Silber divides the book into chapters by topic, and starts each chapter with a good explanation of the history behind the songs that follow. His interpretation really enhances the book and shows the significance that music played during this critical period in U.S. History. Two big thumbs up!!!

I am 43 and am having a hip replacement next week. After reading this book, I still have questions. I would have liked to see more about what takes place during a hip operation, as I have found better descriptions on the web than in this book. I would have liked more info on anesthesia choices. Also, I found myself having to sift through information on the knee (which I cared nothing about) to get to the information on the hip, often treated as an afterthought and dismissed with words like "the hip replacement follows the same general pattern as a knee replacement." I would have also liked some comments about cemented hips versus uncemented (he does talk about the knee) and the new ceramic hip, and in general, more specific information about the hip throughout the book. This book might have worked better if it had two sections, one for the hip and one for the knee. That would reduce the frustration of having to read through pages of knee information before finding out if the author thinks it is applicable to hips also (and mentally trying to separate the info). To sum up, I guess the book is worth it, but it is not everything you need to know.

In my quest to educate myself before my hip replacement, this was the first book I selected. The fact that the book addresses knee replacement as well is a plus, as I suspect that many who need hip replacement will at some time also need knee replacement. I enjoyed the detail of what to expect, the enthusiasm of the writer and the resulting feeling of "I can DO this!" Since I'll be recovering at my mom's, I sent a copy to her so she'll know what's going on.

Though I am only half way through this book, it is wonderfullywritten from the patient's point of view. The author had the samequestions, and the same fears that I did going into my own hip surgeries. He also gives a very detailed account of the entire process from deciding when to have the surgery through the recovery.

I recommend this book HIGHLY to anyone who needs or has already had joint replacement surgery!

Linda May-Bowser Founder, Totally Hip Support Group

I purchased this book over 12 years ago and literally wore the thing out. It came out the bindings from use! The binding was changed at some point to collect the pages withing a plastic holder so that it would lay flat. There are thousands of songs included and they cover a wide variety of topics, i.e. blues, farming, work, recreation, socail causes, children, sex and jail songs. It's quite a tapestry but has some limitations. I have played 90% of the songs and some of the chord progressions are plainly wrong, when based on traditional recordings. That is to say that a number of the chords have been vastly overly simplified and transposed for easier guitar / paino / banjo fingering. That might be a plus to the beginners but the experienced player could find the writer's arrangement a bit lazy. The author is a collector but not a person who leans towards accuracy. Carl Sandburg was lazy in the same way and others have come after him to clean up the lack of attention to musical acumen.

It is my hope that the author has corrected the musical errors from the earlier additions and then upgraded the chord prgressions to include more patterns beyond the standard collection of majors, minors and major 7-ths. Since there are no notation related to time signatures, melody lines or tempo, the performer should already have a good idea how the songs sound, otherwise there would be a vast diversity of interpretations. Still is is a good but, but a bit overpriced considering the limitations mentioned above.

My own copy is worn and yellow. I am purchasing a new one for my daughter and her family. I recommend this book wholeheartedly. It is wonderful for those of us who only remember the first verse of old favorites.

There are a lot of books with folksongs in them, but you'll likely not find anything as comprehensive as the "Folksinger's Wordbook." There are lyrics and guitar chording to over 1000 songs in this volume - and extra verses to old favorites that I had never heard before. There is no musical notation so one will need some familiarity with a song's melody to be able to play it on the guitar. I use it quite often on camping trips where songs the entire group knows the words to are few and far between. I recommend it highly.

Randy