A basic problem: this isn't a serious book of folk music, but rather a glorified fake-book for the cabaret/church-basement coffeehouse fakers who blighted the 1960s. Once again, it's a tough book to distill down into our Star System. For its musical value, it's about a 1, for entertainment value (anecdotes, odd facts, etc) it's about a 2. As a document of a certain droll but ultimately silly episode in American culture, let's give it a deuce and a half. But honestly, there's a very good reason I couldn't be bothered to keep it in my collection. Probably the best single thing in it is Gene Raskin's faux-Russian gypsy song "The Kretchma". I wonder how many of these books will have appeared in the estate-sales of 60s' folkies? ( )

This is an amazing book. Theodore Bikel is an actor and singer and he put together this book of...well, the title says it all; "Folksongs and footnotes". There are several sections and there are songs from all over Europe, and the Americas. There is even one African song! And there's humorous and fascinating footnotes and opinion statements for each song. This is great!!!
C. ( )