Folk & Traditional Books

Lyrics 1964-2008

Paul Simon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Snatch a little purity 5 out of 5 stars.
16 of 19 people found this review helpful.

Here's a vote for Paul Simon being appointed Poet Laureate. It would be perfect: Under Barack Obama's tenure as president the Library of Congress chooses someone equally unusual and gifted to be the eloquent voice of this nation.

Lyrics 1964-2008 is just that: The lyrics to Simon's songs. The number of words here is staggering. You forget just how prolific he has been. More impressive is how many of these songs hit close to home. How many you know by heart.

There are a few bonuses. The album covers are reproduced (in black and white). A sprinkling of photographs include some with Art Garfunkel and some recent performance shots. Best of all, there are copies of the original hand-written lyrics to some of Simon's best songs: "Mother and Child Reunion," "Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard," "Kodachrome," "American Tune," "Loves Me Like a Rock," "Still Crazy After All These Years," "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover," "Slip Sliding Away," "Boy in the Bubble," "Graceland," "You Can Call Me Al," "Look at That." You can see Simon having trouble with the end of "American Tune" (he has erased some words, and finally puts a question mark next to the lyric). In the notes for "Graceland," you can see the mournful lines, unused: "For no logical reason, no explanation, something deep inside of me is going to Graceland."

There is something redemptive about Simon's work. This book says it all.

Here's the chapter list:

Foreword by Chuck Close

Introduction by David Remnick

1964-1971
Covers these albums:
Wednesday Morning, 3 AM
Sounds of Silence
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
Bookends
Bridge Over Troubled Water

1972-1977
Covers these albums:
Paul Simon
There Goes Rhymin' Simon
Still Crazy After All These Years

1978-1983
Covers these albums:
One-Trick Pony
Hearts and Bones

1984-1990
Covers these albums:
Graceland
The Rhythm of the Saints

1991-1998
Covers this album:
Songs from The Capeman

1999-2008
Covers these albums:
You're the One
Surprise

Editorial Review:

A landmark compilation of popular music, this collection contains Paul Simon's lyrics from his first album in 1964 to the present.

George Winston Piano Solos (Piano Solo)

George Winston

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Very enjoyable! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

As some reviewers wrote, some transcriptions are not same as the recording. Regardless, this book is very enjoyable. Who doesn't enjoy playing George Winston's beautiful music? I think any player can enjoy this book because it is not very hard technically. I would have been even much happier if this book had included more blues, like "Miles City Train".

Editorial Review:

The All Music Guide says that pianist and composer George Winston is "among the earliest and most successful proponents of contemporary instrumental music." Here is the first songbook ever notating his beloved piano pieces. Winston himself chose the songs and cover art, wrote the preface, and approved every note. Features 20 of his most-requested favorites: The Black Stallion * Joy * Longing * Prelude/Carol of the Bells * Thanksgiving * Variations on the Kanon by Pachelbel * and more. Includes a biography, discography, and discussion of chords. First Fully Authorized Songbook Featuring Winston's Esteemed Compositions and Arrangements!

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers

Maria Augusta Trapp

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 45 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Inspirational family 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 6 people found this review helpful.

You will enjoy this true story of the "Sound of Music" family. It is both historical and charming. The family's adventures and trials will keep you turning the pages.

Story of the Trapp Family Singers 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Excellent writing--My mother has enjoying reading the book. I have enjoying reading it also.

Inspiration Throughout 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Maria comes alive as a very sincere godly woman. Devoted to her Lord, Family, Friends, and Country. To read this book was to understand a deep trust in your God, a faith beyond imagination. If you enjoyed the movie for the family values and inspiration you may have received, you will enjoy the book that inspired the movie. I will recommend this book to all of my Christian Mommy friends.

Editorial Review:

With nearly 1,500 Broadway performances, six Tony Awards, more than three million albums sold, and five Academy Awards, The Sound of Music, based on the lives of Maria, the baron, and their singing children, is as familiar to most of us as our own family history. But much about the real-life woman and her family was left untold.

Here, Baroness Maria Augusta Trapp tells in her own beautiful, simple words the extraordinary story of her romance with the baron, their escape from Nazi-occupied Austria, and their life in America.

Now with photographs from the original edition.

Lyrics: 1962-2001

Bob Dylan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 25 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

He told me one time: "I'm a poet, not a singer." 5 out of 5 stars.
24 of 24 people found this review helpful.

I became a Dylan fan in the early 60's. While In Junior College and working for the student newspaper, I was assigned the task of interviewing him - without an appointment - when he came to perform in the town where that JC was. I grabbed a tape recorder, sat with some friends to create a short list of questions we thought would be fun for him to respond to - and on the assigned evening, I set out to interview him.

