the lyrics help my fading memory. I'm sure I'll spend hours singing my way through this gem of a book. "Reading Lyrics" doesn't have photos and has only biographical information about the songwriters - but the selection of songs is terrific.

KIDSON, FRANK "Traditional Tunes: A Collection of Ballad Airs" (Oxford, Chas. Taphouse & Sons, 1891)
83 English folk Songs from Yorkshire and South Scotland.
Reprinted 1970 by Scolar Press (Menston, Yorkshire, UK) with a new foreword by A.E. Green.
Also availble in an appendix to the reprint of William Chappell's "Old English Popular Music" (New York: Jack Brussel, 1961).

KINSLEY, JAMES (ed) "The New Oxford Book of Ballads" (Oxford University Press, 1969)
This edition by Kinsley is often regarded as a better source than the Quiller-Couch version below.

LANG, ANDREW "A Collection of Ballads" (London, Chapman and Hall, 1910)
Poetry collection of popular ballads presented by novelist and poet Andrew Lang. Available as a Project Gutenberg e-text here, or (slightly better formatted) here.

LAWRENCE, VERA BRODSKY "Music for Patriots, Politicians and Presidents" (New York, MacMillan, 1975)
Music for Patriots, Politicians, and Presidents: Harmonies and Discords of the First Hundred Years.

LEACH MacEDWARD (ed) "The Ballad Book" New York, A. S. Barnes & Co, 1955
A great source for ballad lyrics.
Reprinted in 1977 by Oak Tree Publications.

QUILLER-COUCH, ARTHUR (ed) "The Oxford Book of Ballads" (Oxford, Clarendon, 1910)
These 176 selections by the master anthologist exhibit such lyrics familiar to this day as "I Saw Three Ships" and long epical ballads like the 3334-line Robin Hood Ballads. The 1969 edition by Kinsley (above) is, however, regarded as a better source.
AVAILABLE ONLINE (* may not display correctly in some versions of Netscape *) New York, Bartleby.Com, 2001.

SILVERMAN, JERRY "Folk Song Encyclopedia" (2 vols) (Mel Bay, 19??)
Contents - Vol 1, Vol 2.

SIMPSON, CLAUDE M. "The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music" (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1966)
For tunes.

SPAETH, SIGMUND "Read 'Em and Weep" (New York, Halcyon House, 1926 & 1945)
SPAETH, SIGMUND "Weep Some More, My Lady" (New York, Halcyon House, 1927)
Very interesting and entertaining studies of the old, sappy classics. Spaeth (1885-1965) also wrote an handy book called "Barber Shop Ballads and How to Sing Them", and a number of other books on old popular music and on classical music.

WRIGHT, F. E. "Songs That Never Grow Old" (New York, Syndicate Publishing, 1909)
This is a nice collection of familiar songs. There are some interesting photos of singers in the first several pages. Not an "essential" book, but it's nice.

General - Research

A good online bibliography for ballads is The Traditional Ballad Index. Bruce Olson's site here is also invaluable.

BOYES, GEORGINA "The Imagined Village" (Univ. Manchester Press, 1993)
The subtitle for Georgina Boyes's excellent study, "Culture, Ideology, and the English Folk Revival", may lead readers to think that names such as Martin Carthy, Ashley Hutchings, or June Tabor will figure heavily in her book. They do not. For the most part, the book is about not what we think of today as the "revival," but the original revival, dating to about the turn of the century, during which such crucial concepts as "folklore," "folksong" and "the folk" first came to be tested. It is a fascinating and detailed look at the very origins of the idea of English folk culture, doled out with large portions of scholarly gravity and a small side of biting wit.

BRONSON, BERTRAND HARRIS "The Singing Tradition of Child's Popular Ballads" (Princeton University Press, 1976)
An abridged one-volume collection of the "The Traditional Tunes ..." below.

BRONSON, BERTRAND HARRIS "The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads" (4 vols) (Princeton University Press , 1959 to 1972)
The Bertrand Bronson volumes of the Child ballads are essential to a folksong library, but they are painfully expensive these days.

BRUNNINGS, FLORENCE E. "Folk Song Index" (New York, Garland, 1981)
Subtitled "A Comprehensive Guide to the Florence E. Brunnings Collection". A labor of love indexing a personal collection of more than 49,000 songs in books and magazines and on recordings. Indexed by title, variant title, and tune.

COHEN, NORM "Traditional Anglo-American Folk Music" (New York, Garland, 1994)
Subtitled "An Annotated Discography of Published Recordings". A reference source for finding recordings (mostly LPs, with some cassettes and CDs) of British and American traditional music. The first two sections are primarily noncommercial field recordings (artists and groups, anthologies) the third and fourth sections are primarily commercial 78-rpm recordings. Includes album title, artist, producer/editor, where/when recorded, publication date, nature and author of annotations, and the selections included on the recording, followed by a summary of the album's contents, context, the background of the performers, unusual songs or tunes, musical styles, etc.

FOWLER, DAVID "A Literary History of the Popular Ballad" (Duke University Press, 1968)
Provides "...a chronology of ballad origin in development, and a description of the evolution of ballad style from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries in England and Scotland".

FULD, JAMES J. "The Book of World Famous Music: Classical, Popular and Folk" (New York, Crown, 1966)
This is not a songbook, and properly not even a folk music book (the subhead is "Classical, Popular, and Folk"). It is, however, a useful and portable reference for copyright and first appearance information. Good review here and another one here. Currently in its 5th Edition (New York, Dover, 1999).

HARKER, DAVE "Fakesong" (Milton Keynes, Open University Press, 1985)
Subtitled "the manufacture of British 'folksong' 1700 to the present day".

HART, MARY L. et al "The Blues: A Bibliographic Guide" (New York, Garland, 1989)
By Mary L. Hart, Brenda M. Eagles, and Lisa N. Howorth. An exhaustive compilation of blues-related citations including such subjects as blues and society, blues instruction and blues research. Contains author and title indexes.

HENDRICKSON, ROBERT "Mountain Range:A Dictionary of Expressions from Appalachia to the Ozarks" (Checkmark, 1997)
Here's one which has proven useful at times. Mebbee this'n ain't sumpin' ya holt with tho, but it's morrin a mite fair...........It's pretty good really!!! Review here.

HICKERSON, JOE "The Archive of Folk Song: A Bibliography" (Washington D.C., Library of Congress, 1988)
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.

HUSTVEDT, SIGURD, BERNHARD "Ballad Books and Ballad Men" (Harvard Univ. Press, 1930)
Subtitled "Raids and Rescues in Britain, America, and the Scandinavian North Since 1800". This is a sequel to the author's Ballad criticism in Scandinavia and Great Britain during the eighteenth century, published in 1916. It contains a great deal of detailed information about the editors of important ballad collections, especially Child. Appendices include The Grundtvig Child correspondence (from the Danish Folklore Collection, Royal Library, Copenhagen, and the Child Memorial Library, Harvard University) and The Grundtvig-Child index of English and Scottish ballads.
Reprinted, 1970, by Johnson Reprint Corp., New York

LEACH, MacEDWARD and COFFIN, TRISTRAM P. (eds) "The Critics and the Ballad" (Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 1961)
Essays on the ballad.

MILLER, TERRY E. "Folk Music in America: A Reference Guide" (New York, Garland, 1986)
1927 annotated entries, encompassing bibliographies and discographies as well as monographs and articles. Primarily valuable as a guide to research in "Anglo-American" folk musics (folksongs, instrumental music, hymns), although the selection and annotations are useful throughout. Miller's chapter introductions also serve as lucid overviews of the research trends in the various kinds of American folk music.

PORTER, JAMES "The Traditional Music of Britain and Ireland: A Research and Information Guide" (New York, Garland, 1989)
An extensive bibliography, the subject of which is traditional music rather than song as such.

RICHMOND, W. EDSON "Ballad Scholarship: An Annotated Bibliography" (New York, Garland, 1989)
An impressive, annotated guide to international ballad research.

ROSENBERG, NEIL (ed) "Transforming Tradition: Folk Music Revivals Examined" (Univ. Illinois Press, 1993)
The book provides a great range of ways to think about revivalism, and it is an excellent historical study of folk music from the 1950s and 60s. Amazon Review here.

Last Updated : 14-03-02 18:00

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 02:21 PM

A Basic Folk Library - Countries

Australia
Canada
England
Germany
Hawai'i
Ireland
Man
Scotland
USA
USA (Regions)
USA / UK / Ireland
Wales
Wales / Scotland / Ireland / England

Countries - Australia

NOTE: A bibliography of Australian Folk Songs here.

EDWARDS, RON "The Big Book of Australian Folk Song" (Rigby, 1976)
Ron also published "Great Australian Folk Songs" through Ure Smith Press in 1991. It is shown in the colophon as "First published by Rigby, 1976." and appears to be the same book. Details for this are: Edwards, Ron; "Great Australian Folk Songs;" Ure Smith Press, 1991. Copyright R. G. Edwards 1976. ISBN 0 7254 0861 8; 507 pages, including 92 pages of indices etc; Words, music, collection dates and sources. Review here.

SCOTT, BILL "The Complete Book of Australian Folk Lore" (Sydney, Ure Smith, 1976)
Compiled and annotated by Bill Scott. Illustrated with plates and with musical examples.

Countries - Canada

BARBEAU, MARIUS "Jongleur Songs of Old Quebec" (Rutgers, The State University, 1962)
A good collection of jongleur and voyageur songs recorded by the author between 1916 and 1925 along the St. Lawrence. Melodies, French texts and singable English translations plus full commentaries and bibliography.

FOWKE, EDITH "Folksongs of Quebec" (2 vols) (?Waterloo Music, 19??)
The book has excellent notes, combs backs so it lies flat, and is available from Empire Music in Vancouver over the net

FOWKE, EDITH "Traditional Singers and Songs from Ontario" (???, 19??)

FOWKE, EDITH and JOHNSON, RICHARD "Folksongs of Canada" (2 vols) (Waterloo Music, 1975)
These books have excellent notes, comb backs so they lie flat, and are available from Empire Music in Vancouver over the net

FOWKE, EDITH "Folklore of Canada" (M & S Pub., 1976)
Contains many songs as well as the folklore. 349 pp. The 1990 reprint is subtitled "Tall Tales, Stories, Rhymes and Jokes from Every Corner of Canada".

IVES, EDWARD D. ("SANDY") "Drive Dull Care Away: Folksongs From Prince Edward Island" (Inst. Island Studies, 1999)
If you are at all curious about the field work of a folklorist this book is for you. In the book you meet the men and women in whose heads the songs were preserved. These people were anxious to help, knowing the importance of the work and happy to find someone who was interested in them and their songs. The book also includes a number of photographs of the contributors and the area in which they live, the words and music to 62 songs and a CD of the original field recording of 14 of those songs. Reviewed in a Mudcat thread by Maemanson here.

IVES, EDWARD D. ("SANDY") "Folksongs of New Brunswick" (Fredericton, Goose Lane Edition, 1989)
Sandy Ives' song collection from New Brunswick."

PEACOCK, KENNETH "Songs of the Newfoundland Outports" (Nat. Mus. Canada, 1965)
Published by the National Museum of Canada as "Bull. 197", 3 volumes, 1035 pp. Indispensable not only for Canada, but for songs brought over from UK.

Countries - England

BELL, ROBERT (ed) "Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England" (London, Parker, 1857)
Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England, Taken Down From Oral Recitation and Transcribed From Private Manuscripts, Rare Broadsides and Scarce Publications. A revision, with additions, by Bell of Dixon's volume of the same title. Project Gutenberg e-text is here and another version (better formatted) here.

BRUCE, J. COLLINGWOON and STOKOE, JOHN (eds) "Northumbrian Minstrelsy" (Newcastle, Soc. Antiquaries, 1882)
A Collection of the Ballads, Melodies, and Small-Pipe Tunes of Northumbria. One of the great early collections of regional song, even though both tunes and words have been subjected to editing, and the provenance of some of the songs is not immediately evident.
Reprinted by Llanerch Press, 19??. ISBN 1 86143 039 6

D'URFEY, THOMAS "Wit and Mirth: or, Pills to Purge Melancholy" (6 vols) (London, Playford, 1698-1720)
Thomas D'Urfey, 1653-1723, English song writer and dramatist. His comedies for the stage were forerunners of the ballad opera. In 1699-1700 Wit and Mirth; or, Pills to Purge Melancholy, which included his own witty, satirical songs and many older tunes adapted to new lyrics, played in London. This was a major source for ballad operas, including the tunes of John Gay's Beggar's Opera.

JONES, LEWIS (ed) "Sweet Sussex: Folk songs from the Broadwood collections" (Sutton Coldfield, Ferret Publications, 1995)
Folk songs from the Broadwood collections, both words and music, "... faithfully written down exactly as they were sung by country people in the Weald of Sussex". (ISBN 0 9526363 0 1)

KARPELES, MAUD (ed) "The Crystal Spring : English Folk Songs Collected by Cecil Sharp" (Oxford Univ. Press, 1975)
A collection of 143 of the English songs collected by Cecil J. Sharp. The melodies are supplemented with Pat Shaw's chords for guitar or piano accompaniment. A welcome updationg of good traditional material. The paperback version was issued in 1987.

KNOWLES, JAMIE (ed) "A Northern Lass: Traditional Dance Music of North-West England" ()
A particular favourite of mine, a collection of tunes from North West England(Cheshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire and the Lake District) from the last four centuries. Contains 118 tunes suitable for all melody instruments, standard treble clef notation with chord symbols. Photos, tune history, playing tips, discography, bibliography. There are some real beauties in here, especially the 3/2 pieces. The title tune is a lovely 4 part reel in G minor, full of the wistful delicacy for which this genre is famous. The suggested chord changes are exquisite. There is a review here.

LLOYD, A. L. "Folk Song in England" (Granada, 1975)
Lloyd attempts to systematically trace the development of the genre from what he viewed as its origins in agrarian songs, dances and plays into industrial song. The main strength of Folk Song In England probably lies in its authoritative use of language rather than any overt historical accuracy.

MACKAY, CHARLES (ed) "Cavalier Songs & Ballads of England 1642-84" (London, 1863)
The classic collection of English Civil War songs from one side of the conflict. Available as a Project Gutenberg e-text here and also (better formatted) here.

O'SHAUGHNESSY, PATRICK "Twenty-One Lincolnshire Folk Songs" (Oxford University Press 1967)
O'SHAUGHNESSY, PATRICK "More Folk Songs From Lincolnshire " (Oxford University Press 1970)
O'SHAUGHNESSY, PATRICK "Yellowbelly Ballads, Part One" (Lincolnshire & Humberside Arts, 1975)
O'SHAUGHNESSY, PATRICK "Yellowbelly Ballads, Part Two" (Lincolnshire & Humberside Arts, 1975)
Mr. O'Shaughnessy did a magnificent job editing these volumes, in which most of the songs come from Percy Grainger's collection. The thorough and painstaking research that went into these works, both in the presentation of the songs and in their annotations, is commendable and these books cannot be recommended highly enough. A useful site about the songs in these books, including a number of lyrics is here.

PALMER, ROY (ed) "BUSHES AND BRIARS - Folk Songs collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams" (Dent, 1983)
A selection, edited by Roy Palmer. Reviewed here. (ISBN 1 86143 072 )2)
Reprinted by Llanerch Press, 19??

PURSLOW, FRANK (ed) "Marrow Bones" (EFDSS Publications, 1965)
PURSLOW, FRANK (ed) "The Wanton Seed" (EFDSS Publications, 1968)
PURSLOW, FRANK (ed) "The Constant Lover" (EFDSS Publications, 1972)
PURSLOW, FRANK (ed) "The Foggy Dew" (EFDSS Publications, 1974)
Four books of songs, mainly from Dorset and Hampshire, from the Hammond and Gardiner collections, which were influential for the post-war revival and remain very useful; some of the texts and tunes are emended, but this is indicated in the notes.
Rumour has it that these books are to be reprinted by EFDSS in September 2001.

SEDLEY, STEPHEN (ed) "The Seeds of Love" (London, Essex Music, 1967)
"collated from broadsides in Dorset and Essex". Contains a good deal of background information on the songs within.

SHARP, CECIL J. (ed) "One Hundred English Folksongs" (******, 1916)
English folk music collector Cecil J. Sharp (1859-1924) was one of the most renowned musicologists in the area of true folksong, and these 100 folksongs were all collected by him from actual singers all across Britain, The tunes are presented precisely as they were originally taken down from the lips of the singers. Arranged for medium voice and piano, these songs are among the best in the English folk tradition. Review here.
Reprinted by Dover in 1989 (ISBN 0-486-23192-5)

STEWART, R. J. "Where is St. George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong" (Bradford-on-Avon, Moonraker, 1977)
Pagan remains and cabbalism in English folk music.
Reprinted by Blandford Press, NY in 1988

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, RALPH and LLOYD, A. L. "The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs" (Penguin, 1975)
Originally published in 1959, reprinted 1968 and 1875. A lovely collection of English songs, all of which are in the Digital Tradition database and a mudcat thread HERE.

Countries - Germany

NOTE: Thanks especially to Wolfgang and Wilfried for this section. Please also see the Mudcat thread German Folk Music.
Many of the comments below are from this German Songbooks Collection web page.

"Das Lagerliederbuch, Lieder gesungen, gesammelt und geschrieben im Konzentrationslager Sachsenhausen" (Pläne Verlag, 1980)
This book (songs sung, collected, and written in Sachsenhausen concentration camp) is a reprint of a handwritten illegal booklet existing in Sachsenhausen concentration camp (1942) in which the inmates collected their songs, old and new. The famous anti-Nazi songs (e.g., peatbog soldiers/Moorsoldaten) are in there as well as common German folksongs. Some of the songs are even the same songs as found in the Hitler youth songbook of their wardens. About 130 songs without tunes and annotations, attention in reprinted handwriting, not always easy to read.

BREUER, H. "Der Zupfgeigenhansl : Das Liederbuch der Wandervögel" (Lpz, Friedrich Hofmeister, 1908)
The title translates as: "Johnny Guitar : songbook of the wandering birds". About 250 songs with tunes and chords; attention some reprints are in the original 'fraktur' writing (a page in Fraktur as an example) that makes reading difficult if you are not used to it. Wandervogel is the name of a pre-WWI youth movement, who have "built our empire in the woodlands". In protest against city civilization and its cheap musical culture they turned back to the roots: nature and the old German folksongs. In spite of their romantic sentiments they fought hard in WWI; Hans Breuer, editor of the Z., was KIA at the Western Front. There is a particularly good edition by Scherrer, Royal Bavarian Chamber Guitarist, with easy accompaniments for guitar. There have been many reprints, the latest being by Schott Verlag (Mainz, Schott Musik International (ED 3586) ISBN 3-7957-4002-9).

BUHMANN, H. and HAESELER, H. P. "Das kleine dicke Liederbuch" Little Thick Songbook (3rd ed., 1983)
Published by the authors, the 3rd edition is now out of print but may be reprinted soon. Contains more than 300 songs with tunes, chords and short annotations. These are songs that are sung in Germany today, most still in German, from old folksongs to very new songs from the hit parades. The book is the German equivalent to 'Rise up singing'. Wolfgang says "If you want to buy only one book to be able to sing with Germans when meeting them, you should buy this book". From a scholarly point of view, the book should be used with caution, as lyrics may be corrupted, changed or whole parts left out. The comments to the songs also have a strong leftist bais.

