Folksinger's Wordbook

Rating:
Summary: Lyrics with chord progressions, organized into general topic
Review: I purchased this book over 12 years ago and literally wore the thing out. It came out the bindings from use! The binding was changed at some point to collect the pages withing a plastic holder so that it would lay flat. There are thousands of songs included and they cover a wide variety of topics, i.e. blues, farming, work, recreation, socail causes, children, sex and jail songs. It's quite a tapestry but has some limitations. I have played 90% of the songs and some of the chord progressions are plainly wrong, when based on traditional recordings. That is to say that a number of the chords have been vastly overly simplified and transposed for easier guitar / paino / banjo fingering. That might be a plus to the beginners but the experienced player could find the writer's arrangement a bit lazy. The author is a collector but not a person who leans towards accuracy. Carl Sandburg was lazy in the same way and others have come after him to clean up the lack of attention to musical acumen.

It is my hope that the author has corrected the musical errors from the earlier additions and then upgraded the chord prgressions to include more patterns beyond the standard collection of majors, minors and major 7-ths. Since there are no notation related to time signatures, melody lines or tempo, the performer should already have a good idea how the songs sound, otherwise there would be a vast diversity of interpretations. Still is is a good but, but a bit overpriced considering the limitations mentioned above.

Rating:
Summary: The best
Review: My own copy is worn and yellow. I am purchasing a new one for my daughter and her family. I recommend this book wholeheartedly. It is wonderful for those of us who only remember the first verse of old favorites.

Rating:
Summary: The best
Review: My own copy is worn and yellow. I am purchasing a new one for my daughter and her family. I recommend this book wholeheartedly. It is wonderful for those of us who only remember the first verse of old favorites.

Rating:
Summary: An indispensable treasure for anyone intersted in Folksongs.
Review: There are a lot of books with folksongs in them, but you'll likely not find anything as comprehensive as the "Folksinger's Wordbook." There are lyrics and guitar chording to over 1000 songs in this volume - and extra verses to old favorites that I had never heard before. There is no musical notation so one will need some familiarity with a song's melody to be able to play it on the guitar. I use it quite often on camping trips where songs the entire group knows the words to are few and far between. I recommend it highly.

Randy

Rating:
Summary: An indispensable treasure for anyone intersted in Folksongs.
Review: There are a lot of books with folksongs in them, but you'll likely not find anything as comprehensive as the "Folksinger's Wordbook." There are lyrics and guitar chording to over 1000 songs in this volume - and extra verses to old favorites that I had never heard before. There is no musical notation so one will need some familiarity with a song's melody to be able to play it on the guitar. I use it quite often on camping trips where songs the entire group knows the words to are few and far between. I recommend it highly.

Randy