I made it to the security gate where I was summarily turned away. Thinking myself clever, I argued, joked and tried to talk my way in - and failed. So, I sat outside (I had no ticket to the show itself) until it was over - then, some three hours after I first arrived, I recognized Dylan, surrounded by a small army of devotees and sycophants, coming out of the stage door. Bravely, I approached him - tape recorder turned on and microphone in hand - trying to remember just one of the many clever questions my friends and I had concocted. All I could get to come out was, "Hi! I'm from the local J.C. Would you please say something about yourself?" He actually stopped, looked at me (I think) through VERY dark glasses and said, clear as a bell, "I'm a poet - not a singer." I believe this volume demonstrates that rather nicely.

On first hearing me play a Dylan album, my dad, who had never - so far as I know - spent one day on a farm, said "That sounds like a lamb with his gonads caught in a barbed wire fence." Maybe he was right. The beauty of this volume is that it is unfettered with music - either written or sung. Just as the title says, it is "Lyrics".... words .... poems..... stories told in certain rhythm and meter. As such, they read purely - without the attempt to convey them as 'song' or himself as a 'singer.' I read the book from cover to cover and actually use it as a lyric book to create my own versions of the lyrical tales he told that are recorded here.

Some are simple: some complex: some perhaps deliberately confusing, inconsistent and mind-twisting. Others are basic - a few even 'sweet' and naively young. Some angry, some narrative, more than a few visionary. But whatever else they are or are not, they are poems - each and every one of them - and, as such, I believe they stand on their own ... without the music he gave them - mostly, as I understand it, after the fact.

Read this way, as a poetic autobiography, I think those interested - or even enamored- with Bob Dylan and his work, will find this volume to be a real treasure trove of pure expressiveness. It has already achieved a special place - in my library, in front of me while I have a guitar in hand - or simply in my lap, as I read and try to appreciate the purist Dylan we have to remember the times, and perhaps ourselves, with.

Editorial Review:

This collection contains Bob Dylan's lyrics, from his first album, Bob Dylan, to 2001's "Love and Theft."

The Fiddler's Fakebook (Fiddle)

David Brody

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great source of traditional and Irish tunes 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book has a great assortment of tunes ranging from traditional tunes, Irish and English favorites, French Canadian tunes, Bluegrass, and some Western swing tunes. Arrangements are pretty true to what I have "heard" in live performances. Presented in alpabetical order. This book and the "Portland Collection" volumes will keep you playing and learning for quite some time !

Fiddler fakebook great resource 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is a wonderful resource for any fiddle or mandolin player who appreciates traditional American music. The songs are charted in standard musical notation, playable by either fiddle or mandolin, and many have chords included for accompanists. A caveat, tho' - This is not a TAB book - if you are not familiar with picking melodies on your instrument, you will not find fingering assistance in here. The only other down-side I found is that if you use it as frequently as I do, the pages eventually start to tear at the junction with the plastic binding! P.S. - if you like the mandolin piece they use on the Time Warner ads, look at Soldier's Joy!

Editorial Review:

Contains nearly 500 jigs, reels, rags, and hornpipes from all the major fiddling traditions. Special introductory materials on regional styles, bowing, and ornamentation. Includes an extensive discography.

Christmas Carols: Complete Verses (Dover Thrift Editions)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Perfect for caroling 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

I bought 30 copies of this book several years ago and they are now a regular part of our Christmas holiday. They have carolled around many neighborhoods. Great for groups caroling or just singing around the piano. It has lyrics only (alas), but for the price, this little 64-page book can be indispensable if you're putting a group sing together.

Solid Christmas source 4 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Christmas carols are among the oldest of holiday traditions, stretching back centuries with songs about celebrations, Christ's birth, and cold snowy nights. Dover Thrift's "Christmas Carols: Complete Verses" is a solid resource for anyone who can't remember that second verse of "Angels We Have Heard On High."

Shane Weller collects many traditional Christmas carols, both secular ("Jingle Bells") and religious ("Joy To the World"). He includes old favorites like "The Twelve Days of Christmas," which is almost impossible to remember every verse of, the bouncy "We Wish You A Merry Christmas," and the solemn balladic "Silent Night."

However, Weller doesn't just stick to well-known favorites. He also dips into a large store of lesser-known carols such as "Good King Wenceslas" -- sure, people know the first first four or five lines, but what comes after that? Anyway, the lesser-known, richly traditional carols include the lullaby-like "Coventry Carol," the enchanting part-Latin "The Snow Lay on the Ground," and the enchanting "Wassail Song."

The real gems of this collection are, in fact, the much older traditional carols -- they can be just as catchy as the more recent ones ("Here we come a-wassailing/Among the leaves so green,/Here we come a wand'ring,/So fair to be seen"). And not all of the most recent ones as well known, such as Christina Rossetti's "In the Bleak Midwinter," a carol/poem she wrote for a newspaper.

While the book is of the cheap quality -- rather slimy paper and cover -- needed to keep the price affordable, a few flourishes are given to it, like cute little holly decorations over the songs. The songs are arranged alphabetically, which is either good or bad -- good for finding them quickly, bad for singing all in order.