ERK, LUDWIG AND BÖHME, FRANZ M. "Deutscher Liederhort" (3 Vols) (Leipzig, 1893/4)
Ludwig Christian Erk (1807-1883) devoted his life to folksongs and music education. He gathered a vast private collection of folksongs. He wanted to publish a comprehensive book of German folksongs, but the nearest he came to this was his Deutscher Liederhort (1856). F. M. Böhme reorganized and enlarged this work into three volumes. Erk was a very influential person in German schools, as he published more than 100 editions of folksong and school-song collections.
Reprinted in 1963 by Olms in Hildesheim.

KLUSEN, E. "Deutsche Lieder" (German songs) (Insel Verlag, 1980)
1,000 years of German song, arranged in various categories. Includes about 800 songs with tunes and annotations. A great collection from the earliest known songs until today, with no discernible political bias. Wilfried recommends this book for people who want to sing with Germans.

KRÖHER, HEIN and OSS "Das sind unsere Lieder" These are Our Songs (Frankfurt am Main, Büchergilde Gutenberg, 1977)
218 songs with tunes and short annotations. More international in the choice of songs than Schmeckenbecher and Stern. A rare find in it is a German version of "Whiskey in the jar".

SCHILLING, K. and KÖNIG, H. "Der Turm" The Tower (Novelle, Wiesbaden, 1957)
New editions are continuously altered and updated. More than 500 songs with tunes and chords, but not annotated. Attention: my fairly recent edition is still in a difficult to read handwriting print. This is used by the numerous scout organizations in Germany (together with their own official songbooks). It's roots are in the romantic non-boy-scout youth movement of the early fifties. It doesn't contain many traditional German folksongs, but songs from this movement. A second volume was published in the early 60s, containing mostly international folksongs, some old compositions of the 16th century for 4-5 voices and a special section "the crazy tower" with a lot of funny songs.

SCHMECKENBECKER, E. and FRIZ, T. "Es wollt' ein Bauer früh aufstehn" a farmer wanted to rise early (Pläne Verlag, 1978)
222 songs with tunes and short annotations. More old German songs than Hein and Stern.

SCHMIDT, H. W. "Uns geht die Sonne nicht unter, Lieder der Hitler Jugend" (Koln, Tonger, 1934)
This book ("The sun doesn't go down for us, songs of the Hitler youth") is out of print in Germany, no reprints allowed, occasionally available via internet bookshops at around $400. About 150 songs with tunes and without any comment, attention only available in Fraktur print (see Zupfgeigenhansl). Wolfgang says "I have long considered not mentioning it here but I have decided to include it for its historical value and to add an antidote (see the first entry)". Many of the songs are common German folksongs, only about 20% of them are explicit Nazi songs. Some versions do not have tunes.

STEINITZ, W. "Der grosse Steinitz" (2 Vols) (East-Berlin, 1955)
Subtitled "Deutsche Volkslieder demokratischen Charakters aus sechs Jahrhunderten" (The big Steinitz, German folksongs of a democratic character from six centuries). Later reprints, e.g. by Zweitausendeins, are probably out of print today and very hard to find. About 300 songs not counting variants and parodies, no tunes, scholarly annotated comment, including discussion of variants of the songs. The nearest to Child. Edited in the GDR, therefore a predictable political bias with notable omissions, but a great book nevertheless.

STERN, A. "Lieder gegen den Tritt" Songs Against Cadence (Asso Verlag, 1960)
Subtitled "Politische Lieder aus fünf Jahrhunderten" (Political songs from five centuries). More than 300 songs with tunes and short annotations. More political songs than Kröher and Schmeckenbecker.

VON ARNIM, L. and BRENTANO, C. "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" The Boy's Magic Horn (3 vols) (Heidelberg, Mohr und Zimmer, 1806-8)
Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim published Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a collection of more than 700 folksongs, in 1804-1807. The collection has a classified index: Geistliche Lieder, Handwerkslieder, Historische Romanzen, Liebeslieder, Trinklieder, Kriegslieder. Brentano and Arnim did not attempt to preserve pure texts and frequently added to the songs, but they did include the sources of the songs whenever these were available. Although the collection is not a scholarly treatment, it exercised great influence upon 19th century lyric poets and inspired scholarly research into folksong. There have been many reprints (e.g. from DTV, 3 volumes, 1984). There are about 1500 songs without tunes, but explanation to the songs. Many of the songs are not sung today.
Last reprinted 1999. Available from Amazon via Distribooks International.

Countries - Hawai'i

NOTE: Hawai'i used to be a kingdom but was taken over by USA. There are many folk, cowboy and other songs that are being collected.
There is a good list of Hawai'ian books at HawaiianSong here and a useful history of Hawai'i here.
There is also a History of Labour in Hawai'i here and a useful bibliography here.

ELBERT, SAMUEL H. and NOELANI, MAHOE "Na Mele o Hawai'i Nei, 101 Hawaiian Songs" (Honolulu, Univ Hawai'i Press, 1970)
A good basic song book, in print, with words in Hawaiian and English (no music). Na Mele o Hawai`i Nei is a must for those involved in Hawaiian music. It is one of the few collections of Hawaiian songs of its kind, with translations and some very interesting background information about the songs and composers.

PUKUI, MARY K. and KORN, ALFONS L. "The Echo of Our Song, Chants and Poems of the Hawaiians" (Univ. Hawai'i Press, 1973)
This anthology is an excellent introduction to Hawaiian mele. It covers a wide variety of compositions, including very old song-poems of the Pele and Hi`iaka cycle, the pre-Christian Shark Hula, post-missionary chants and gospel hymns. Both Hawai'ian and English. There is a review here (you will need to scroll down to it).

Countries - Ireland

NOTE: Resources on Irish Singing here and here.

BEHAN, DOMINIC "Ireland Sings" (London, Essex Music, 1965)
A collection of about 100 old and contemporary Irish songs, with music. Contains many original titles by Behan himself under his own name and two of his many pseudonyms (Fintan Connoly and Wolfe Stephens. Named after his two sons Fintan and Stephen).

BREATHNACH, BREANDAN "Folk Music and Dances of Ireland" (Dublin, Mercier Press, 1977. )
A Comprehensive Study Examining the Basic Elements of Irish Folk Music and Dance Traditions

BULMER, DAVE and SHARPLEY, NEIL "Music of Ireland" (4 vols) (Louth Lincs., Celtic Music, 1974-1978)
A nice collection of music in 4 small volumes. During the 1970s Dave Bulmer and Neil Sharpley published a series of four books of Irish traditional music called Music From Ireland. Most of the tunes were collected from sessions and contemporary players, so the settings are pretty close to what is played today. A tune list for the books is here.

CARSON, CIARAN "Last Night's Fun" (Pimlico, 19??)
A book about Irish Traditional music by the poet, musician and philosopher. Review here.

COYNE, DECLAN "The Lilting Sons of Country Folk" (Culleenirwan, Dha Lon Promotions, 2000)
A dip into Irish Music in Mid & South Roscommon, The Personalities and Events, Past and Present. A new book of local musical lore from the southern half of Co. Roscommon, Ireland, it's a work of immense charm and one most people will likely not otherwise come across. The author, Declan Coyne, is a sometime singer, one-time fiddler and an everyday dairy farmer with a diploma in Community Development Practice. Where the book succeeds admirably is in presenting an approximately 100-year slice of the musical life of a region of rural Ireland. In doing so, it reveals a great deal about Ireland's living folk song tradition through its ballad singers and composers. It is a book that puts faces on songs and color to the countryside. 224 pages with many pictures. Good review here.

CROKER, T. CROFTON (ed) "Popular Songs, Illustrative of the French Invasions of Ireland" (4 vols) (London, Percy Society, 1845-7)
Edited, with introductions and notes, by T Crofton Croker. Includes "The Genuine and Curious Memoirs of the famous Captain Thurot", etc. edited from the edition of 1760.

DUFFY, CHARLES GAVAN (ed) "The Spirit of The Nation" (Dublin, The Nation, 1843)
Ballads and Songs by the writers of "The Nation" with Original and Ancient Music arranged for the Voice and Pianoforte (2nd enl. edn. Dublin & London 1882, new ed. Dublin: Duffy & Son 1898). Some information about "The Nation" here.

FAOLAIN, TURLOUGH "Blood On the Harp"
Turlough Faolain tells of Ireland from the mists of antiquity to the 1800's. A good historical summary in song.

GALVIN, PATRICK "Irish Songs of Resistance (1169-1923)" (London, Oak, 1962)
An important compendium, now out of print, it does a pretty good job in 100 odd pages of providing a brief history of the period as background to a selection of maybe 60 Irish songs.

HAMMOND, DAVID "Songs of Belfast" (Skerries Co. Dublin, Gilbert Dalton, 1978)
This is an excellent little book comprised mostly of North of Ireland childrens street songs. The book contains 60 songs, also mill workers songs and the well known "I`ll tell my ma" etc.

HARDIMAN, JAMES (ed) "Irish Minstrelsy or Bardic Remains of Ireland" (2 vols) (London,Robins, 1831)
With English Poetical Translations and bibliographical references. 1971 edition introduced by Máire Mhac an tSaoi.
Reprinted New York, Barnes and Noble, 1971

HARTE, FRANK "Songs of Dublin" (Dublin, Gilbert Dalton, 1978)
MORTON, ROBIN "Songs of Ulster" (Dublin, Gilbert Dalton, 1978)
O CANAINN TOMAS, "Down Erin's Lovely Lee : Songs of Cork" (Dublin, Gilbert Dalton, 1978)
Nice little collections of songs for folks that can't afford the Sam Henry. Biography of Frank Harte here.

HEALY, JAMES N. "The Second Book of Irish Ballads" (Cork, Mercier Press, 1964)
Second of a series of three books, occasionally published. The 2nd book has some tunes in it.

HUNTINGTON, GAIL and HERMANN, LANNI "Sam Henry's Songs of The People" (Moulden, 19??)
The book is a terrific collection of (mostly Irish) folk songs, with tunes for most. Lots of good background information, too.

JOLLIFFEE, MAUREEN "The Third Book of Irish Ballads" (Cork, Mercier Press, 1970)
A useful collection of about 70 Irish songs. About half have tunes notated. Some old favourites and some less common. Background notes and comments from the author - who used to edit the "Ireland Sings" column in the magazine "Ireland's Own". Out of print, but still turns up in bookshops.

LOESBERG, JOHN (ed) "Folksongs and ballads popular in Ireland" (4 vols) (Ossian, 19??)
Good sources of songs. Much of the contents is probably duplicated in "Soodlums" and they are cheaper. The books have 50 songs in each. They are not all Irish songs by a long shot. Its a good hit parade of stuff.

MCDONNEL, JOHN (ed) "Songs of Struggle and Protest" (Skerries, Gilbert Dalton, 1979)
This is in the same Gilbert Dalton series as "Songs of Cork, Dublin, etc.". Its a good collection of left-wing (more or less!) songs from many countries, with a reasonable number of Irish ones. Music for all of them. Some background articles, a bibliograpy and a discography.

MAC MATHUNA, SÉAMUS "Traditional Songs and Singers" (2nd ed) (Monkstown, Co. Dublin, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, 1993)
A few songs are in Gaelic, a few Gaelic-English and the rest in English, 22 in all. There is a lot of info of the songs and singers, people like Paddy Tunney, Geordie Hanna, Len Graham, Paddy Berry, Micheal O Suilleabhain,Una de Faoiteand, Tomas O Coisdealbha (Tom Phaidin Tom) and others.

MASON, REDFERN "The Song Lore of Ireland: Erin's Story In Music and Verse" (New York, Baker and Taylor, 1911)
*** I don't have any further information on this book. Please contact me if you can help. Thanks, Ian ***

MUSIC SALES CORPORATION (author) "Soodlums Irish Ballad Book" (Oak Publications Co, 1982)
A mix of traditional and modern songs with tunes; it has scanty notes and some nice photos. The book is not very handy to take to gigs and such as it is not very portable. Review here.

O BAOILL, SEAN "The Irish Song Tradition" (Cork, Ossian, 1976)
This book, which begins with an essay on Irish musical form, tonality, and metre (not all of which should be believed), contains 25 songs, six of them in Irish.

O LOCHLAINN, COLM "The Complete Irish Street Ballads" (London, Pan Books, 1984)
Irish collector and performer. 1st editions 1939 [Vol. 1] and 1968 [Vol. 2].

O'LOCHLAINN, COLM "Irish Street Ballads" (The Three Candles, 1965)
O'LOCHLAINN, COLM "More Irish Street Ballads" (The Three Candles, 1965)
A choice collection, made by Colm O Lochlainn, of 102/100 songs - all well worth singing. Many of them are of respectable antiquity, 200 years or so, and many more were made in recent times, e.g. "The Foot and Mouth Disease", "Bachelor's Walk", "The Ragman's Ball". Grave and gay, old and new, rich and rare, free and easy, this book holds many songs which will be loved the world over. Reprinted some years ago in paperback and reasonably available. Comhaltas' web site is here.

O'KEEFFE, DANIEL D. "The First Book of Irish Ballads" (Cork, Mercier Press, 1955)
First of a series of three books, occasionally published. There are no tunes in the 1st book.

O'NEILL FRANCIS "O'Neill's Music of Ireland" (******, 1903)
The largest collection of Irish music ever printed, 1,850 tunes, and contains over 90% of traditional music being played today. This collection was published in 1903, as a result of the efforts of Capt. Francis O'Neill and many traditional musicians attending the Chicago Music Club, circa 1890-1900. Review here.
Reprinted numerous times, most recently by Mel Bay, 1997

O'SULLIVAN, DONAL "Songs of The Irish" (Dublin, Mercier Press, 1981)
An Anthology of Irish Folk Music and Poetry with English Verse Translations.

OG, SEAN and O BAOILL, MANUS "Ceolta Gael" (2 vols) (Baile Atha Cliath, 1994)
Book 1 contains 91 songs and music. There are a selection of love songs, emigration songs, sad and patriotic songs, lullabys etc. Book 2 is a song book for the person who likes to sing from time to time. The words and music to 72 Irish songs make up this collection, which includes Love songs, funny songs, immigration songs, patriotic and sad songs. All are written in the Irish Language. ISBNs 0853424101, 0853427380.

PETRIE, GEORGE "The Petrie Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland" (Dublin, 1855)
Widely regarded as one of the most important nineteenth-century collections of traditional Irish music. It contains nearly two hundred melodies collected by Petrie as well as song texts in Irish and English and detailed notes by Petrie about the sources of the songs or pieces. Review here.

SHIELDS, HUGH "Shamrock, Rose and Thistle: Folksinging in North Derry" (Blackstaff Press, 1981)
This collection draws on the repertoire of singers from Magilligan Parish in the north of Co. Derry, the most famous of whom was the late Eddie Butcher. In addition to texts and airs (transcribed to reflect the actual twists of performance, thus not for the faint-hearted), Shields provides interesting notes about the songs themselves, performance practices, and the life of those who sang them.

TUNNEY, PADDY "The Stone Fiddle: My Way to Traditional Song" (Dublin, Gilbert Dalton, 1979)
Paddy has been much recorded; his book, which is primarily a book of reminiscences, contains texts and tunes to twenty-nine of his songs.

VALLELEY, FINTAN "The Companion to Irish Traditional Music" (Cork University Press, 1999)
Anyone with an interest in the music and song MUST have a copy of this monumental (450 pages or so) tome. The contributors are all experts in the field and the coverage is vast. Sure - there are people muttering about who's left out and who's left in - this is Ireland after all! Despite some problems and idiosyncracies, this will be the standard reference until someone else has the patience and dedication to replace it. MusTrad review here, Amazon review here and another good review here.

WALLIS, GEOFF and WILSON, SUE "The Rough Guide to Irish Music" (Rough Guides, 2001)
Most books on Irish music seem to be focused on the early history of the music, but there was little about the last 50 years. The first part of the book gives an excellent background on the history of Irish music and its evolution over the last fifty years. The next sections give profiles of key artists and bands with recommendations about their best CD's. Amazon reviews here.

ZIMMERMAN, GEORGES-DENIS "Songs of Irish Rebellion" (Dublin, Allen Figgis, 1967)
Georges Zimmerman, a Swiss professor, published a book in 1965 called "Irish Political Street Ballads and rebel Songs 1780-1900". It was subsequently published in Ireland and USA as "Songs of Irish Rebellion", with the original as subtitle (bit of a misnomer, really, since it includes Orange songs). Although written for an academic audience originally, it's a fascinating book with a great collection of songs, many with tunes. It's essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in the connections between Irish song and Irish politics. Buy it!
Reprinted May 2002 by Four Courts Press. ISBN 1-85182-629-7 .

Countries - Man

NOTE: The Manx Heritage Site here contains a number of useful Manx resources (including some used below).
There is a useful history of music in The Isle of Man here and a bibliography of works by Mona Douglas here.
Many of the online links below are from A Manx Notebook here.

BROADBENT, S. K. (ed) "The Manx Quarterly" (Isle of Man Examiner, 1907-1923)
The Manx Quarterly, 'an illustrated Review and Magazine' was issued by S.K.Broadbent's Isle of Man Examiner 1907-1923 (last issue #29) - it was particularly useful for obituaries for the period and for news of both individual Manx emigrants and Manx organisations overseas. Such information was later carried by Ellan Vannin. Selected pages available online here.

CLAGUE, JOHN "Cooinaghtyn Manninagh - Manx Reminiscences" (Castletown IoM, Backwell, 1911)
Contains many interesting notes on history, customs, folklore and folk-medicine, gathered by him. It was only just completed before his death in 1908 and was published posthumously in 1911. We must not omit to place it on record that the doctor himself was an expert musician, and that he was responsible for creating a hymn tune which has been included in several collections, namely that entitled Crofton. Available online here. There is an article on John Clague here.

GILL, W. H. (ed) "Manx National Songs with English Words" (Boosey and Co., 1896)
Manx National Songs with English Words selected from the MS. Collection of The Deemster Gill, Dr J. Clague, and W.H.Gill and arranged by W.H.Gill. Available online here.

HARRISON, WILLIAM (ed) "Mona Miscellany" (Douglas IoM, The Manx Society, 1873)
A selection of proverbs, sayings, ballads, customs, superstitions and legends peculiar to the Isle of Man. Available online here.

MOORE, ARTHUR W. (ed) "Manx Ballads and Music" (Douglas IoM, Johnson, 1896)
Manx Ballads and Music (Celtic Language and Literature : Goidelic and Brythonic) by Arthur W. Moore (Editor). Available online here.

WORLD MANX ASSOCIATION "Ellan Vannin" (World Manx Association, 1923-1928)
Ellan Vannin was the biennial magazine of the World Manx Association - first issue December 1923. Ran for 9 numbers ceasing in 1928. It replaced The Manx Quarterly which carried such reports from 1918-1924. Includes articles on Manx Songs, Manx Carols etc. Selected pages available online here.

Countries - Scotland

NOTE: A bibliography of Scots Gaelic music here.

