Songnotes

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A Companion to the Old Town School Songbook

Compiled and edited byMark Dvorak.

A Final Note

The research and writing of this companion guide took place between Christmas 1999 and Labor Day 2000. It's not intended to be a scholarly work. As a matter of fact, it's pretty casual. Most of the information has been previously published and was found in sources close at hand.
     In hunting down background information, I first looked to three really interesting books about American folk music: Folk Song USA, by Alan Lomax; The Folk Songs of North America, also by Alan Lomax; and American Songbag, by Carl Sandburg. These are eloquent, wonderful books and I highly recommend each. The Resource Center at the Old Town School of Folk Music has copies of all three.
     If I couldn't find what I wanted in these three main sources, I then looked to record jackets, songbooks, Pete Seeger's Incompleat Folksinger, back issues of Sing Out! Magazine, my memory, and, of course, the Internet. An interesting site called the Argus All Music Guide was helpful for biographical information. Also informative is the Folk Songs of England, Ireland and Scotland site - here you can get history and listen to the tunes.
     It must be said that aside from the introduction, much of the actual writing is not mine. Mostly, I did a lot of cutting and pasting and smoothing things out. If anyone would like an digital version of the text, just let me know. Once on a word processor, the text can easily be added to or changed as new things are learned.
     Finally, thanks to Colby Maddox at the Old Town School of Folk Music Resource Center who continues to be especially helpful. Thanks also to Peggy Browning and Maura Lally for their continued assistance. Those who would like a copy of the songbook to which these notes are the companion should contact the Old Town School of Folk Music. Enjoy.