Traditional Book of Folk Songs

Sing along to traditional songs from America, England, Ireland, and Scotland!

Contains simplified sheet music and easy guitar chords that are quick to learn and fun to play.

This songbook is sure to keep everyone - young and old alike - entertained around a campfire or in the living room. It is our hope that having collected these songs into one convenient volume, you will be encouraged to gather your friends and family - and sing!

"Only the Lover Sings" - St. Augustine

How profound are these words of St. Augustine. For song is the marriage between poetry and music, and like any marriage it is caused by love. Whether one sings to God, to his beloved, or to his homeland, he sings out of love. Only the lover sings. This is the reason singing is so natural to a Catholic, for the Catholic life is a life of love becuase it is a life of sacrifice. Thus all cultures of Catholic Europe had (besides the sublime chant of the Liturgy) their own music with beautiful dances and songs.

But today no one sings. As a culture becomes less and less Catholic, truth falls away and with it goodness, beauty, and charity. When men forget God, he remembers only himself. But a selfish man does not know how to love, and therefore is unable to sing.

The purpose of this book is to try to help, in some small way, this sad situation. It is our hope that the traditional songs which make up the majority of the book be not forgotten but passed on, and that the newer ones written in more recent times be learned and shared. May we pilgrims in this valley of tears be always found following the words of St. Paul, "sing and making melody in our hearts," until we all one day join the eternal song of praise at the Marriage Feast of our King in Heaven. - Fr. Kimball, from the the Preface.

260 pages. Wire-O binding. Clear Plastic Cover