BROADWOOD, LUCY E. (ed) and TOLMIE, FRANCES (coll) "105 Songs of Occupation from the Western Isles" (Lampeter, 1997)
A reprint of the famous collection by Frances Tolmie (1840-1926) that first appeared in an issue of the Journal of the Folk-Song Society in 1911. With an Introduction by Lucy E Browadwood, one of the editing committee for the Journal, 'Notes and Reminiscences' and 'A singer's memories of Life in Skye' by Miss Tolmie and a 'Note on the Modal system of Gaelic Tunes' by Annie G. Gilchrist. With English translation and music in Staff notation.

BRANDER, MICHAEL "Scottish & Border Battles & Ballads" (Clarkson N. Potter, 1975)
A very well-researched and expertly collected selection of ballads that chronicle the time between the Battle of Largs (1263) and the famous Battle of Culloden (1746). Review here. (ISBN 0-517-552500-3 LC-75-44444)

KENNEDY-FRASER, MARJORY "Songs of The Hebrides" (3 vols) (London, Boosey, 1909-21)
Full title "Songs of the Hebrides, and other Celtic songs from the Highlands of Scotland". Hebridean songs in Scots Gaelic. Here is an interesting article by Kennedy-Fraser on Hebridean scales, published in conjunction with the books.

LOESBERG, JOHN "Traditional Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland" (3 vols) (Ossian, 19??)
"We have really used these books quite extensively (e.g., Burns Night, preapring for St Patrick's Day gigs). We use them for lyrics (my wife and I), guitar chords (me) and melody lines for flute or penny whistle (my daughter). They also include some (limited) historical notes on many of the songs. We highly recommend them."

ORD, JOHN "Bothy Songs and Ballads" (John Donald, 1990)
An interesting article on Bothy Ballads here.

SHULDMAN-SHAW, PATRICK et al "The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection" (8 vols) (Mercat Press, 19??-1988)
Edited by Patrick Shuldman-Shaw, Emily Lyle, & Adam McNaughtan. The eight volumes of The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection published by Mercat Press have thousands of texts and tunes of songs collected around 100 years ago in the North East, discussion on the songs, and details of the singers.

Countries - USA

BONI, MARGARET BRADFORD (ed) "The Fireside Book of Favorite American Songs" (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1952)
Tunes from the gay 90s (that's 1890s, and no, that's not what Gay meant), spirituals, folk songs, Civil War songs, lovely old American hymns (stolen from other sources, yes, but here printed in their American versions). The editors weren't trying to create authentic arrangements, so some of the chords are a hipper than would have been played 100 years ago, but nothing that works against the spirit of the music, nothing jarringly modernistic. Amazon review here.

CHAPPLE,JOE MITCHELL "Heart Songs" (National Magazine & Chapple Publishing Co., 1909)
No matter what conclusions one might draw from its contents, Heart Songs is a lasting tribute to the musical culture of turn-of-the-century America and to the foresight of publisher and compiler Joe Mitchell Chapple. Review here.

EMRICH, DUNCAN "American folk poetry: an anthology" (Boston; Toronto, Little Brown, 1974)
Joe Hickerson prepared a superb bibliography for Duncan Emrich's American Folk Poetry. This is a collection of texts, no tunes, but good footnotes pointing to sources, and a wonderful selection of songs.

GILBERT, DOUGLAS "Lost Chords: The Diverting Story of American Popular Songs" (Doubleday Dorand, 1942)
Some fascinating stories about the songs in his book.

KENNEDY, CHARLES O'BRIEN (ed) "A Treasury of American Ballads Gay, Naughty, and Classic" (New York, McBride, 1954)
Interesting songs. Text only.

LAWS, G. MALCOLM Jr. "American Balladry from British Broadsides" (******, 1957)
A Guide for Students and Collectors of Traditional Song.

LAWS, G. MALCOLM Jr. "Native American Balladry" (******, 1964)
For hundreds of ballads, Laws give an identifying number, the title (and local variations), a summary of the ballad story, a sample stanza, and a list of sources for printed texts of the ballad.

LOMAX, ALAN "The Folk Songs Of North America" (Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1960)
The folk songs of North America, in the English language / by Alan Lomax ; melodies and guitar chords transcribed by Peggy Seeger ; with one hundred piano arrangements by Matyas Seiber and Don Banks ; illustrated by Michael Leonard ; editorial assistant, Shirley Collins. Contents here.

LOMAX, JOHN A. and ALAN "American Ballads and Folk Songs" (MacMillan Co., 1934)
With this ample collection of authentic ballads and songs, you can immerse yourself in the rich tradition and heritage of American folk music. Discover the diversity, spontaneity, free-flowing melody and sheer invention of scores of songs sung by cowboys and convicts, lumberjacks, hobos, miners, plantation slaves, mountaineers, soldiers and many others. Review here.

MALONE, BILL C and STRICKLIN, DAVID "Southern Music, American Music" (University of Kentucky Press, 1979)
The South - an inspiration for songwriters, a source of styles, and the birthplace of many of the nation's greatest musicians - plays a defining role in American musical history. It is impossible to think of American music of the past century without such southern-derived forms as ragtime, jazz, blues, country, bluegrass, gospel, rhythm and blues. ... As usual, Malone's bibliographic essay at the end of the book is a wonderful resource in itself. This short study (236 pp) is well worth seeking out - very readable and informative. It is available through Amazon.

SANDBURG, CARL "The American Songbag" (Harvest/HBJ Books, 1957)
A great folk song collection for all, but especially for Americans. Sandburg's American Songbag is a national treasure. "I suppose the words and music of these 280 songs, ballads, and ditties that people have sung forever could be found elsewhere, but where?" ISBN: 015605650X.
Reissued by Harcourt, 1990, with an intro by Garrison Keillor

SANDBURG, CARL "The New American Songbook" (******, ****)
This is the supplement to "The American Songbag".

SCOTT, JOHN ANTHONY "The Ballad of America" (New York, Grosset & Dunlap, 1967)
Includes a couple of background paragraphs on most of the songs in the volume.

SEEGER, RUTH CRAWFORD "American Folk Songs for Christmas" (Garden City, N.Y, Doubleday, 1953)
This is a book for which there has been a long-felt need, a collection of songs from the old-time Christmas. Review here.
There is a current version by The Shoestring Press (1999). ISBN: 0208024670.

WARNER, ANNE (ed) "Traditional American Folksongs from the Anne & Frank Warner Collection" (Syracuse Univ. Press, 1984)
The first published collection of folksongs the Warners gathered while travelling America. Includes music, background information on the singers, the history behind the songs, illustrations, bibliography and indexes.

Countries - USA (regions)

BAYARD, SAMUEL P. (ed) "Hill Country Tunes: Instrumental Folk Music of SW Pennsylvania" (American Folklore Society, 1944)
The tunes are from Southwestern Pennsylvania. Many are reels, schottisches, and quadrilles.

BELDEN H. M. (ed) "Ballads and Songs Collected by The Missouri Folklore Society" (U of Mo Press, 1940)
*** I'm sorry but I haven't been able to find out any more about this book. Can anybody help? ***
Reprinted in the 1960s

BROWN, FRANK C. "The Frank C. Brown collection" (not published)
As far as I can see, there is no published book of this collection of material from North Carolina. It is housed at Duke University (here). The advice for this is to be a little cautious ... Quote 'I can't tell you the page number, but I had to laugh when I saw that they printed "T for Texas, T for Tennessee" with the notation: "We have not found this piece reported in other collections." Randolph would have recognized it!'.

CAZDEN, NORMAN et al (eds) "Folk Songs of The Catskills" (Univ New York, 1958)
Norman Cazden, Herbert Haufrecht, and Norman Studer, editors. Cazden's collection (mostly Catskills) was apparently published as The Abelard Folk Song Book. Review here.

COX, JOHN HARRINGTON "Folk-Songs of the South" (Gretna, Pelican, 1998)
This is a reissue of Professor Cox's original 1925 edition with a foreword by Arthur Kyle Davis Jr. The book contains 185 songs in 398 versions or variants, with 29 tunes for 26 different songs. As Davis points out, although the songs were 'actually collected almost exclusively in West Virginia', the title of the book 'is accurate in that the songs included are really the heritage of similar regions throughout the South and, to a lesser extent, the whole country'.

FLANDERS, HELEN HARTNESS
For the New England Region, books by Helen Hartness Flanders (and various collaborators) describe the Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury Vermont (4500 folk songs and ballads collected over a 30 year period). The titles are:

Vermont Folksongs and Ballads

A Garland of Green Mountain Song

The New Green Mountain Songster

Ballads Migrant in New England

Ancient Ballads Traditionally Sung in New England (4 volumes)

The official site for the collection is here at Middlebury College Library.

LINGENFELTER, Richard E et al "Songs of the American West" (Univ. California Press, 1968)
By Richard E Lingenfelter, Richard A Dwyer and David Cohen. This is a very useful book.

LINSCOTT, ELOISE HUBBARD "Folk Songs of Old New England" (MacMillan, 1939)
A wonderful singing-and-activity book brimming with well over 100 folk songs and ballads, nursery songs and singing games, lumbermen's songs, sea chanteys, country dances, minstrel songs, Child ballads and many more. Many selections are local to New England, others are known elsewhere in the United States. A substantial number are related to English, Scottish and other European traditional music. ISBN 0-486-27827-1

McNEILL, W. K. "Southern Folk Ballads" (2 vols) (August House, 1987-8
McNeil compiled this 2-volume set. It is a significant piece of scholarship, although not as comprehensive as even the one-volume Randolph Ozark Folksongs.

McNEILL, W. K. "Southern Mountain Folksongs: Traditional Songs from the Appalachians and the Ozarks" (August House, 1992)
This is a short work and covers very few songs - but McNeil tells a really good story about every song he covers. Maybe it's not comprehensive, but it's very enjoyable and interesting reading. McNeil is the editor of the August House American Folklore Series, a darn interesting collection of books. He's the folklorist at the Ozark Folk Center, and Mudcatters Arkie and Dale Rose are privileged to work with him there.

MORRIS, ALTON C. "Folksongs of Florida" (Univ. of Florida Press, 1990)
The only published collection of Florida folksongs.From more than a hundred singers, Alton Morris gathered these 243 folksongs in the late 1930s. Still in print.

RANDOLPH, VANCE "Ozark Folksongs" (4 vols) (Columbia, Missouri, 1946-1950)
Vance did more research among old songsters than almost any other folksong collector, most of whom limited their studies to the more scholarly collections. There is a Vance Randolph page here and the Vance Randolph Collection page is here.
Note: A single-volume abridged version was published by University of Illinois Press in 1982 and this is the version you're most likely to find in the bookshops.

RANDOLPH, VANCE "Roll Me In Your Arms" (Fayetteville, University of Arkansas Press, 1992)
RANDOLPH, VANCE "Blow the Candle Out" (Fayetteville, University of Arkansas Press, 1992)
Two volumes of "Unprintable" Ozark Folksongs & Folklore Folk Rhymes & Other Lore. Randolph provides an exposition of the material along with a discussion of its historical context, how the information was collected and some comparisons with other similar treasures. While this book (vol 2) is a bit pricey, it is worth every penny and might be the finest thing to come out of Arkansas in the 1990's. Vance Randolph page here. Note that the 2nd volume "Blow The Candle Out" is not yet out of print. Amazon review here.

ROHRBURG, LYNN (ed) "Songs of All Time" (Cooperative Recreation Service, 1946)
Songs of All Time is a small paperback book, handy for campfires and schools. The songs were collected at the Pine Mountain and Hindman settlement schools, Berea College and other points in the Southern Highlands. Edna Ritchie helped to edit one of the later editions (1957) and wrote the foreword. (Jean Ritchie says "Edna never had anything else published, although she wrote and produced endless plays for her students, made up wonderful stories for us at home, and even composed a song or two. She sang like an angel, and made one LP recording for Folk-Legacy, about thirty years ago").

THOMAS, JEAN "Ballad Makin' in the Mountains of Kentucky" (New York, Henry Holt, 1939)
A narrative and collection of folk songs from the Cumberlands, collected by Jean Thomas, herself from Kentucky. Some tunes collected from females. There's some biographical information on Jean Thomas here and a whole load of source material (some of which she undoubtedly used in the production of her book) catalogued here in the Dwight Anderson Memorial Music Library.

Countries - USA / UK / Ireland

Lesley's Contemplator site has a useful bibliography here.

WILGUS D. K. "Anglo-American Folksong Scholarship since 1898" (Rutgers University Press, 1959)
Will direct you to other worthwhile studies.

Countries - Wales

NOTE: The Celfyddydau Mari Arts Archive of traditional arts material from South Wales here.

WILLIAMS, MARIA JANE "Ancient National Airs of Gwent and Morganwg" (Welsh Folk Song Society, 1988)
"Ancient National Airs of Gwent and Morganwg, collected and arranged by Maria Jane Williams", a facsimile of the 1844 Edition with introduction and notes on the songs by Daniel Huws published by the Welsh Folk Song Society, 1988. One of the early collections with music and words, and the first by a woman. ISBN 0 907158 30 7.

KINNEY, PHYLLIS and EVANS, MEREDYDD "Canu'r Cymry: Detholiad o Ganeuon Gwerin" (2 vols) (Welsh Folk Song Society, 1984)
Canu'r Cymry: Detholiad o Ganeuon Gwerin (Welsh Folk Songs). A two volume collection of Welsh folk songs. Unaccompanied, Welsh words only, with additional Solfa notation, extensive background notes on each song in English and Welsh by the distinguished academic editors, Phylis Kinney and Meredydd Evans. A total of 82 songs covered in the two volumes, most of which are only available in these collections. Vol 1 (1984) - ISBN 0 900426 58 6

SAER, D. ROY (ed) "Caneuon Llafar Gwlad" (2 vols) (National Museum of Wales, 1974,1994)
Caneuon Llafar Gwlad (Songs from the Oral Tradition), published by the National Museum of Wales - Welsh Folk Museum. Each contains 30 songs, mostly transcribed from field recordings made by the Museum (from 1957-1964 and from 1965-1967). Vol I 1974 - ISBN 0 85485 026 0. Vol II: 1994 ISBN 0 7200 0406 3.

DAVIES, J. GLYNN "Fflat Huw Puw a cherddi eraill" (Gwasg Gomer, 1992)
A collection (as described by the author in 1923) of "old Welsh and old English melodies, and shanties and sea songs picked up on Welsh ships some thrity years ago." ISBN 0 86383 842 1.

HAMILTON, ALEX "Blodau'r Grug: 100 o Alawon Dawnsio Gwerin Poblogaidd Cymru" (Welsh Folk Dance Society 1992)
"Blodau'r Grug: 100 o Alawon Dawnsio Gwerin Poblogaidd Cymru / 100 Popular Welsh Folk Dance Tunes", selected and arranged by Alex Hamilton, revised by Robin Huw Bowen, published by The Welsh Folk Dance Society 1992. One of the standard collections used by musicians for folk dance teams and twmpathau (folk dances).

Countries - Wales / Scotland / Ireland / England

KENNEDY, PETER (ed) "Folksongs of Britain and Ireland" (London, Cassell, 1975)
This has songs in Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, English, songs for drinking, unrequited love, weddings, etc. There are so many beautiful folk songs that can be played on any instrument ... 360 songs, a fine book.
Reprinted by Oak Publications, 1984

MILNER, DAN and KAPLAN, PAUL "A Bonnie Bunch of Roses: Songs of England, Ireland and Scotland" (Oak Publications, 19??)
150 traditional songs from the British Isles. Historical, informative and witty discourse about each song, with notes on original sources, a discography and a bibliography. Complete with guitar chords and special tunings.

PALMER, ROY "A Book of British Ballads" (Llanerch, 1998)
This fascinating and enjoyable collection, previously published as 'Everyman's Book of Ballads' in 1980, has once more become available through the enterprise of a small publishing company from Wales. In this volume, Roy Palmer has included a wide variety of texts and tunes from many varied sources. There are recently written pieces, like Roger Watson's The Christmas Hare, music hall items like The Mistletoe Bough, broadside ballad standards like The Banks of the Sweet Dundee as well as some unusual versions of Child ballads. Review here.

Last Updated : 05-10-2003 16:30

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 02:23 PM

A Basic Folk Library - Dance

Morris
Social Dance
Sword Dancing

Dance - Morris

NOTE: The Morris Ring's official bibliography is available here and there is another by Tom Keays here.
There is also a brief Biography of Cecil Sharp here.

FORREST, JOHN "The History of Morris Dancing, 1438-1750" (University of Toronto Press, 1999)
If you are academically inclined I suggest reading this book. I don't necessarily agree with his interpretation of the evidence but he has compiled a lot of interesting material. ISBN 0802009212. Synopsis from Amazon: "This analysis shows that morris dancing does not have pagan or ancient origins. It examines the passage of dance ideas between groups of people who have conventionally been considered folklorically distinct and ties morris traditions into the wider area of communal customs and public celebrations."

Dance - Social Dance

NOTE: A history of Western Social Dance with bibliography here. Includes an online copy of Arbeau's "Orchesographie"
There is an online version of Playford's "Dancing Master" here.

BARNES, PETER "The Barnes Book of English Country Dance Tunes" (Canis Publishing, 1986)
This is a collection of 426 of the most commonly used English traditional dance tunes, for all instruments. Chords are included for piano or guitar accompaniment, and there is an extensive appendix on accompaniment tips for all the various types of dances. This collection has sold thousands of copies all over the United States and is considered to be the standard source for both the Playford and 'barn dance' styles of English traditional dance music. Metal spiral binding to lie flat for easy sight-reading. This book, originally published in 1986, has been completely revised and expanded with new typesetting, 120 new tunes, accompaniment tips, indices and cross-references. "I haven't heard anyone else's comments on it, but I'm enjoying learning tunes from it." Available direct.

RAVEN, MIKE "1000 English Country Dance Tunes" ()
1000 plus tunes, from the 13th to the 20th century. Morris, ceremonial and sword dances, jigs, reels, waltzes, cotillons, polkas, scottisches, marches quadrilles, branles, old English hornpipes, square dances, long dances, mazurkas and galliards not to mention laments, listening music and exotic novelty dances. Available from Hobgoblin Music.

TOWNSEND, A. DAVE "A First Collection of English Country Dance Tunes" (Oxford, Ferret Music, 1982)
Contains 130 traditional English dance tunes. They are part of the common repertoire of musicians playing English music for barn dances, ceilidhs, and country dances.

Dance - Sword Dancing

NOTE: There is a very full bibliography of Sword Dancing books here and a selected one here.

ALLSOPP, IVOR "Longsword Dances from Traditional and Manuscript Sources" (Northern Harmony, 1996)
The book includes full notations of all 27 longsword dances and sword play texts from British sources (mainly from Yorkshire but including dances from Shetland and the Isle of Man). To put this in perspective, Sharp's 3-volume study, "The Sword Dances of Northern England", contains 9 longsword dances. Lots of diagrams and all music for the song- and dance-airs beautifully engraved by John Roberts. There are also photographs of teams and some key sword dance researchers, and maps with each notation to help create a sense of "place" for each dance. Sections are added on the design of swords and locks with graphic representation of existing information on the actual implements used by historical sides, reprints of articles by Trevor Stone and Melusine Wood, and an expanded version of Rhett Krause's article on the shapes and methods of making sword locks. This is a "must-have." These are tried-and-true notations worked out by Ivor Allsop (of Barnsley Longsword, formerly of Handsworth, formerly Squire of the Morris Ring, and a recent EFDSS Gold badge honoree) and used in his teaching at the Whitby festival, at Pinewoods camp, and at many other places.

