Folksinger's Wordbook

Folksinger's Wordbook has the lyrics to more than 1,000 folk songs. No music, sadly, although it does contain notation for chords. But wow, what a great collection of words! The table of contents is 13 pages long; the alphabetical index in the rear is 10. Subject headings range from "Bile Them Cabbage Down" (hoedowns, jigs and reels) and "All Over This Land" (songs of green places, big cities, mountain ranges, waterways and prairies) to "The Farmer is the Man" (songs of renters, hayseeds, sharecroppers and workers on the land), "Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms" (pretty self-explanatory, don't you think?) and "Murder Most Cruel" (songs of cruel mothers, jealous lovers, quarreling brothers and other bloody ballads). Those are just a few of the 39 separate song chapters. Songs are drawn from all over the world, too -- lots of American songs, plenty of Ireland and Britain, plus a scattering of French, Yiddish, German, Mexican, Canadian, Australian and more. If it's lyrics you want, chances are pretty good you don't need to look much further than Folksinger's Wordbook.

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.

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