Rise Up Singing: 1,200 of the Folk Songs You Want to Play and Sing

An incredible collection, forwarded by Pete Seeger, of 1200 of America's best loved and best known songs for singing.

As a casual guitarist for the past 40 years, I have listened to, sung and made my best efforts to play hundreds of songs. Folk and blues, American traditional and old rock n' Roll have been my stock in trade when it comes to a repertoire committed sufficiently to memory that I can play all or most of many songs without fear of embarrassing myself or those in my company. In an effort to broaden my scope, I have purchased many books of songs over the years, including "Fake Books", both the legal and the not-entirely-legal varieties (books which give the melody line, chords and a few verses of one version or another of each song - often without paying specific attention to copyright laws. These books, well known to and well used by professional musicians for decades, are becoming increasingly rare and hard to find. One of my guitars is a Martin HD28 and, while browsing the Martin 1833 Shoppe website, I came across this volume and decided to order one to give it a try. WOW! No wasted space with clefted melody lines: Just the basic chords, most common versions (all stanzas) and a little interesting historical background about each piece. I don't think I am apt to need yet another song book. This is THE one!