SHARP, CECIL J. "The Sword Dances of Northern England" (3 vols) (London, Novello, 1911-1913)
This is the standard manual on English long sword and rapper dances, but Sharp's introductions include his interpretations of the history and ritual significance of the dance in all of Europe. In regard to specific dance descriptions, part I includes: Kirkby Malzeard and Grenoside long sword; Swalwell and Earsdon rapper; and Abbots Bromley horn dance. Part II: Sleights and Flamborough long sword; Beadnell rapper. Part III: Escrick, Handsworth, Ampleforth, Askham Richard, and Haxby long sword; Winlaton and North Walbottle rapper. Very thorough and useful dance descriptions, with diagrams, tunes, and photos. It has been reprinted several times, most recently by EFDSS in 1985 (part III is a reprint of the 1951 edition, revised by Maud Karpeles). Different editions include some variations, for example in the material on the Ampleforth dance.

Last Updated : 03-05-2002 12:30

Subject: Basic Folk Library PermaThread - Genres
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 02:42 PM

A Basic Folk Library - Genres

Bawdy
Black
Blues
Country Music
Cowboy Songs
Drinking
Humour
Hymns and Religious Songs
Military and Soldier Songs
Mormon Songs
Shanties, Sea Songs and Work Songs
Socialist Songs
Spirituals
Yiddish

Genres - Bawdy

LEGMAN, GERSHON "No Laughing Matter" (Bloomington, Indiana Univ. Press, 1968)
Legman was the leading scholar of erotic folk literature, dialog and song. Endless and ground-breaking accomplishments bringing this material to the scholarly community. Happily responsible for brilliantly editing & printing Randolph's long-supressed great Unprintable collection of Ozark bawdy song & expurgated verses. Claimed to have the (perhaps apocryphal) Hugil bawdy collection. Legman obituary and further information here.

LOGSDON, GUY (ed) "The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing" (Univ. Illinois Press, 1995)
The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (and Other Songs Cowboys Sing). One of the finest works to come out in recent years on cowboy songs, in addition to being the first good collection of the cowboy's bawdy material. A must for anyone who is a student of cowboy music--or anyone who just likes the sound of dirty subject matter rhyming. Review here. ISBN 0-252-06488-7

RANDOLPH, VANCE "Roll Me In Your Arms" (Fayetteville, University of Arkansas Press, 1992)
RANDOLPH, VANCE "Blow the Candle Out" (Fayetteville, University of Arkansas Press, 1992)
Two volumes of "Unprintable" Ozark Folksongs & Folklore Folk Rhymes & Other Lore. Randolph provides an exposition of the material along with a discussion of its historical context, how the information was collected and some comparisons with other similar treasures. While this book (vol 2) is a bit pricey, it is worth every penny and might be the finest thing to come out of Arkansas in the 1990's. Vance Randolph page here. Note that the 2nd volume "Blow The Candle Out" is not yet out of print. Amazon review here.

Genres - Black

ALLEN, WILLIAM FRANCIS et al "Slave Songs of the United States" (New York, Simpson, 1867)
"Slave Songs of the United States", collected by William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison, was the book that first introduced songs like "Follow the Drinking Gourd","Run, Nigger, Run!" "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" Roll, Jordan, Roll"(and many others) to the wider world. The Dover reprint is inexpensive and wonderful. Amazon review here and another good review here.
Dover (1995) has reprinted the original version, with a preface by Harold Courlander

COURLANDER, HAROLD "Negro Folk Music U.S.A." (Dover, 1992)
Among the first and finest studies of African-American folk music, this book focuses primarily on the origins and musical qualities of typical genres ranging from simple cries and calls to anthems and spirituals, ballads and the blues. Traditional dances and musical instruments are examined as well. Authentic versions of 43 songs are presented, along with a valuable bibliography and discography. ISBN 0-486-27350-4.

DETT, ROBERT NATHANIEL (ed) "Religious Folk Songs of the Negro As Sung at Hampton Institute" (Hampton Institute Press, 1927)
Robert Nathaniel Dett, one of the pioneering black composers and a leading arranger of Negro spirituals, was the choir director at Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) from 1913 until 1932. While at Hampton, he published "Religious Folk-Songs of the Negro" (1927), which became one of the standard collections of spiritual arrangements. The spirituals showed a different, more profound character, he wrote in his foreword to "Religious Folk-Songs of the Negro." These hymns of the slaves are "the reverberation of a great cry of soul whose burden is of age-old promises of eternal freedom, of feasts of milk and honey, and of the divine glory of a love all-inclusive." Dett believed "the slave brought with him from Africa a religious inheritance which, far from being shaken in any way, was strengthened by his American experience . . . an Oriental regard for parable and prophecy" and "an ability to improvise his troubles into art-forms." His 1927 edition of the spirituals "in their natural and untarnished settings" included both well-known songs and tunes he had collected from black congregations in the rural South and Midwest.
(reprinted 1972)

EPSTEIN, DENA J. "Sinful Tunes and Spirituals, Black Music to the Civil War" (Univ. Illinois Press, 1977)
Epstein expertly culls available documentary evidence, including contemporary accounts as well as such sources as runaway slave notices mentioning that the slave in question was a fiddler, to fill in a lot of gaps in our knowledge of how African music developed when it was transplanted to North America. The book is well-written and full of groundbreaking research. It's absolutely essential if you are interested in this subject. (Amazon review)

SEWARD, THEODORE F. (ed) "Jubilee Songs As Sung by the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University" (New York: Bigelow and Main., 1872)
The Fisk University in Nashville (for black students) opened in January 1866. George L. White (a northerner and son of a blacksmith) was musical. At Fisk, he trained a mixed chorus of 11 students which by 1870 was giving concerts in nearby cities. Because the university was in dire need of funds, they took to the road for an extensive concert tour to raise money - New York, Boston etc. The first edition of 'Jubilee Songs As Sung by the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University' was compiled by Theodore F. Seward and published in 1872. It contained 28 spirituals. The second edition, published in the same year, had 64 spirituals and the last edition, in 1892, had 139. By that time, according to the publishers, 130,000 copies had been sold. Jubilee Singers site.

WORK, JOHN W. "American Negro Songs" (Crown, 1940)
A big book of mostly spirituals, long intro material re: spirituals & blues. Tunes, lyrics, no chords. 230 Folk Songs and Spirituals, Religious and Secular. From joyous gospel to deeply felt blues, this wonderful collection contains vintage songs sung and played through the years by black Americans - at work, in church and for pure entertainment. Included are spirituals, blues, work songs, and a variety of social and dance songs.
Republished unabridged by Dover (1998).

Genres - Blues

NOTE: There are useful bibliographies of The Blues here and here.
The Blues History site here has some useful information and there is a brief history of The Blues here.
There is an article on Women and The Blues here and an article on The Banjo and The Blues here.

ALYN GLEN "I Say For Me a Parable" (New York, Da Capo, 1993)
The Oral Autobiography of Mance Lipscomb, Texas Bluesman. 2 Reviews at Amazon.

BASTIN, BRUCE "Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast" (Univ. Illinois Press, 1995)
Bruce Bastin is probably the leading expert on the blues styles of the East Coast of America, and this book is a superb analysis of the history of blues in a range of regional centres. Amazon review here.

BOOTH, STANLEY "Rhythm Oil" (Pantheon, 1991)
Stanley Booth is from Memphis and the book is basically a series of articles that he has written over the years about music in Memphis. He ties them together very nicely. Some neat stuff about Furry Lewis, Mississippi John Hurt's funeral, Elvis, Otis Redding, and an awful lot about Stax Records amazing stable of artists such as Booker T, Steve Cropper, Donald Dunn, Issac Hayes etc. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned a lot. Amazon reviews here.
Reissued by Da Capo Press, 2000

BROOKS, LONNIE "Blues For Dummies"Foster City CA, IDG Books Worldwide, 19??
This reference includes what you would need to know to use a good songbook well, and to make sense out of all the tune-trading that we blues lovers love to do. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to know more about the blues. The biographies and photos alone would be worth the $24.99 cover price. Reviewed in a Mudcat thread by WYSIWYG here.

CALT, STEPHEN "I'd Rather be the Devil: Skip James and the Blues" (New York, Da Capo, 1994)
Skip James' blues sounded like no one else's. Sung in a keening falsetto, accompanied by a guitar in an open minor tuning or by staccato piano runs, James' blues was simultaneously mournful and angry. Stephen Calt's biography is a merciless look at the frustrated and disappointed man that made that music. Review here.

CALT, STEPHEN and WARDLOW, GAYLE DEAN "King of the Delta Blues: Charlie Patton" (Newton Rock Chapel Press, 1988)
This book is the final word in the elusive character known as Charley Patton. 3 Reviews at Amazon.

COHN, LAWRENCE (ed) "Nothing But the Blues: The Music and the Musicians" (Abbeville Press, 1993)
It has the appearance of a large coffee table book but, in content, it is nothing of the sort. It has excellent photos and essays by Sam Charters, Dave Evans, Dick Spottswood, Charles Wolfe, Mark Humphrey etc. ISBN 0-7892-0607-2.

COOK, BRUCE "Listen to the Blues" (New York, Da Capo, 1995)
Based on original interviews, this is filled with profiles of people like Leadbelly, Skip James, Son House and Bessie Smith. With new photos and a new discography, this book is an astute and readable introduction to the Blues.

EVANS, DAVID "Big Road Blues: Tradition & Creativity in the Folk Blues" (Da Capo Press, 1982)
An extraordinarily fine book on the blues based on meticulous, imaginative, and persistently thorough field work. The significance of the book goes beyond the blues to provide a concrete model for an analysis of other genres of oral literature in other cultures. Review here.

FINN, JULIO "The Bluesman: The Musical Heritage of Black Men and Women in the Americas" (London, Quartet, 1986)
A really interesting book. Finn is a blues musician who has read most of the basic blues sources and has put it all together into a rather bitterly written book on the subject. It gives a remarkable insight (if you can put up with the "adult" language).

GODRICH, JOHN and DIXON, ROBERT M. W. "Recording The Blues" (Stein and Day, 1970)
A seminal study of whys and whens of early recording industry. There are 'afterword' essays by the authors, with Howard Rye taking over the mantle of the late John Godrich.

GROSSMAN, STEFAN "Rev. Gary Davis/Blues Guitar" (Oak Publications, 1997)
Fans of fingerstyle guitar will love this CD and the book of transcriptions. Rev. Gary Davis has a distinctive style of playing and singing and is a very (VERY) good guitarist. A better book for beginners might be Stefan Grossman's collection of Mississippi John Hurt tunes. Still, an excellent publication. the CD that comes with the book would be worth the purchase price by itself.

HARRISON, DAVID "The World of Blues" (Studio Editions, London, 1995)
Harrison is the blues reviewer for 'fRoots' (formerly 'Folk Roots') magazine.

LOMAX, ALAN "The Land Where the Blues Began" (Dell, 1993)
You should check out Alan Lomax's book, "The Land Where the Blues Began", it is not only one of the best books on the blues, it is tells about a part of US history that seldom is written about. Reviews here.

OLIVER, PAUL "Blues Fell This Morning: Meaning in the Blues" (2nd ed.) (Cambridge University Press, 1984)
First published in the early sixties, this extensively revised edition of a classic study contains many newly recovered examples of the "blues" as well as a text updated in the light of developments over the past thirty years with respect to Civil Rights reform. Amazon review here. Other books by Paul Oliver include:

OLIVER, PAUL "Songsters and Saints: Vocal Traditions on Race Records" (Cambridge University Press, 1984)
OLIVER, PAUL "The Story of the Blues" (Pimlico, 1997)
OLIVER, PAUL "Screening the Blues: Aspects of Blues Tradition" (Da Capo Press, 1968)
OLIVER, PAUL "Savannah Syncopaters: African retentions in the Blues" (London, Studio Vista, 1970)

Paul Oliver is a major writer on Blues subjects, see the tribute page here.

OLIVER, PAUL et al "Yonder Comes the Blues" (Cambridge University Press, 2001)
By Paul Oliver, Tony Russell, Robert M. W. Dixon, John Godrich and Howard Rye. A reissue in a single volume of 3 short books on aspects of the blues originally published in the 70s by Studio Vista and long out of print.

ONDAATJE, MICHAEL "Coming Through Slaughter" (Norton First Edition, 1976)
Bringing to life the fabulous, colorful panorama of New Orleans in the first flush of the jazz era, this book tells the story of Buddy Bolden, the first of the great trumpet players--some say the originator of jazz--who was, in any case, the genius, the guiding spirit, and the king of that time and place. A haunting, fictional (very few facts known) recreation, recommended reading for anyone interested in early jazz history. Review here.

PALMER, ROBERT "Deep Blues" (New York, Viking Press, 1981)
Palmer's love of the blues shines through in this exceptional book. He's not interested in showing off his knowledge of the form (although that knowledge is exceptional); he's interested in illuminating for the reader the roots of a great indigenous art form and how that form developed in the 20th century. In that effort, he succeeds masterfully. Reviews at Amazon and another excellent review here. ISBN: 0140062238

RUSSELL, TONY "Blacks, Whites and Blues" (New York, Stein & Day, 1970)
The first serious study of interplay between black and white musicians.

RUSSELL, TONY "The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray" (Harper Collins, 1997)
A less scholarly introduction to the blues. This has excellent recommendations for listening to a variety of blues and plenty of photos.

SHIPTON, RUSS "The Complete Blues and Ragtime Guitar Player" (****, 19??)
Starts out with basic blues strums, with picture chords, then into fingestyle blues. Includes a good number of popular songs.

TITON, JEFF TODD "Early Downhome Blues: A Musical & Cultural Analysis" (2nd ed.) (Univ. North Carolina, 1994)
New afterword by the author. New foreword by ALAN TRACHTENBERG. A musical and cultural analysis, with a 19 track music CD.

WARDLOW, G.D. "Chasin' That Devil Music: Searching For the Blues" (San Francisco, Miller Freeman, 1998)
The main focus is on the Delta blues singers of the early 20th century. Review at Amazon

Genres - Country Music

HINTON, Brian "Country Roads: How Country Came to Nashville" (Sanctuary, 2000)
Hinton, an obvious Bob Dylan fan, sets out to follow country music's path and lineage from its Celtic roots in another millennium, to its arrival in Nashville, Tennessee. Review here. Amazon reviews here.

Genres - Cowboy Songs

NOTE: There is a useful Cowboy bibliography here and a booklist by Frank Staplin here.

AXELROD, ALAN and FOX, DAN "Songs Of The Wild West" (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991)
The songs, 45 in all, coupled with the works of art from The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, reflect every facet of life during one of the most exciting periods in US history. Amazon reviews here.

BIG 3 MUSIC CORP. "American Cowboy Songs" (New York, New York, 19??)
B3-4354-R3 by the 'Big 3 Music Corp., N.Y., N.Y. 66 songs no text.
*** DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY MORE DETAILS ABOUT THIS BOOK? - If so, please contact me, Ian ***

CANNON, HAL (ed) "Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering" (******, 1985)
CANNON, HAL (ed) "New Cowboy Poetry: A Contemporary Gathering" (******, 1990)
As tough, lean, and honest as those who create it, cowboy poetry has entered our culture as literature. In these selections from some of today's and yesterday's finest practitioners, Hal Cannon has corralled the best of the genre. How good is it? The poems have the smell of sagebrush and campfire in them. You can't get any higher praise. Here are selections from some of today's and yesterday's finest practitioners: Curley Clark's "The Strawberry Roan", Badger Clark's "A Cowboy's Prayer", Georgie Sicking's "To Be a Top Hand", Baxter Black's "The Big High Lonesome", and Wallace McRae's "The Lease Hound".

FIFE, AUSTIN E. and ALTA S. "Cowboy And Western Songs" (New York, Clarkson and Potter, 1969)
A nice collection of 200 songs with music lines, guitar chords and what appears to be very complete verses. B/w sketches & flourishes by J.K. Ralston. Arranged topically.

LARKIN, MARGARET "Singing Cowboy, a Book of Western Songs" (Knopf, 1931)
Contains 42 songs, including the old favorites and many rarer songs never printed before. Music arranged for piano. Includes partial scores.
Reprinted 1963 by Oak Publications

LEE, KATIE "Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle" (Flagstaff Arizona, Northland Press, 1976)
Subtitled "A History of the American Cowboy in Song, Story and Verse". A very readable, funny book, with lots of history of the West and, in particular, Arizona and Tucson.

LINGENFELTER, RICHARD E. et al "Songs of the American West" (Univ of California Press, 1968)
By Richard E. Lingenfelter, Richard A. Dwyerand David Cohen.

LOGSDON, GUY (ed) "The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing" (Univ. Illinois Press, 1995)
See Bawdy Songs above.

LOMAX, JOHN A. and ALAN "Cowboy Songs and other Frontier Ballads"(MacMillan Co., 1938)
If you can hum "Home On the Range", you have been influenced by this book. Without it, folk music as you know it would be different. Seeing in 1908 that the cowboy's way of life was dying, John Lomax went out into the field and onto the range recording and transcribing This collection became the backbone of American folk music and its traditions. Amazon review here.

OHRLIN, GLEN and GREEN, ARLIN "The Hell-Bound Train" (Univ. Illinois Press, 1989)
A Cowboy Songbook (Music in American Life). ISBN 0252060717. ISBN 0252060717.

SILBER, IRWIN and ROBINSON, EARL (eds) "Songs of the Great American West" (New York, MacMillan, 1967)
92 songs celebrate the ups and downs of homesteaders, lumberjacks, cowboys, gold miners, railroad workers, outlaws and others. Complete lyrics, vocal score, simple piano arrangements, chord symbols. Historical notes, 127 period illustrations. Review here.

THORP, N. HOWARD (JACK) "Songs of the Cowboys" (New York, Clarkson N. Potter, 1966)
This was the first cowboy songbook published in America, and Thorp's lyrics were the beginning of the popularization of the American cowboy. This book lists 24 songs that can be learned and sung today. First published 1908.

TINSLEY, JIM BOB "He Was Singin' This Song" (Univ. of Florida, 1981)
A Collection of 60 romantic cowboy and western songs coverning the 50 year golden eera of popular standards between 1905 and 1957. Foreword by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Illus. by Johnny Hampton.

TINSLEY, JIM BOB "For a Cowboy Has to Sing" (Univ. Central Florida Press, 1991)
A Collection of 60 romantic cowboy and western songs coverning the 50 year golden era of popular standards between 1905 and 1957. Foreword by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Illus. by Johnny Hampton.

Genres - Drinking

SHAY, FRANK "My Pious Friends and Drunken Companions: Songs and Ballads of Conviviality" (Macaulay, 1927)
Both illustrated by John Held Jr. I guess you'd call these songs "barroom ballads". They're certainly entertaining, although I wish the book had tunes for more of the songs. There's a More Pious Friends sequel.
Reprinted as a single volume by Dover Publications, Inc., 1961.