"Christmas Carols: Complete Verses" is a surprisingly good selection of carols, old and new, well-known and obscure. What they all have in common is a rich holiday atmosphere. Definitely worth getting.

Editorial Review:

A caroler's delight: complete lyrics for over 50 of the most popular and beloved Christmas songs: Away in a Manger, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Joy to the World, O Come, All Ye Faithful, O Holy Night, Silent Night, The Twelve Days of Christmas, and many more. The perfect companion for the holiday season.

The Great Family Songbook: A Treasury of Favorite Folk Songs, Popular Tunes, Children's Melodies, International Songs, Hymns, Holiday Jingles and More for Piano and Guitar.

Dan Fox, Dick Weissman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Created for accomplished musicians and beginning players alike, and perfectly designed for family singalongs, this compilation has something in it for everyone. These are the classic and memorable songs we learned around the campfire, at school, from friends, and listening to the radio—from "Danny Boy" to "Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” Arranged by theme, you’ll find Christmas and other holiday songs, cowboy and western songs, children’s songs, folk songs, barbershop songs, hymns and spirituals, blues songs, international favorites, and more. Popular tunes include "Tom Dooley," "We Three Kings," "Camptown Races," "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling," "Those Were the Days," "Kum Ba Ya," "Hush Little Baby," "This Land Is Your Land," "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain," and many more. The piano arrangements and guitar chords are skillfully done and clearly laid out so that even casual players can make beautiful music.

Artist Sarah Wilkins has contributed delightful illustrations that bring these timeless songs to life. All in all, The Great Family Songbook is destined to become a treasured family heirloom.

The Mandolin Chord Book (Mandolin)

James Major

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

key based chordbook for mandolin 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

As you've most likely read in other reviews on this product, chords in this book are organized by key and not alphabetically. I really hated the organization of the chords at first. However, after some amount of initial frustration the more I used the book, the more I appreciated it. I would never have thought to order a chord reference in this fashion. It's turned out to be quite a useful reference tool.

Mandolin Chord Book (Mandolin) 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Simple and good for a beginner like me. A good tool.

Chords on the mandolin found easy 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The booklet is very handy and the way the chords are arranged (by key) is good.

Learning me some chords 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

"Get you a chord book," said the crusty old guy who restrung my mandolin. As a beginner, this book is top-notch, presenting the chords in their keys.

Very Handy 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This chord book easily fit into my hard case for my mandolin. It was easy to follow and with the variations on fingering for chords I could spot easy transitions for fast songs. I am a beginner and got this book to help me learn chords quick for campfire songs. The book is so handy, that when I lent it to co-workers for the summer, it disappeared. I'll eventually get another copy.

Editorial Review:

The most useful chord book yet developed for the mandolin player is always handy with clear readable chord diagrams grouped by key for easy, speedy reference.

It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American Music

Amanda Petrusich

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Editorial Review:

"Where lies the boundary between meaning and sentiment? Between memory and nostalgia? America and Americana? What is and what was? Does it move?"--Donovon Hohn, A Romance of Rust Part travelogue, part cultural criticism, part music appreciation, It Still Moves does for today’s avant folk scene what Greil Marcus did for Dylan and The Basement Tapes. Amanda Petrusich outlines the sounds of the new, weird America—honoring the rich tradition of gospel, bluegrass, country, folk, and rock that feeds it, while simultaneously exploring the American character as personified in all of these genres historically. Through interviews, road stories, geographical and sociological interpretations, and detailed music criticism, Petrusich traces the rise of Americana music from its gospel origins through its new and compelling incarnations (as evidenced in bands and artists from Elvis to Iron and Wine, the Carter Family to Animal Collective, Johnny Cash to Will Oldham) and explores how the genre is adapting to the twenty-first century. Ultimately the book is an examination of all things American: guitars, cars, kids, motion, passion, enterprise, and change, in a fervent attempt to reconcile the American past with the American present, using only dusty records and highway maps as guides.

A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt (North Texas Lives of Musicians)

Robert Earl Hardy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This is the first serious biography of a man widely considered one of Texas'‑and America's‑greatest songwriters. Like Jimmie Rodgers, Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, Townes Van Zandt was the embodiment of that mythic American figure, the troubled troubadour. A Deeper Blue traces Van Zandt's background as the scion of a prominent Texas family; his troubled early years and his transformation from promising pre‑law student to wandering folk singer; his life on the road and the demons that pursued and were pursued by him; the women who loved and inspired him; and the brilliance and enduring beauty of his songs,which are explored in depth. The author draws on eight years' extensive research and interviews with Townes' family and closest friends and colleagues. He looks beyond the legend and paints a colorful portrait of a complex man who embraced the darkness of demons and myth as well as the light of deep compassion and humanity, all "for the sake of the song."