Genres - Humour

GOODWIN, GEORGE (Ed.) "Song Dex Treasury of Humorous and Nostalgic Songs" (Song Dex Inc., 1956)
This is an early fake book, designed, I suppose for electronic organs. It has 740 songs, enough to make you cry a big bucket of tears.

Genres - Hymns and Religious Songs

NOTE: For more resources, see the Religion and Music Resource. For John Newton's hymns, see the Olney Hymns site.

The OREMUS searchable Online Hymnal is here.
Oremus contains public domain texts from six Anglican hymnals from the second half of the twentieth century. The hymnals from the United States are The Hymnal 1982 and The Hymnal 1940. From Canada, we have The Book of Common Praise (1938). And from England, but used in many parts of the Anglican Communion, The English Hymnal (1933), Hymns Ancient and Modern, Revised (1950), and The New English Hymnal (1986).

The Cyber Hymnal is here.
This site has over 2,700 Christian hymns and Gospel songs from many denominations. You'll find lyrics, sound, background information, photos, links, MIDI files and scores you can download. The People section is particularly useful.

DEARMER, PERCY and VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, RALPH "The English Hymnal" (******, 1906)
The most incredible collection of folk tunes was used for the hymns in this hymnal, due to Ralph Vaughan Williams being the music editor. Information about the development of The English Hymnal here.

MONK, WILLIAM HENRY (ed.) "Hymns Ancient and Modern" (London, William Cloves and Sons, 1861)
The original English hymnal. The first edition was published in 1861, and the "Standard Edition" in 1916. The 1983 version, published in Norwich by The Canterbury Press, is called the "New Standard Edition". There were also editions in 1922 and 1950.

SANKEY, IRA "Sacred Songs and Solos" (London, Morgan and Scott, 1891)
The standard nonconformist hymnal, originally produced in the USA but universally used in Britain also. The version quoted is the "revised and enlarged" version so there must have been an earlier edition.

SHELDON, JOHN "The Quaker Songbook" (Stainer and Bell, 1981)
I had to include this as it's Britain Yearly Meeting's contribution to the art. Has hymns, carols and songs of love war etc. including "George Fox" and "Simple Gifts". It's unfortunately out of print at the moment, but I've got a copy.

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, RALPH and DEARMER, PERCY "Songs of Praise" (London, Oxford University Press, 1936)
My school hymn book and still one of my favourites. Includes poems such as "Glad That I Live" set to music as well as many hymns in common with "The English Hymnal".

Genres - Military and Soldier Songs

NOTE: There is a useful bibliography here.

DALLAS, KARL "The Cruel Wars" (London, Wolfe Publishing, 1972)
100 soldiers songs "from Agincourt to Dunkirk" with melodies and guitar chords.

DOLPH, EDWARD ARTHUR and EGNER, PHILIP "Sound Off! - Soldier Songs from Yankee Doodle to Parley Voo" (New York, Cosmopolitan, 1929)
DOLPH, EDWARD ARTHUR and EGNER, PHILIP "Sound Off! - Soldier songs from the revolution to World War II" (New York, Farrar and Rinehart, 1942)
Music arranged by Philip Egner, illustrations by Lawrence Schick. These two volumes are the standard work on military and soldier songs for the USA. Some UK and European songs which were well-known to USA soldiers are included.

HOPKINS, ANTHONY "Songs from the Front & Rear" (Edmonton, Hurtig, 1979)
Subtitled "Canadian servicemen's songs of the Second World War". Useful book for Canadian songs. Includes many UK songs as well.

WARD-JACKSON, C H and LUCAS, LEIGHTON "Airman's Song Book" (Sylvan Press, 1945)
"Being an anthology of squadron, concert party, training and camp songs and song-parodies, written by & for officers, airmen and airwomen mainly of the Royal Air Force, its auxiliaries & its predecessors, the Royal Flying Corps ... ".Originally "Music edited by Leighton Lucas and decorations by Biro. The whole set out in chronological order to present a Historical Picture of the R. A. F. through its Own Songs. Indexed with a glossary. 190 pp." It was revised in 1967 (Oxford, Blackwood, 1967, 265 pp).

Genres - Mormon Songs

NOTE: Some information on Mormon Folklore from Utah here.

CHEYNEY, THOMAS E. (ed) "Mormon Songs From the Rocky Mountains" (Austin, Univ. Texas Press, 1968)
Subtitled "A Compilation of Mormon Folksong". A great folk song book with part of scores, many humorous including the unexpected such as "Drunkards from Bonanza" and songs poking fun at the problems of polygamy.

Genres - Shanties, Sea Songs and Work Songs

NOTE: There is a useful bibliography here and a collection of Shanties & Sea Songs here.
(Note: "Sea" is taken to include any large body of water - e.g. The Great Lakes)

ABRAHAMS, ROGER D. "Deep the Water, Shallow the Shore" (American Folklore Society, 1974)
Essays on shantying in the West Indies. Surveys the importance, historical and contemporary, of sea shanties in the British West Indies.

COLCORD, JOANNA C. "Songs of American Sailormen" (New York, Norton, 1938)
Chanties and sea songs; introduction by Lincoln Colcord.

CREIGHTON, HELEN "Maritime Folk Songs" (Toronto, Ryerson Press, 1961)
Musical transcriptions and chord symbols by Kenneth Peacock.

DOERFLINGER, WILLIAM MAINE "Shantymen and Shantyboys: Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman" (New York, 1951)
For twenty years, in the United States and Canada, William Doerflinger collected the words and music of the songs of the sailor and lumberman brought together in this book. Here are over 150 rousing sea shanties, forecastle songs, and lumber-woods ballads traditional in the days of sailing hips and logging camps. Review here.
Republished by Meyerbooks, Glenwood, Illinois, 1990.

FOWKE, EDITH FULTON "Lumbering Songs from the North Woods" (Austin TX, University of Texas Press, 1970)
A collection of lumbering songs from Ontario, ajoining areas of Quebec, Maine, New Brunswick, and Michigan.

HUGILL, STAN "Shanties from the Seven Seas" (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969)
Stan was the last living shantyman in the United Kingdom. He was also a scholar who gained his information and songs from primary sources. Referred to as the "shantyman's bible" there are over 400 tunes and lyrics here. Especially well-covered are the sailors' work songs of the 18th and 19th centuries. Good review here.

PALMER, ROY (ed.) "The Oxford Book of Sea Songs" (Oxford University Press, 1986)
This is a very nice collection of songs of the sea. The annotations are brief, but very helpful. The book was out of print, but it was reissued and expanded in August, 2001, as "BOXING THE COMPASS" Sea Songs & Shanties Edited by Roy Palmer. Good review here. Good review of "Boxing The Compass" here.

RICKABY, FRANZ "Ballads & Songs of the Shanty-Boy" (Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press, 1926)
Reviewed here.
Reprinted in 1998

TERRY, RICHARD RUNCIMAN "The Shanty Book Part 1" (London, Curwen, 1921)
The book itself is paperback, a bit bigger than A4 and contains the words and (piano) music of 30 shanties along with notes on each of them. The back page contains a list of other books from the publisher - Morris and Country Dances, Folk Songs and Singing Games but nothing of The Shanty Book Parts 2 onward. Apparantly there was a "Part 2", published by Curwen in 1926.

WALTON, IVAN and GRIMM, JOE "Windjammers: Songs of the Great Lakes Sailors" (Detroit,Wayne State University Press, 2002)
I just picked up this terrific book. 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. This is one delightful book - Joe Offer, born in Detroit and raised on the Wisconsin shore of Lake Michigan. The book is available from here. The paperback may be a bit cheaper at some of the online bookstores.

WHALL, W. B. "Sea Songs and Shanties" (Brown, Ferguson, 1910)
Whall was a self-opinionated and crusty old mariner, but his book is very well loved. Publishers' notes: "Of all the collections of Sea Songs and Shanties, Captain Whall's is at once admitted to be the most authoritative. With a musical training, young Whall ran off to sea, becoming a really fine seaman and navigator. His musical training served him well, and his fine collection of sea shanties will fill admirers of the sea with a healthy glow of pride in the old days of the sailing ship." The 6th edition (1927) has extensive introductory notes and is thus rather better than earlier editions.
Reprinted 1974 by Brown, Son & Ferguson, Ltd. Publishers, Glasgow

Genres - Socialist Songs

NOTE: There are a number of online Socialist Songbooks, including Liberator, Raised Voices, Singing of Struggle, The Socialist Songbook and Union Songs
See also The Socialist Action Song Index.

COLLINS, MAL et al "The Big Red Songbook" (Pluto Press, 1977)
Compiled by Mal Collins, Dave Harker and Geoff White. It's a UK Socialist Songbook, probably modelled on the IWW book.

INTERNATIONAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD "The IWW Little Red Songbook" (Columbia, SC., Harbinger, 1995)
Subtitled " Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent". The current edition is the 36th international edition. Contains 103 labor songs to fan the flames of discontent from around the world, with music. Includes songs by Joe Hill, Billy Bragg, Anne Feeney, Utah Phillips, and more. Versions have been published since 1904. The following versions are available online ... 1916, 1917 and 1923. The 36th edition and a reprint of the 1923 edition are available at the IWW website here.

SHEFFIELD SOCIALIST CHOIR "With One Voice" (Privately published, 19??)
The Sheffield Socialist Choir's 10th anniversary songbook. Available online here. Some people talk about "political songs" meaning "protest songs" but there are also songs of solidarity, hope and bright prospects. The songbook contains 124 pages containing 27 songs, their words and music in choral arrangement, what they tell us about those who created them and those who have sung them, anecdotes, photos, cartoons and graphics.

Genres - Spirituals

NOTE: There is a short bibliography here and an interesting article here.
There is a major Shape-Note Bibliography here and a Shape-Note Music Resources site here.
Educational resources from The Spirituals Project are here.
The Mudcat African-American Spirituals PermaThread is here

ALLEN W., WARE C., and GARRISON L. "Slave Songs of The United States" (New York, Simpson, 1867)
The most important of all collections of spirituals by William Frances Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison. Slave Songs of the United States is one of the great documents of America. Published shortly after the end of the Civil War, the songs were collected during the war, mostly from among Negroes living on the Islands off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina. An electronic text is available at The University of North Carolina.
Reprinted: 1965-Oak Publications, 1992-Clearfield, 1995-Dover Publications

CONE, JAMES H. "The Spirituals and the Blues" (New York, Orbis Books, 2000)
This book reviews some important interpretations of slave songs by authors such as Allen (Slave Songs of the United States) and Richard Wallaschek (Primitive Music [1893]). Cone then goes on to discuss the theological interpretations of the spirituals in relation to the experience of black slaves. Cone states that his purpose is to, "Examine the statement of black experience in the blues as compared with that in the spirituals, investigating their similarities and dissimilarities from both theological and historical view points". His work here is interesting because it examines the spirituals of slaves as an expression of their feelings and goes on to discuss the various meanings of God and Heaven in their songs.

CRUZ, JOHN "Culture On The Margins" (Univ Princetown, 1999)
This book recounts the "discovery" of black music by white elites in the nineteenth century, revealing how the episode shaped modern approaches to studying racial and ethnic cultures. Slave owners had long heard black song making as meaningless "noise." Abolitionists began to attribute social and political meaning to the music, inspired, as many were, by Frederick Douglass's invitation to hear slaves' songs as testimonies to their inner, subjective worlds. In tracing the emergence of a new interpretive framework for black music, Cruz shows how the concept of "cultural authenticity" is constantly redefined by critics for a variety of purposes from easing anxieties arising from contested social relations to furthering debates about modern ethics and egalitarianism. Jon Cruz is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Review here. Amazon reviews here.

DIXON, CHRISTA K. "Negro Spirituals: from Bible to Folksong" (Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1976)
Crista Dixon's book provides background and stories for specific spirituals, including their Biblical origin. It is very helpful in understanding the relationship of bondage to the Christian orientation of slaves and particularly useful with regard to allegories/imagery in this literature. ISBN 0-8006-1221-3.

DOBIE, J. FRANK "Follow de Drinkin' Gourd" (Texas Folklore Society, 1928)
Those interested in the history of spirituals should read this book. It was reprinted in 1965. A good review here.

EPSTEIN, DENA J. "Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War" (Univ Illinois Press, 1977)
The most detailed history of African-American spirituals up to the publication of "Slave Songs of the United States". The last 2 chapters are about the 3 editors and the publication of the historic collection. The book is well documented from contemporary sources. Amazon review here.

FISHER, M. M. "Negro Slave Songs in the United States" (Russell & Russell, 1968)
Originally published in 1953, this is one of the first scholarly attempts at a thorough socio-cultural analysis of the cultural functions of the spirituals and other slave songs. The Negro spirituals and songs of the antebellum South were more than simple musical expression. They were, in Dr. Fisher's words, the oral historical documents of a people. As decoded by Dr. Fisher, the spirituals reveal data respecting their authors, their dates, their places of origin, their plans to escape, and their protest against slavery. Amazon review here. Biography of Miles Mark Fisher here.

HEILBUT, ANTHONY "The Gospel Sound - Good News and Bad Times" (NY, Limelight Editions, 1971)
A very informative book that gives the reader a genuine understanding of the origin of Gospel music. It reaches very deep into the life and times of the pioneers of Gospel. Each played their own part into evolving Gospel music to make it what it is today. Anthony Heilbut is an expert on the subject of gospel music, one of the most important musical forces in American history. His book is written from the perspective of a scholar, but one with a real passion for the music. Amazon reviews here.
Reprinted: 1997 by Limelight Editions ISBN: 0879100346. (25th anniv edition)

JACKSON, GEORGE PULLEN "White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands" (Dover Press, 1965)
George Pullen Jackson may have exhibited slight "racist" tendencies, but his White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands (originally published in 1933) and other collections (Spiritual Folk-Songs of Early America; Down-East Spirituals and Others; White and Negro Spirituals, Their Life Span and Kinship; Another Sheaf of White Spirituals) set the standard for other collectors. More details of Jackson's works, as well as some information on Shape-Note music here. Jackson published a number of other works of note, including "Down East Spirituals" (1953), "White Spirituals In The Southern Uplands" (1933), "Spiritual Folksongs Of Early America" (1937), "White And Negro Spirituals" (1943), "Story Of The Sacred Harp" (1944) and "Another Sheaf Of White Spirituals" (1952).

JOHNSON, J. W. and JOHNSON J. R. "American Negro Spirituals" (New York, DaCapo Press, 1989)
This book stays true to aural tradition and offers outstanding, non-Westernized arrangements of the aural traditional music of African American spirituals. The respect for and love of this fine music comes through in the author's comments, and the transcriptions retain the strong harmonic features that are often "arranged out" of collections of aural traditional music. Amazon review here.
Reprinted 1988 by Da Capo Press. ISBN: 0306800748.

ROACH, HILDRED "Black American Music: Past And Present" (2 vols) (Boston Ma, Crescendo Publishing Co, 1973)
A useful book, written when Ms. Roach was professor at the University of the District of Columbia. The book examines the spiritual aspects of black music, and concludes that the power of black music lies in its ability to protest and transcend oppression.
Second Edition published by Krieger, 1992

SOUTHERN, EILEEN "The Music Of Black Americans: A History" (New York, W.W.Norton & Co, 1971)
This text provides comprehensive coverage of black American music, from the arrival of the first Africans in the English colonies to contemporary developments in African-American history. The book draws on authentic documents, from colonial times to the present, to illuminate the history of black music. The book provides thorough treatment of black women musicians, including Lil Hardin Armstrong, Marian Anderson, Billie Holiday, Leontyne Price and Ella Fitzgerald. (When the book was written, Ms. Southern was affiliated with Harvard University.) ISBN: 0-393-95279-7.
3rd edition. W. W. Norton and Company, 1997 ISBN 0-393-03843-2.

Genres - Yiddish

NOTE: There is a useful bibliography of Yiddish Song here.

SILVERMAN, JERRY "The Yiddish Songbook" (New York, Stein and Day, 1982)
Melodies with chord symbols. Yiddish (romanized) words with English translations. Guitar chord diagrams.

Last Updated : 05-10-2003 16:30

Subject: Basic Folk Library PermaThread - People
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 02:50 PM

A Basic Folk Library - Individuals, Families and Groups

Joan Baez
Albert E. Brumley
Robert Burns
The Carter Family
Larrie Gorman
Woody Guthrie
Ashley Hutchings
Leadbelly
Christy Moore
Thomas Moore
Francis O'Neill
Peggy Seeger
Jimmy Shand
Cyril Tawney

People - Joan Baez

BAEZ, JOAN "The Joan Baez Songbook" (New York, Ryerson Music Publishers, 1964)
Containing 66 songs from her repertoire and with illustrations by Eric Von Schmidt, the book became a staple among guitar students and has been reprinted more than twenty times. This book is filled with classic folk songs/ballads/hymns/lullabies, etc. that shouldn't be forgotten. They're songs for adults and children alike that have formed the roots of many current songs and stories.

People - Albert E. Brumley

NOTE: Jim Dixon recommended the whole range of books published by Albert E. Brumley and Sons. Brumley posed a bit of a problem of categorisation as, though he is a publisher, he seems to have also written a number of Gospel Songs such as "I'll Fly Away" and "Turn Your Radio On". Also the books would have come under a number of headings (Gospel, General, Americal), and so been dispersed. Because of this, Albert E. Brumley has his own place here. Notes for individual books are taken from the website, except where noted. Joe Offer has volunteered the general review below.

The little songbooks, about 50 songs each, are $3.00, or $20 for the set of 8. There are three "Songs of the Pioneers" booklets in the set, one called "Lamplitin' Songs & Ballads," another called "America's Memory Valley." These books are a wonderful collection of corny old songs that are just plain fun to sing, from "I Ride an Old Paint" to "You've Been a Good Wagon But You done Broke Down." The other three are mostly gospel (Brumley wrote "I'll Fly Away" and "Turn Your Radio On"). The other books are "Great Inspirational Songs" and "Christian Hymnsongs" ($4.50 each); and "Radio Favorites" and "The Best of Albert E. Brumley" ($3.00, such a deal). You'll find the most popular hymns in the little booklets, so it might not be worth your while to get these others. I suppose it's sacrilegious to say so, but I find these songs go especially well with a six-pack. Thanks to whoever suggested these books. They're great! -Joe Offer-

BRUMLEY, ALBERT E. (ed) "All Day Singin' & Dinner on the Ground" (Brumley, 19**)
Contains many of the good old gospel songs and food recipes that were used at the all-day singings with dinner on the ground in the days of yesteryear. Over 100 old- fashioned recipes. Many of the beautiful gospel songs, featuring "Turn Your Radio On" and other old-time hymns.

BRUMLEY, ALBERT E. (ed) "America's Memory Valley" (Brumley, 19**)
Traditional songs that came from our forefathers, depicting happenings, their values and traditions. A mixed lot of songs from across the nation, songs about romance, tragedy, old plantation songs and much more. A collection of old-tyme songs, pictures and song history. A true treasure!

BRUMLEY, ALBERT E. (ed) "Best Of Albert E. Brumley" (Brumley, 19**)
A 160 page souvenir song book and picture album, containing an exclusive collection of Albert E. Brumley songs - believed to represent the best of the more than 800 songs he has written and spans his career. It also contains some of his biography, newspaper articles, illustrations and pictures. If you are a lover of gospel and sentimental songs, and especially if you are an admirer of Albert E. Brumley, this is the book for you ... You'll enjoy the Albert Brumley Songbook. It's "down home" as all get out, complete with recipies for those "All day Singin' and dinner on the ground" get-togethers. My fave? Parson Blaney's "smothered biscuits" (although I'd substitute onion powder for real onions in the "smotherins"). Rick

BRUMLEY, ALBERT E. (ed) "Golden Years of Gospel Singing" (Brumley, 19**)
This book takes a look back at the time when people gathered together to sing gospel songs and have dinner on the ground. You'll find an excellent selection of old gospel songs, pictures and a collection of gospel music history.

BRUMLEY, ALBERT E. (ed) "Great Inspirational Songs" (Brumley, 19**)
"The finest collection of all-time inspirational songs, gospel songs, special songs and standard church songs and hymns available anywhere". Contains 325 gospel songs in shaped notes.

BRUMLEY, ALBERT E. (ed) "Lamplitin' Songs & Ballads" (Brumley, 19**)
Has the old folk songs, mountain ballads, plantation songs, western songs and songs about mother, home and heaven. Sample songs: "A Child At Mother's Knee", "Silver Threads Among The Gold", "Dreaming Of A Little Cabin", "Two Little Girls in Blue", "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" and others.

BRUMLEY, ALBERT E. (ed) "Olde Time Camp Meetin' Songs" (Brumley, 19**)
Songs of a by-gone era, made popular in camp meetings and brush arbor revivals between 1850 and 1940. Contains: "Great Speckled Bird", "The Model Church", "Will There Be Any Stars", "Church In The Wildwood", "Keep On The Sunnyside of Life", "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" and others.

BRUMLEY, ALBERT E. (ed) "Radio Favorites" (Brumley, 19**)
A selection of older Sacred and sentimental songs of the past. America's favorite "Songs of the Air". You'll find 124 songs with four part harmony arrangements. Favorites contained in this book: "Just A Rose Will Do", "The Royal Telephone", "I'll Have A New Life", "Lord, Build Me A Cabin In Glory", "Supper Time", "That Glad Reunion Day", "Way Down Deep In My Soul", "The Rainbow of Love", "Looking For A City" and other all-time great songs.

BRUMLEY, ALBERT E. (ed) "Songs of the Pioneers" (3 vols) (Brumley, 19**)
#1 contains a collection of 60 "Golden Oldies" with words, music and guitar chord symbols. Book contains: "After the Ball", "Wildwood Flower", "Little Mohee", "Babes in the Wildwood", "Barbara Allen", "Frankie and Johnnie", "Red Wing", "Little Rosewood Casket", "Put My Little Shoes Away" and many more. #2 has a selection of songs and ballads of the romantic past. This book also contains guitar chord symbols with the music. Book contains: "Billy Boy", "Old Dan Tucker", "The Old Gray Mare", "Casey Jones", "I've Been Workin' On The Railroad", "Little Brown Jug", "The Orphan Girl" and many more. A 64 page book. #3 contains: "Blue Eyes", "My Old Kentucky Home", "Wabash Cannonball", "The Preacher and the Bear", "There'll Be A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight", "I Ride An Old Paint", "Tom Dooley", "Skip To My Lou" and many more. 64 Pages ... I have the "Songs of the Pioneers" series and except that the print is so small, they're great. Good items to stash in the instrument case, and simple, playable arangements. ~S~

People - Robert Burns

NOTE: The official Robert Burns site here has his complete works electronically (no melodies).

BURNS, ROBERT and ROY G. ROSS "The Merry Muses of Caledonia" (Univ. South Carolina, 1999)
Full title "The Merry Muses of Caledonia : A Collection of Favourite Scots Songs, Ancient & Modern, Selected for Use of the Crochallan Fencibles". This is his collection of bawdy songs, collected and/or written by him. It is not in the "Complete Works" above, not having been published publicly during his lifetime. Amazon review here.

HOVEY, SERGE "The Robert Burns Song Book, Volume 1" (Mel Bay, 1997)
A set of classical arrangements with excellent notes and historical detail. Hovey died in the middle of the project and sadly there will be no volume 2. Review here.

KINSLEY, JAMES "Burns: Poems and Songs" (Oxford University Press, 1971)

James Kinsley's book is a particularly useful example of a book of Burns' songs with melodies, and has been regularly reprinted.

People - The Carter Family

NOTE: A songbook of "Original Carter Family Songs" is Online here.

LEONARD, HAL "The Original Carter Family" (Peer International, 1980)
A Carter Family songbook with a biography by Johnny Cash. It has words and music (with guitar chords) for 11 of their "biggest" songs - No tablature though.

SOKOLOV, FRED "The Carter Family Collection" (Hal Leonard Publishing Corp., 1999)
Subtitled "32 Songs From the Royal Family of Country Music". It contains photos, an introduction, notes on each song, and an article entitled "Guitar Styles of the Carter Family. ISBN 0793588804. List of contents here.

People - Larrie Gorman

IVES, EDWARD ("SANDY") ET AL "Larry Gorman: The Man Who Made the Songs" (Bloomington, Indiana Univ. Press, 1964)
With Henry Glassie and John Szwed. Sandy Ives' studies of lumbercamp songmaker Larry Gorman.

People - Woody Guthrie

NOTE: The Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives here has a vast amount of information. The Mudcat biography of Woody is here.
Woody's biography from "Rolling Stone" is here and there is another good biography with pictures here.
There is a good Song Site here and a bibliography of books in The Library of Congress here.

GUTHRIE, WOODY "Bound For Glory" (New York, E. P. Dutton, 1968)
Woody's autobiography, illustrated with sketches by the author.

GUTHRIE, WOODY et al "Hard Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People" (Oak Publications, 1967)
This has been reissued. It was compiled by Alan Lomax, Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger.

KLEIN, JOE "Woody Guthrie : A Life" (Delta, 1999)
Klein uses all the resources he could possibly get to tell the life of the most important figure in American Music. Guthrie suffered throughout his life, and the author makes sure the reader understands that. He also points out that Guthrie was not the most polite person, but that he also was one who cared for people. The story of Woody's childhood right up to the time of his death is one that needs to be read by anyone interested in the music of America. ISBN: 0385333854. Amazon Review here.

People - Ashley Hutchings

NOTE: See also Fairport Convention.

HUTCHINGS, ASHLEY "A Little Music" (London, Island Music, 1976)
There are a handful of Fairport Convention Songs in this book by Ashley Hutchings, plus some from his later bands in the 1970's. Description here.

People - Leadbelly

ASCH, MOSES and LOMAX, ALAN "The Leadbelly Songbook" (New York, Oak Publications, 1962)
*** I don't have any further information on this book. Please contact me if you can help. Thanks. Ian ***

People - Christy Moore

MOORE, CHRISTY "One Voice: My Life in Song" (Hodder and Stoughton, 2000)
One of Ireland's best loved singers, he has taken a wholly original approach to this autobiography. At the heart of this unique book are the lyrics to some 250 songs from Christy's career. Reviews here, here and here.

People - Thomas Moore

NOTE: Lesley's biography of Thomas Moore is here and there is another good page, here.

MOORE, THOMAS "Irish Melodies" (10 vols) (Various publishers, originally 1808-1836)
This book is suitable for piano and voice and includes bass amd treble clefs for most selections. There is music of O'Carolan, dance tunes, airs, and harmonised vocal arrangements by Thomas Moore who lived from 1780-1852. Available online here. ISBN 0-931877-27-x.
Last republished as a paperback facsimile of the illustrated 1846 edition by Dover Publications, 2000

People - Francis O'Neill

NOTE: There is a biography of Chief O'Neill here.

CAROLAN, NICHOLAS "A Harvest Saved: Francis O'Neill and Irish Music in Chicago" (Ossian, 1997)
Biography of Francis O'Neill by Nicholas Carolan. Not a tune book, this is simply one of the best presented, most interesting and carefully researched books about the history of the music available. Nicholas Carolan is the Curator of The Traditional Music Archives in Dublin.

O'NEILL FRANCIS "O'Neill's Music of Ireland" (******, 1903)
The largest collection of Irish music ever printed, 1,850 tunes, and contains over 90% of traditional music being played today. This collection was published in 1903, as a result of the efforts of Capt. Francis O'Neill and many traditional musicians attending the Chicago Music Club, circa 1890-1900. Review here.
Reprinted numerous times, most recently by Mel Bay, 1997

People - Peggy Seeger

NOTE: Peggy Seeger's website is here.

SEEGER, PEGGY "The Peggy Seeger Songbook" (Oak Publications, 19??)
Peggy Seeger had her own songbook published about 3 years ago, which is available for about $30. Nice to have what she's done in one book, with some comments on each song.

People - Jimmy Shand

NOTE: There are Jimmy Shand obituaries online at Accordions.Com and The Stage.

CAMERON, IAN and SHEPHERD, ROBBIE "The Jimmy Shand Story" (Scottish Cultural Press, 1998)
A biography of the musician, Jimmy Shand. This book ranges from his boyhood in East Wemyss, Scotland, through the early years as an amateur accordian player, right up to the present day. It includes a listing of Shand's recordings on vinyl, cassette and CD, and also his sheet music compositions. A good review, with a lot of biographical detail here.

People - Cyril Tawney

NOTE: There is a discography with some biographical details here.

TAWNEY, CYRIL "Grey Funnel Lines: traditional song & verse of the Royal Navy 1900-1970" (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987)
A collection of songs from the navy rather than the merchant marine, compiled by the singer and former submariner. Review here.

Last Updated : 05-10-2003 16:30

Subject: Basic Folk Library PermaThread - Instruments
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 03:05 PM

A Basic Folk Library - Instruments

Appalachian Dulcimer
Banjo (5-string)
Banjo (Tenor)
Concertina (Anglo-German)
Fiddle
Guitar
Mandolin
Melodeon
Tin Whistle

Instruments - Appalachian Dulcimer

NOTE: Further information about the instrument is available here. See also this article on Contemporary Mountain Dulcimers.

BRYANT, LARKIN "Larkin's Dulcimer Book" (Riverlark Music, 19??)
I have been working in "Larkin's Dulcimer Book" and it's great. An excellent, friendly, instruction book for beginning to intermediate players. Larkin's gentle playing presence comes through on the page in encouraging ways and her pie-chart description of musical values is invaluable! Spiral bound. Note/tab.

MAJOR, JAMES "The Dulcimer Chord Encyclopedia" (Mel Bay, 1993)
The first chord book in standard tunings for the Mountain Dulcimer. Thousands of chords, in 6 popular modes, 3 different tunings each. Indispensible for any serious dulcimer player.

REILLY, LUCILLE "Striking Out ... And Winning" (Shadrach Productions, 1992)
For Hammered Dulcimer, the best single text/instruction book on the market is "Striking Out ... And Winning" by Lucille Reilly. It is a very thorough and well written book with excellent diagrams and photographs. As a single entry, it's hard to beat. Amazon review here.

RITCHIE, JEAN "The Dulcimer Book" (Oak Publications, 1963)
Any basic library would be incomplete on Appalachian Dulcimer without Jean Ritchie's "The Dulcimer Book". She is the "mother" of the instrument and there is simple instruction here, with a wealth of folklore and stories about the instrument.

Instruments - Banjo (5 String)

NOTE: A bibliography of The Banjo's history is available here and here is Stuart Tod's Banjo Page. There is another good 5-string bibliography here.

BURKE, JOHN "John Burke's Book of Old Time Fiddle Tunes for Banjo" (Amsco, 1968)
The next best, which should be no 1 except it is a Tune Book and not suitable for a beginner, 'Old Time Fiddle Tunes for Banjo' by John Burke. This book is the favorite of clawhammer style banjo players. Over 70 tunes and a variety of tunings for the experienced player. 96 pages.

LINN, KAREN "That half-barbaric twang: the banjo in American popular culture" (Urbana, Univ. Illinois Press, 1994)
The Banjo in American Popular Culture (Music in American Life). Originally published in 1957.

MULLER, ERIC and KOEHLER, BARBARA "Frailing the 5-String Banjo: An Instruction Manual" (Mel Bay, 1973)
The best all round clawhammer banjo book is 'Muller & Koehler' Pub by MelBay. An excellent instruction for the beginning frailer with lessons in the basic frailing motion, the brush stroke, the pull-off, hammering, drop-thumb frailing, the roll, the triplet and lots of classic songs in tablature to practice. Book and cassette. ISBN 0-87166-878-5.

WEBB, ROBERT LLOYD (comp) "Ring the banjar: the banjo in America from folklore to factory" (MIT Museum, 1984)
The Banjo in America from Folklore to Factory. A history that's enjoyable to read, with pictures from gourd banjos to heavily inlaid Fairbanks banjos.

Instruments - Banjo (Tenor)

SULLIVAN, ANTHONY "Sully's Irish Banjo Book" (Cork, Ossian Publications, 1988)
I (and I would think many other) tenor banjo players started out with Sully's Irish Banjo book. His session books have also proved to be useful for getting a common repertiore of tunes and my set of has been out on more or less permanent loan to others getting started in Irish music for the last 8 years.

Instruments - Concertina (Anglo-German)

NOTE: There is a useful little bibliography for Anglo-German and English Concertinas here.

LEVY, BERTRAM "The Anglo Concertina Demystified" (New York, Front Hall Enterprises, 19??)
A clearly written tutor for the 30 button Anglo concertina. Also pretty useful for 20-button and 40-button Anglo models. Includes 2 cassettes.

Instruments - Fiddle

NOTE: Useful fiddle sites include Fiddler Magazine here and The Hardanger Fiddle Associatiation of America here.
Chris Bartram's article on The Southern English Fiddle Tradition here and An Appreciation of the Donegal Fiddle here.

COOPER, PETER "the Complete Irish Fiddle player" (Mel Bay, 1998)
Peter Cooper has put together an excellent introduction to the world of Irish fiddling. The book progresses through levels of difficulty, introducing the reader to the different tune forms (jigs, reels, hornpipes etc) and the different forms of ornamentation. The book comes with a double cd which has about 75 tunes on it, played slow and fast. It is a bit pricey. Amazon reviews here.

KAUFMAN, ALAN "Beginning Old Time Fiddle" (New York, Oak, 1997)
The 17 tunes presented in this book teach aspiring musicians how to play fiddle in the style of masters such as Papa John Creach, Sugarcane Harris, Howard Armstrong, Remo Biondi, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, and Lonnie Johnson. Covering the history of the blues fiddle, it also presents correct ways to introduce and end tunes, right- and left-hand styles, and backup techniques. The accompanying practice CD encourages musicians to play along and learn to achieve an authentic sound.

WILLIAMSON, ROBIN "English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes" (New York, Oak, 1976)
Over 100 tunes, this is an outstanding collection of the traditional music of Britain, graded from easy to advanced. Originally came with a little floppy mini record, now a CD. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot from it although I later found out that Robin's versions were not always the standard versions that everybody else played.
Reprinted, 1997

Instruments - Guitar

NOTE: Further information about the instrument is available at The Online Guitar Archive OLGA.
There is also a useful history of the (classical) instrument here.

DENYER, RALPH and SUMMERS, ANDY "The Guitar Manual" (Knopf, 1992)
Ralph Denyer's The Guitar Manual gives a grand discussion of different styles, music theory, sound reinforcement, biography, and technique. Book Description The most comprehensive resource available for beginning and experienced guitarists alike, whether acoustic or electric. Completely redesigned and with many more full-color photos than the original, this new edition surveys recent models and profiles current masters, includes an expanded lesson... Read more Reviews on Amazon here.

McQUAID, SARAH "The Irish DADGAD Guitar Book" (Ossian Publications, 1996)
The Dadgad tuning was developed for backing musicians and solo performers. This book explains Dadgad tuning and provides a complete set of chord diagrams, lists twenty-four Irish tunes arranged in guitar tab, and outlines basic music theory and structure with an empathesis on traditional Irish music. The Dadgad Demo Tape by Sarah McQuaid includes all the tunes listed in the book. Sarah McQuaid biography here.

SEEGER, PETE and LESTER, JULIUS "The Folk Singer's Guide to the 12 String guitar, as played by Leadbelly" (Oak Publications, 1965)
To learn from "The 12 string guitar as played by Leadbelly" by Pete Seeger and Julius Lester. I highly recommend this book. It was published in 1965 by Oak Publications. Until TRO/Folkways published my transcriptions of Lead Belly's music in "Lead Belly, no stranger to the blues" it was the only book that explained the way that Lead Belly actually used the 12-string guitar. The tablature is hand written by or edited by Julius Lester and Jerry Silverman. There are extensive personal observations on Lead Belly's music written by Pete Seeger.

SILVERMAN, JERRY "A Guitarist's Treasury of Song" (Mel Bay, 1995)
This huge collection of traditional and folk tunes includes song categories such as love songs, songs of the sea, fun songs, train songs, sentimental songs, and songs based on historic events. Written in simple leadsheet format with complete lyrics and chord symbols. Author/compiler Jerry Silverman contributes program notes for the more obscure tunes in this exhaustive anthology of American song. A good addition to his two-volume Folk Song Encyclopedia.

SILVERMAN,JERRY "Beginning the folk guitar; an instruction manual" (2 vols) (Oak, 1964)
Simplified,detailed course in the first stages of playing the folk guitar. In 2 volumes, Both excellent. Loads of tab and instruction. There used to be LPs (remember them) available to accompany them.

Instruments - Mandolin

NOTE: The Mandolin Page is here and The Bluegrass Mandolin HomePage is here. There is a Mandolin Chord page here.
Other interesting sites include Simple Gifts (Tablature), Comando, Mandolin Cafe and Mandolinist.com

Instruments - Melodeon

NOTE: There is a useful Melodeon page here.

MALLINSON, DAVID "Mally's Melodeon Methods: D/G System Absolute Beginners" (Mallinson, 19??)
Written by Dave Mallinson, the book is aimed at getting you to beat the bass in time correctly whilst fitting in a few simple melodies. Years of working out an efficient and logical way of playing are thus eliminated. More advanced books are also available from the author here.

Instruments - Tin Whistle

NOTE: A useful online Tin Whistle guide is the Ceolas Penny Whistle Guide.

COTTER, GERALDINE "Traditional Irish Tin Whistle Tutor" (Ossian, 1997)
This is a very good book by Geraldine Cotter (a former all-Ireland whistle champion). There is, separately available, an accompanying cassette by Geraldine of all the tunes in the book with guitar accompaniment.

JORDAN, EAMONN "Whistle and Sing" (2 vols) (****, 19??)
Two collections of Irish songs, reels, airs, jigs, and dance tunes all geared for the whistle and other traditional Irish instruments.

MCCASKILL, MIZZY and GILLIAM, DONA "The Complete Irish Tin Whistle Book" (Mel Bay, 1996)
Quite an instructive book, with some basic music theory, explanation of different grace notes, lots of tunes, and fingering charts to make it easier if you're not a whiz at reading music. ISBN 0-7866-2318-7. Review here. Amazon reviews here.

MCCULLOUGH, L. E. "The Complete Tinwhistle Tutor" (Pittsburgh, PA, Silver Spear Publications, 1976)
I really like this book and would guess that anyone who is already comfortable reading music would have no problem. It's pretty thorough, does a great job of explaining the various ornaments and techniques, and has a bunch of good tunes.

MAGUIRE, TOM "The Tin Whistle Book" (Music Sales Corp., 1997)
A small book for the absolute beginner who wants an introduction to the tin whistle. It's great. Good instruction, kept simple, and lots of practice tunes will keep you busy for months!

OCHS, BILL "The Clarke Tin Whistle Book" (Pennywhistle Press, 19??)
VERY easy format for beginners, and it does not assume learner knows how to read music. Comes with cassette tape. Often comes with purchase of Clarke Whistle. Details of the various deals available here.

WILLIAMSON, ROBIN "The Penny Whistle Book" (Music Sales Corporation, 1977)
This is really good, beginning with very simple yet beautiful tunes, clear instructions for fingering, and really interesting histories of each tune. Check it out. Amazon review here.

Last Updated : 03-05-2002 12:30

Subject: Basic Folk Library PermaThread - Subjects
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 03:09 PM

A Basic Folk Library - Subjects

Carols and Christmas
Folklore
Folk Tales
Gypsy Tradition
Historical Events
Individual Songs
Mining
Murder
Nursery Rhymes, Childrens' Songs and Games
Pirates
Poetry
Railroad

Subject - Carols and Christmas

NOTE: There is a useful reference for carols here.

DEARMER, PERCY et al (eds) "The Oxford Book of Carols" (Oxford Univ. Press, 1928)
By Percy Dearmer, R. Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw (Editors). A firm favourite with choirs for many years, this is a classic collection of traditional carols. Contents here.
Reprinted 1964

EHRET, WALTER and EVANS, GEORGE "The International Book of Christmas Carols" (Walton Music, 1980)
164 easy arrangements with chords for carols from around the word complete with lyrics in the original language as well as English. This special collection also includes historical background information on the observance of Christmas through the years and notes about specific carols to give added understanding. Songs are included from England, Italy, Latin America, Spain, Scandinavia, Poland, Czech Republic, and more. Contents here.

KEYTE, HUGH et al (eds) "The New Oxford Book of Carols" (Oxford Univ. Press, 1992)
By Hugh Keyte, Andrew Parrott and Clifford Bartlett (Editors). More than 700 pages long, this volume contains over 200 carols, along with a discussion of their history, suggestions for performance, and, often, more than one musical setting. Review here.

LANGSTRAFF, NANCY and JOHN "The Christmas Revels Songbook" (Revels Inc., 1985)
This unique collection includes processionals, traditional and ritual carols, children's songs, and rounds drawn largely from traditional sources spanning six centuries. Presented here in arrangements created especially for Revels, the songs are appropriate for school, community, and church use in Christmas, Winter Solstice, or Twelfth night Celebrations. Includes an excellent CD. ISBN 0964083620

POSTON, ELIZABETH "The Penguin Book of Christmas Carols" (Penguin Books, 1979)
50 Christmas carols compiled and edited, with arrangements, translations and notes, and an introduction by Elizabeth Poston. A scholarly work. Each carol is scored for at least four voices and sometimes there is also a descant line. Elizabeth Poston is probably the best arranger of Christmas Carols of the 20th Century.

Subject - Folklore

NOTE: There is a useful introductory article on Folklore here.

FRAZER, JAMES GEORGE, SIR "The Golden Bough" (New York, Macmillan, 1922)
A monumental study in comparative folklore, magic and religion, The Golden Bough shows parallels between the rites and beliefs, superstitions and taboos of early cultures and those of Christianity. It had a great impact on psychology and literature and remains an early classic anthropological resource.
Available online The Golden Bough at Bartleby.com.

LEACH, MARIA "Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, & Legend" (Harper Row, 1972)
(Originally published 1949-50, new ed. 1972; and a wee while ago in paperback). Edited by Maria Leach. This covers a lot of ground, but falls short in many many respects.

Subject - Folk Tales

NOTE: There is a useful article on Folk Tales by Doug Lipman - here and a comprehensive online resource here.

JACOBS, JOSEPH "English Fairy Tales" (******, 1890)
JACOBS, JOSEPH "More English Fairy Tales" (******, 1894)
In his preface to the first book, Jacobs remarks "WHO says that English folk have no fairy tales of their own? The present volume contains only a selection out of some 140, of which I have found traces in this country. It is probable that many more exist.". His two books are the classic collection of folk tales from England. Illustrated by John Batten.
Reprinted by Dover (1998), these are also available online - English Fairy Tales and More English Fairy Tales.

THOMPSON, STITH "The Folktale" (8 vols) (New York, Dryden Press, 1951)
His Motif-Index tries to list all the little events and personalities one finds in tales and ballads etc., though it's irritating to use sometimes.

Subject - Gypsy Tradition (poems, speech, songs)

NOTE: There is a Gypsy bibliography here.

COUGHLAN, TIM "Now Shoon the Romano Gillie" (Univ. Wales, 2001)
Subtitled "Traditional Verse in the High and Low Speech of the Gypsies of Britain", it is a very weighty tome. However, it reads very well and should be of interest. ISBN: 0-7083-1498-8.

Subject - Historical Events

GREAVES, C. DESMOND "The Easter Rising in Song & Ballad" (London, Kahn and Averill, 1980)
This book contains more than 30 songs with notation concerning the 1916 rebellion including "A Rebel Song (James Connolly)", "The Soldiers of Cumann Na mBan (Brian O';Higgins)", "James Connolly", etc. You can learn not only the songs but the Irish history.

Subject - Individual Songs

IVES, EDWARD ("SANDY") "The Bonny Earl of Murray: The Man, the Murder, the Ballad" (Univ. Illinois Press, 1997)
"The Bonny Earl of Murray" is one of Professor Ives' favorite ballads. In his book, The Bonny Earl of Murray, he gives the reader "the rest of the story" -- the story of the life and death of the Bonny Earl himself. He also traces the path of the ballad through history, following it through stanza shuffles and tune modifications, on and off the concert stage. Excellent review here.

MURPHY, SEAN "The Mystery of Molly Malone" (Dublin, 1992)
Investigates the authorship and history of the classic Victorian song, and the mythology which has grown up around it. The contribution of the book is summarised here.

SCHEIPS, PAUL "Hold the Fort!" (Smithsonian, 1971)
The Story of a Song from the Sawdust Trail to the Picket Line. See also the song ... Bliss, Philip Paul, 1838-1876. "Hold The Fort"

Subject - Mining

GREEN, ARCHIE "Only A Miner: Studies in Recorded Coal-Mining Songs" (Univ. Illinois Press, 1972)
Another important book that could be included under the heading 'Mining'.

LLOYD, A. L. (ed) "Come All Ye Bold Miners" (Lawrence & Wishart Ltd., 1952; revised 1978)
Ballads and songs from the mines. Good review here.

Subject - Murder

BURT, OLIVE WOOLLEY "American Murder Ballads and their Stories" (New York, Oxford Univ. Press, 1958)
In her book, American Murder Ballads and Their Stories, Olive Woolley Burt has collected scores of American folk ballads and verses about that sin of most dire consequence, murder. She has also sought out historical accounts (via newspaper articles, court records, and personal interviews) of the actual crimes that inspired the ballads which will prove to be quite helpful in our discussion of the relation of society to culture.

OWSTON, CHARLES E. "Murder, Betrayal and Death: Observations on Traditional Ballads" (Self published, 1999)
Murder Betrayal and Death is a self-financed work that is equally entertaining, both as a reference work or just a good read. It's probably just as well the author decided against listing UK folk songs related to sex alone, though, as the result would have to be the size of an encyclopedia! Available from Charles E. Owston, PO Box 162, Ardara PA 15615, USA. Review here.

Subject - Nursery Rhymes, Childrens' Songs and Games

NOTE: There is an interesting collection of early Nursery Rhymes here.

BUTTERWORTH, NICK "The Puffin Book of Nursery Rhymes" (Puffin, 1995)
A collection of 14 of the best-loved nursery rhymes which invites young readers to take a fresh look at favorite verses. With bright and witty illustrations, this is one book of nursery rhymes that should surely have a place on every child's night table.

LANG, ANDREW and BROOKE, L. LESLIE "The Nursery Rhyme Book" (London, Warne, 1898)
By Andrew Lang, Reteller of folk and fairy tales, and illustrated by Brooke.

MEEK, BILL "Moon Penny" (Cork, Ossian, 19??)
Subtitled "a collection of rhymes, songs and play-verse for and by children". A Collection of Rhymes, Songs, and Play-Verse for and by Children Gathered in Ireland. Ed. by John Loesberg, music transcribed by Bebhinn Ni Mheara". It's a great book with great illustrations.

O'BOYLE, CARMEL "Cut the Loaf: Irish Children's Songs" (Mercier Press, 1997)
A great little book. A selection of 50 of the most popular songs traditionally sung in English by Irish children. Melody line, guitar chords and piano accompaniments. 132 pages.

OPIE, IONA and PETER "The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren" (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1959)
Childrens Games in Street and Playground. Reviewed here and at Amazon here.
Reprinted by Oxford University Press, 1987

OPIE, IONA and PETER "The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes" (Oxford Univ. Press, 2nd ed.1997)
A brand new edition of the classic anthology of nursery rhymes, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes includes over 500 rhymes, songs, nonsense jingles, and lullabies traditionally handed down to young children. With each piece Iona and Peter Opie introduce a wealth of information, noting its earliest known publication, origin, and illustrating changes in wording over the years. 85 illustrations.

OPIE, IONA and PETER "The Singing Game" (Oxford University Press, 1985)
The standard work on singing-games and their history.

Subject - Pirates

FRANK, STUART "The Book Of Pirate Songs" (Sharon, Mass., Kendall Whaling Museum, 1998)
Stuart is the Director of the Kendall Museum & has written nautical/music books as well as penned a few songs & done some recordings in the sea music genre. Excellent book. Covers 62 songs starting back as far as "John Dory" (Child #284) going back to 1575 up to the Music Hall era & the Songsters. The chapters break it up into Old Ballads, Broadside Ballads, Women Buccaneers, Victorian Songs, Songs from Popular Songsters & last Related Ballads. The backround histories to the songs is extremely well researched & well done as are the backround of the song's subjects. The music is written out for most the songs as well as chords. ISBN 0-937854-05-0.

Subject - Poetry

CHAPPLE, JOE MITCHELL (ed) "Heart Throbs" (The Chapple Publishing Co., 1905)
Heart Throbs--In Prose and Verse Dear to the American People--and by Them Contributed in the $10,000 Prize Contest Initiated by the National Magazine, 1904-1905. See also "Heart Songs" (COUNTRIES/USA).

Subject - Railroad

NOTE: There is a bibliography containing most books about trains and railroads here.

COHEN, NORM "The Long Steel Rail" (Univ. Illinois Press, 2000)
About to be re-issued. Review here.

LYLE, KATIE LETCHER "Scalded to Death by the Steam" (Chapel Hill NC, Algonquin Books, 19??)
stories of railroad disasters and the ballads about them. ISBN-0-912697-01-6.
Reprinted 1991

Last Updated : 15-03-2002 16:00

Subject: Basic Folk Library PermaThread - Online Resources
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 03:14 PM

A Basic Folk Library - Online Resources

Alphabetical pages for online Biographies, Song and Tune Sites, Performers' Sites and Publishers' Sites can be accessed by clicking the appropriate link.

Online Resources - Articles

Cecil Sharp In America
Article "Cecil Sharp In America: Collecting in The Appalachians"

Online Resources - Bibliographies

A Traditional Music Library
A Bibliography of online songbooks etc. with links.

Appalachian Women and Traditional Music (resource)
A bibliography and other links for resources about Appalachian traditional music and women.

EFDSS Folksong Bibliography
David Atkinson's English Folk Song: an introductory bibliography (1999) is now available online via the  English Folk Dance and Song Society. It is not limited to traditional song in England, though that is its main focus.

EFDSS Morris Dancing Bibliography
The EFDSS's Bibliography of books about Morris Dancing (Note the LIBRARY prefix - it also applies to Sword)

The Electric Book Company
A bibliography of e-texts available for sale.

Folklore and Society Series
University of Illinois Press "Folklore and Society" bibliography

David Herron's Chapbook
A list of folk song books in print in Britain and Ireland. Upkept by Dave Heron (Eckersley), The Traditional Song Forum.

Irish Music - Old Books
A catalogue of old books on Irish music.

Music In American Life Series
University of Illinois Press "Music In American Life" bibliography.

New College of California Guide to E-Texts
A bibliograhy of online e-texts.

Sources for Printed Music and Song Lyrics
This is part of "Music On & Off the Web: A Suite of Handouts" presented, Fall 1998; Revised April 1999 by Nell Ingalls, Research Librarian, Suburban Library System Reference Service.

The Scottish Folklore Page
A bibliography of books for sale on Scottish Folklore.

Women of Appalachia - Resources
A bibliography and other links.

Online Resources - Book Review Sites

Green Man Reviews
Source of many of the book reviews in these pages

Michael Raven's Songbooks
A review of Song books by Mike Raven.

Online Resources - Collections

American Folklife Centre (Library of Congress) Collections
A list of the collections available at the Library of Congress American Folklife Center. Includes a wide range of resources.

British and Irish Authors on The Web
Online books by a variety of British and Irish authors from Beowulf onwards. Useful for reference.

Women of Appalachia - resources

Frank C. Brown Collection
Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore.

Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection
Anyone interested in making arrangements to hear the field recordings should get in touch with Mr. Terry Simpkins ([e-mail]). He is most enthusiastic about people interested in the Collection.

The Princess Grace Irish Library of Monaco
The Princess Grace Irish Library of Monaco ... has loads of interesting info.

Village Music Project
A study of English Social Musicians from the 17th century onwards from their manuscripts.

Online Resources - Historical Information

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

History of Hymns Archive
United Methodist site. Upkept by William Reynolds.

WPA Life Histories Project
Writers' Project Association descriptions of life from the Federal Writers' Project (1936-1940). There's an online article here.

Online Resources - Miscellaneous

A Million Lives - Biography Resource
Enormous resource for short biographies of nearly everybody.

Canadian Journal For Traditional Music
A large archive of past issues of the journal, all available online, with some excellent articles.

CDSS
The US Country Dance and Song Society.

Finding Songs in Songbooks & Anthologies: A Users' Guide
"Are you looking for the words and music to a favorite song your grandmother used to sing, or a copy of your favorite Beatles song? These indexes, and our "Song Index" and "Sheet Music" card files, are designed to assist both you and the librarians in locating songs in song books and anthologies." Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

Folklib Index
FolkLib Index - A library of Folk Music Links.

Leonards
Dealer's "for sale" page.

More Music
A music search page.

Music 1 records search
A record search page.

Pro Music Find record search
Another record search page.

The Radio Ballads review
Review of one of the most influential radio series ever broadcast in the UK.

Song Notes: A Companion to the Old Town School of Folk Music
Notes on a song book which Joe Offer claims he would kill for!!!.

Swinburne (1866) Poems and Ballads
Swinburne's most influential poetic work as an e-text.

Traditional MP3s
A page of MP3s of traditional music.

WFMA (World Folk Music Association)
The World Folk Music Association's web page.

Last Updated : 05-10-2003 16:30

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: IanC
Date: 02 Mar 06 - 06:15 AM

Thanks Joe!!!!

A lot of the links etc. are broken after all this time. I'll try to get back to them in a week or two when I've got less other stuff on.

:-)
Ian

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: GUEST,DB
Date: 02 Mar 06 - 07:56 AM

I note, in Joe Offer's 1st March list, above, a book on the 'Bonnie Earl O'Murray' ballad. You may be interested to learn that there is another book on this ballad: 'Blood Feud: The Stewarts & Gordons At War in the age of Mary Queen of Scots' by Harry Potter (I kid you not!), Tempus Publishing Ltd., 2002.

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: IanC
Date: 02 Mar 06 - 08:38 AM

Thanks!
:-)

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Mar 06 - 01:59 AM

Here's a cool resource for you:
Open WorldCat.
Type in a book title, then type in your ZIP Code*, and it will give you a list of libraries near you that have the book.

*For Canada, use your Postal Code or province. Everyone else use your country name.

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: MartinRyan
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 05:21 PM

Picked up an interesting book at a recent fair.

"Songwriters of Ireland (in the English language)" by Colm O'Lochlainn - he of the "Irish Street Ballads" and "More Irish Street Ballads" mentioned earlier.


This one is a small (65 pages) booklet with biographical details of many of the 19th and early 20th C. authors of well known Irish songs. Seems to be quite scarce - I'd never seen a copy before this one. Worth keeping an eye out for if you're in the sort of place it might turn up in!

Regards

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: IanC
Date: 10 Mar 06 - 05:03 AM

Thanks, Martin. I'll look out for it!
:-)

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From:
Date: 03 May 06 - 09:14 AM

i need something on music from the North Georgia mountains in the late 1700's, early 1800's. can you help me?

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Jul 06 - 05:12 PM

Here's an addition for online resources: New Zealand Folk Song

You may want to include http://garrygillard.net/ - Garry's Website is the definitive source for Watersons and Martin Carthy lyrics.

The Copper Family Songbook is at http://www.thecopperfamily.com/

One more: From White Hall to Bacon Hollow - the song collecting of George Foss So, get back to work, Ian!!!!
;-)

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Sep 06 - 05:31 PM

Here's an online resource to add:
DAS SCHÖNSTE LAND: Historische Lieder aus dem deutschen Südwesten (The Most Beautiful Land: Historical Songs from the German Southwest). The entire songbook is available for download as a PDF file here (click) (60 Seiten, 2,8 MB)
The book includes lyrics and music. Auf Deutsch, natürlich.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: open mike
Date: 24 Nov 06 - 09:04 PM

I would like to include these three magazines in the list
of musical resources:

Sing Out! magazine is published by the same people who put
out the song book Rise Up Singing. www.singout.org is also
the home of the Sing Out! Resource Center in Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania. It houses a collection of folk music recordings,
photos, books, periodicals and much more collected over the
last 50 years. Sing Out!'s mission is to preserve and support
the cultural diversity and heritage of all traditional and contemporary folk musics, and to encourage making folk music
a part of our everyday lives.

Another great magazine is Dirty Linen. Dirty Linen is the
bi-monthly magazine of folk and world music.Want to see?
go to: www.dirtylinen.com/ They say: Accept no imitation!
Click on the fiddle head for guaranteed quality! (their logo)


No Depression is a the bimonthly magazine surveying the past, present, and future of American music. It was launched in September 1995 as a quarterly publication and became bimonthly in September 1996. The name refers to the 1930s Carter Family song "No Depression In Heaven" see: http://www.nodepression.net/

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 02:40 AM

from Masato:

These ballad books are online at Internet Archive: Text Archive.

English And Scottish Popular Ballads, ed. George Lyman Kittredge (abridged one-volume ed.)

The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (parts 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9), ed. Francis James Child.

The English And Scottish Popular Ballads, Volumes I & V, ed. Francis James Child (Folklore Press reprint editions, 1956)

English and Scottish Ballads, 8 vols., ed. Francis James Child (1860 edition)

Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, 3 vols. (MDCCXCIV and MDCCCXXXIX editions) - Thomas Percy

Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript : Ballads and Romances, 3 vols. (1867-68) ["Loose and Humorous Songs" is not available]

Popular Ballads and Songs, 2 vols. - Robert Jamieson

Minstrelsy : Ancient and Modern (1827) - William Motherwell

Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, by Sir Walter Scott, 4 vols., edited by T.F. Henderson (1902)

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: IanC
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 07:30 AM

Thanks, Joe. I'll get round to sorting out the references when I get the chance. Time seems to be difficult to find at the moment.

There are actually quite a few books online now (for example Andrew Lang's Folk Songs) and I really ought to go searching for what is available and add them to the listings.

So keep the references coming.

:-)

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Mar 07 - 12:11 AM

Masato posted a link to this online book:
Sea songs and ballads (1906)

Author: Stone, Christopher, 1882-1965

---

The sea song book is just the tip of the iceberg, if you will. archive.org is a huge collection of books, movies, sound files, and whatnot - all available for free download. A search for Ballads and Songs will give you an idea - even Brewster's Ballads and Songs of Indiana is available for download.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Mar 07 - 09:12 PM

Basic to African-American religious song:
J. B. T. Marsh, 1880's, "The Story of the Jubilee Singers; with Their Songs." Some 128 scores and texts in 1880's or later editions (early ones have fewer songs).

Basic to Children's Games:
Gomme, Alice B., 1894, 1898, "The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland," two volumes, 531pp. Thames & Hudson reprint of 1984 bound in one volume. Many variants.

Frank C. Brown, "Folklore of North Carolina," no longer on line.

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Mar 07 - 03:05 AM

The complete texts of a number of Lomax books are available at www.traditionalmusic.co.uk (click).

American Ballads & Folk Songs by John Lomax	Complete book
Our Singing Country by John Lomax	Complete book
Songs of the Cattle Trail & Cow Camp by John Lomax	Complete book
Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads by John Lomax	Complete book

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: MartinRyan
Date: 15 Mar 07 - 06:08 AM

That looks an interesting site, Joe - if somewhat awkwardly organised!

Regards

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 06:03 AM

Amendment to Bibliography thread:

Packie Manus Byrne
Recollections of a Donegal Man
ed. Stephen Jones
pub. 1989 Roger Millington (Lampeter)
ISBN 0 9514764 0 8

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 06:09 AM

Note this Folk Music Bibliography thread.

-prepared by Susanne(SKW)-

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 10:17 PM

Wow, great work, Susanne and Joe!!!

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 03:22 AM

Susanne (skw) bibliography

Folklorerezeption in der Gegenwart : Probleme des Folklorismus in den slawischen und baltischen Literaturen; wissenschaftliche Konferenz der Forschungsgruppe Russische und Sowjetische Literatur und Folklore, 25. und 26. Oktober 1989 / Klagge, Ingetraut
   Rostock : [University], 19XX

Vol. 1. 1990 (Rostocker Forschungen zur Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft ; 7)
Vol. 2. 1990 (Rostocker Forschungen zur Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft ; 8)

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 03:54 AM

susanne (skw) Bibliography

Bobran, Anne-Katrin:
Die Gedanken sind frei oder Die Partei, die Partei, die hat immer recht? : Theoretische Ansätze der Volksliedforschung in der DDR / Anne-Katrin Bobran
Freiburg im Breisgau, Univ., Diss., 1991

Land without nightingales : music in the making of German-America ; [...Centennial conference in April 1992 that celebrated the 100. anniversary of the founding ot the University of Chicago ...] / Ed. by Philip V. Bohlman ...
Bohlman, Philip Vilas *1952-*
University of Illinois
Centennial conference ; (Chicago) : 1992.04.
   Madison, WI : Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, 2002
XIX, 301 S. : Ill., Noten. ; 1 CD (12 cm)
(Studies of the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies)
Includes bibliographical references (p. 292-293) and index
ISBN:         0-924119-04-7

Breuer, Hans:
Der Zupfgeigenhansl : das Liederbuch der Wandervögel / hrsg. von Hans Breuer unter Mitw. vieler Wandervögel
4. Aufl. - 26. - 29. Tsd. - Reprint d. 10. Aufl., Leipzig 1913
   Mainz : Schott
   München : Piper, 1994
227 S. : Ill., überwiegend Noten
(Serie Piper ; 8219)
ISBN:         3-7957-8219-8 ; 3-492-18219-4

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 06 Jul 07 - 07:26 AM

Characters: Western (ISO-8859-1)

missing dates in Susanne's bibliography (German books)

Publisher "Pläne" [passim] at Dortmund

Das schönste Land
aut.: Roland, Wolf
publ.: Villingen-Schwenningen : Neckar-Verl., 2001

Alte niederdeutsche Volkslieder
publ: Münster : Aschendorff, 1960

Das kleine dicke Liederbuch
publ.: Schlüchtern : Haeseler und Buhmann

Erk/Boehme: Deutscher Liederhort [Repr.]
publ.: Hildesheim : Olms
publ.: Wiesbaden : Breitkopf & Härtel

Klusen: Deutsche Lieder
publ.: Frankfurt a. M. [u.a.] : Insel-Verl.

Otto/König: Ich hatt' einen Kameraden
publ.: [Regensburg] : ConBrio-Verl.-Ges.

Uns geht die Sonne nicht unter
publ.: Köln : Tonger, 1934
publ.: Köln : Westdt. Jugendverl. Mell, 1940

Stern: Lieder gegen den Tritt
publ.: Oberhausen : Asso-Verl. Althoff, 1974
[I only have the catalogues, the publisher's name varies: Asso, Asso-Verl., Althoff in different libraries. Librarian's faults?]

Arnim/Brentano: Des Knaben Wunderhorn
vols.: 3
publ.: Stuttgart : Reclam, 2006

Yeo: Eduard Baumstark ...
publ.: Köln : Dohr
ISBN 3-15-030034-7

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Jul 07 - 02:24 PM

from Diane Easby:

Packie Manus Byrne
Recollections of a Donegal Man
ed. Stephen Jones
pub. 1989 Roger Millington
ISBN 0 9514764 0 8

Fred McCormick says:

Mike Brocken's Some Other Guys isn't about folk music. It's Mike's MA thesis, which was on cover versions of Beatles songs

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 09 Jul 07 - 08:21 AM

Scotland:

Graham, George Farquhar:
The Songs of Scotland : adapted to their appropriate volumes ; arranged with pianoforte accompaniments by G. F. Graham, .... - Vols. 1 - 3
   Edinburg : Wood & Co., [1848 - 1853]

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Aug 07 - 04:34 PM

Online lyrics: Bluegrass Songbook - an expansion of the well-known lyrics collection of Motoya Kitagawa.

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: sian, west wales
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 08:34 AM

Three new (and new-ish) books from Wales which might be of interest to some:

THOMAS, Wyn, "Cerddoriaeth Draddodiadol yng Nghymru: Llyfryddiaeth / Traditional Music in Wales: Bibliography", (Llanrwst: Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, Third edition: August 2006), ISBN 1-84527-080-0, a bilingual publication with sections broken down into
Main Printed Collections
Research Publications
Research Dissertations.
14.50 UK pounds

HARPER, Sally and THOMAS, Wyn (eds), "Cynheiliaid y Ga^n / Bearers of Song", (Cardiff: University of Wales Press), ISBN 978-0-7083-2081-5, a bilingual collection of essays in honour of Phyllis Kinney and Meredydd Evans;
Part 1 being 3 'tribute' poems,
Part 2 Articles: "Chasing Fragments: Iolo, Ritson and Robin Hood" (Mary-ann Constantine), "Aelwyd Angharad: The Historical Context" (Hywel Teifi Edwards), "The Best Composer: Ieuan Gwyllt and the Welsh Melody" (Rhidian Griffiths), "Music in the Commonplace Book of Phillip Powell of Brecon c. 1630 - 35" (Sally Harper), "Dressing Women in Tunes" (Daniel Huws), "On the Trail of the First Literary Volume Publishd in Welsh by a Woman" (Rhiannon Ifans), "Ffarwel i Aberystwyth: Jennie Williams and the World of Welsh Folk Song" (Wyn Thomas)
Part 3: Bibliographies
45.00 UK pounds (yikes)

HARPER, Sally, "Music in Welsh Culture Before 1650: A Study of Principal Sources" (Ashgate Publishing - ashgate.com, 2007), ISBN 978-0-7546-5263-2, a book deserving a much better title as it is a very 'accessible' read covering

Part I: The Sources and Practice of Medieval Cerdd Dant
Cerdd Dant: A Welsh BArdic Craft in Context
Mastering the Bardic Crafts: Oral and Written Sources
Harp and Crwth in Early Medieval Wales
The Players of Cerdd Dant and their Social Code
Gathering the Documentation of Cerdd Dant
The Historical and Theoretical Sources of Cerdd Dant
The Robert ap Huw Manuscript and Other Welsh Tablature

Part II: The Latin Liturgy, its Chant and Embellishment
Sources for the Medieval Welsh Liturgy: An Overview
The Early Welsh 'Clas' Institutions
Anglo-Norman Liturgical Reform
Shaping a New Liturgy: The Adoption of Sarum Use in Wales
Sources with Music I: The Penpont Antiphoner
Sources with Music II: The Bangor Pontifical
Late Medieval Evidence I: The Institutions
Late Medieval Evidence II: Musical Practice

Part III: Welsh Music in an English Milieu c. 1550-1650
Mirroring England: Cultural Imitation and Infiltration
Domestic and Popular Music making I: The Context
Domestic and Popular Music making II: The Repertory
A Welsh Translation of John Case's 'Apologia Musices'
The Post Reformation Church I: Parish and People
The Post Reformation Churth II: Cathedral and Household Chapel

Oh. Price: 60.00 UK pounds (double yikes - glad I got a reviewer's copy!)

sian, west wales

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 13 Sep 07 - 01:48 AM

Lucky you

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Sep 07 - 02:00 PM

Here's an online resource that shouldn't be missed: Digital Library of Appalachia. Check under "music" for a huge collection of MP3 recordings of traditional music.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Sep 07 - 04:58 PM

You might add to the list:
Dear Far Voiced Veteran - Essays in honour of Tom Munnelly Ed. Anne Clune, (mainly Ireland & UK) Pub. Old Kilfarboy Society 2007 (available from OAC website).
The Glenbuchat Ballads. Eds David Buchan and James Moreira, (Scotland) University Press of Mississippi 2007
A History of Europesn Folk Music, Jan Ling, University of Rochester Press
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: GUEST,bigJ
Date: 15 Sep 07 - 05:28 PM

Joe,
I just tried to access the Digital Appalachia sound files. I get Realplayer then a message saying "Realplayer requires additional components to play this presntation. Please wait while the software update is located"
Then there's a message: "There is no software update available from Real to support this content"

Has anyone else had this problem or am I just being stupid (nothing unusual)?

---

Hi, BigJ. You may want to use Windows Media Player of Quicktime to play MP3 files, since RealPlayer has significant limitations. See my more-detailed answer in this thread (click).
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: masato sakurai
Date: 15 Sep 07 - 08:01 PM

Gordon's work in the post above (Date: 17 Jan 04 - 02:45 AM) is an LP with liner notes. The book by Gordon is:

Robert Winslow Gordon, Folk-Songs of America (New York: National Service Bureau [Publication No. 73-s], Dec. 1938, 4+110 pages).

Mimeographed, and without tunes.

Subject: RE: Songbooks: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 May 08 - 03:39 AM

Here's an interesting online collection of songbooks:
http://www.folklore.ms/index.htm - The John Patrick Collection

Subject: RE: Songbooks: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Oct 08 - 01:52 PM

Take a look at this Reference List on Canadian Folk Music
.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Songbooks: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Newport Boy
Date: 09 Oct 08 - 03:19 PM

Joe - There's a little typo in the Countries/England section:

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, RALPH and LLOYD, A. L. "The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs" (Penguin, 1975)
Originally published in 1959, reprinted 1968 and 1875. A lovely collection of English songs, all of which are in the Digital Tradition database and a mudcat thread HERE.

Phil

Subject: RE: Songbooks: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 10:43 PM

I think that perhaps the most interesting and valuable collection of folk songs published in the United States is the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore (7 volumes, Duke University Press, 1952-1964). I would think it would still be under copyright protection, but I've discovered it's available for download at archive.org
I guess that means I should sell my extra set cheap....
Wunderbar!!

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Songbooks: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: sian, west wales
Date: 07 Apr 11 - 05:45 PM

I posted this in the Welsh Music thread but details also belong here:

"Welsh Traditional Music" by Phyllis Kinney,

Published this month, this is the first book on the subject in English since the 1930s. Here are the details from the publisher:

£24.99 | HB| 9780708323571 | 246x189 mm

Includes musical examples

"A handsomely illustrated volume tracing the emergence of Welsh traditional music through the ages, complemented with musical examples."

Written by an acknowledged authority in the field.

Enables non-Welsh speakers to access the rich traditional musical heritage of Wales.
Provides a historical and social framework/context for the genre.
Written to appeal to both general and specialist readerships.
Includes over 200 musical examples.

Author Details:

Phyllis Kinney is an acknowledged authority on Welsh traditional music. She has both performed and published extensively in the field of welsh traditional music.

UK Distribution (ex Wales):

NBN International| [e-mail]| Tel: [phone]| Fax: [phone]

Wales Distribution:
Welsh Books Council| [e-mail]| Tel: [phone] | Fax: [phone]

University of Wales Press
10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff, CF10 4UP
Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]

www.uwp.co.uk

Chpt
1, The Oral Tradition
2, The Watershed
3, Manuscript to Print
4, Edward Jones and Traditional Airs
5, Seasonal Festivities
6, Carols, Ballads and the Anterliwt
7, The Early Collectors: Iolo Morganwg and Ifor Ceri
8, The Great Change
9, The Momentum Continues
10,J. Lloyd Williams and the Welsh Folk-Song Society
Appendix 1: Cerdd Dant         
Appendix 2: Printed Music Collections by publication date         



sian

Subject: RE: Songbooks: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 May 11 - 10:30 PM

Here are two online books of songs collected by the Federal Writers Project in Nebraska, titled Farmers' Alliance Songs of the 1890's and More Farmers' Alliance Songs of the 1890's:

http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/depts/hr/wpa/NM_pdf/Farmers1.pdf

Also take a look at:

http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/depts/hr/wpa/NM_pdf/Farmers2.pdf

Also one titled Cowboy Songs
http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/depts/HR/wpa/NM_pdf/Cowboys.pdf

Subject: RE: Songbooks: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 15 May 11 - 04:58 AM

Hi Joe,

thanks for refreshing the thread, especially with these refreshing cowboy songs I like to sing.

Wilfried

Subject: RE: Songbooks: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Sep 18 - 02:22 AM

This thread hasn't been refreshed since 2011. There must be some books to add to the Basic Folk Library.

Subject: RE: Songbooks: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 09 Sep 18 - 02:48 AM

Schreffler, Gibb. Boxing the Compass: a Century and a Half of Discourse About Sailor's Chanties. Loomis House Press, 2018. ISBN 9781935243816

If anyone is considering collecting Chantey/Shanty books, the place to start is this book by mudcat's own Gibb Sahib.

It discusses all the important books on the subject; plus a few not-so-important ones. Of course, some of us will want them all but, if you are more judicious, this will help you sort the wheat from the chaff.

It's a very good read in itself, too!

Subject: RE: Songbooks: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 09 Sep 18 - 04:20 AM

A couple of important English fiddler's tune books:

Bartram, Chris & Wilson, Paul (eds). The William Andrews Tunebook: a Dartmoor Fiddler. Okehampton: The Wren Trust, 1999. ISBN 0951626434

Woolfe, Geoff (ed). William Winter's Quantocks Tune Book: Country Dance and Popular Tunes from the Maunscript of a Nineteenth Century Somerset Village Shoemaker. Crowcombe: Halsway Manor Society, 2007. ISBN 9780955639708.

The latter is still available from Halsway Manor.


I'm surprised that this isn't already here:

Karpeles, Maud (ed). Cecil Sharp's Collection of English Folk Songs. London: Oxford University Press, 1974. 2 volumes: Vol 1 xxi, 751 pp. Vol 2 xv, 661 pp. Words and music for 413 songs.



Might be worth noting, too, that Bronson's Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads has been republished by Loomis House Press and can be acquired quite cheaply on the internet. Here in the UK, it's printed "on demand" by Lightning Source so it's hard to say how long the binding will last but it is a cheap way of acquiring a set until you can find the original at an affordable price.

Subject: RE: Songbooks: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: GUEST,Harry
Date: 10 Sep 18 - 01:48 AM

Dare I suggest . . . . . ????

Roud, Steve. Folk Song in England. London: Faber & Faber, 2017 ISBN 9780571309719

Reviews cited by Amazon:

[A] monumental history of the English folk song. (Kathryn Hughes Guardian)

A remarkably interesting study of this lesser known corner of England's past. He is perhaps the best person to do so, as the creator of the Roud Folk Song Index and an expert on folklore and superstition . . . Roud has done an admirable job pulling together an insightful history - especially considering the difficulty of finding sources for long forgotten social history. Society's elites have no place in this book, in this record of ordinary people, through the unusual prism of folk music. That alone is to be lauded. (Big Issue)

A fascinating tour d'horizon of folk song in all its multifarious contexts . . . Celebrates the sustaining power of song for all those who were making gloves, plaiting straw, picking hops, breaking stones or fighting in the muddy, bloody trenches of Flanders. (Economist)

Roud plots a clear narrative from before the Civil War through to the twentieth century . . . His keen eye for accuracy means the book maintains an impressively clear head throughout . . . The book's welcome sense of humour and clarity means it can be read on several different levels - offering profiles and overviews woven in with enough detail to please the most ardent song collector. After a while, although the title Folk Song in England originally sounds quite lofty, it begins to seem rather modest. There's a whole world in here. (Tessa Norton Wire)

Steve Roud's stunning new tome is a serious and in-depth investigation into our sceptred isle's folk music history; a history filled with mystery, gaps and a million lost songs. Painstakingly researched and handsomely presented, Folk Song in England not only tells the story of the folk music tradition but provides context for the wider social history that provided the backdrop to its development . . . Folklorist Roud clearly knows his stuff and loves his subject, and has cast his net wide in order to provide this definitive history. (Loud & Quiet)

The plain truth is that there won't be a better or more important book about English folk song in any of our lifetimes. (Stephen Hunt fRoots)

Subject: RE: Songbooks: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: Stewie
Date: 10 Sep 18 - 09:09 PM

There is an updated and expanded edition of Bill C. Malone's classic tome on
country music.

Click

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Songbooks: Basic Folk Library PermaThread
From: sciencegeek
Date: 26 Sep 20 - 06:15 AM

here is a link to Richard Runciman Terry's 200 Folk Carols

https://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Images/Terry_200_Folk_Carols/two_hundred_folk_carols.htm

social distancing and caroling will be quite challenging this winter