Here's a partial list of artists just from the first page of the Artist Index in Rise Again who aren't in the equivalent index in the 1988 book: Adele, Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem, The Avett Brothers, The Band, Billy Bragg, Garth Brooks, Jackson Browne, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Johnny Cash, Tracy Chapman, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Cliff, Bruce Cockburn, and Coldplay. On the flip side, however, Rise Again features way more contemporary artists than the original book did, and not just because the original book came out in 1988. The comparative lack of familiar songs isn't a problem in and of itself, but for me there are just fewer familiar songs. There are more public domain songs, more songs that have been around for generations, centuries even. I haven't done a statistical analysis - it would take some time to tally up the results from 2,400 songs - but it feels like I know considerably more songs in Rise Up Singing than in the new book. Some themes are fairly obvious and well-defined - "Faith," "Seas & Sailors," "Travelin'" - while others are a bit more nebulous (and also reflect the desire for social justice that in part was the animating impulse behind these books), such as "Earthcare," "Peace," and "Struggle." (There are also sections specifically for kids under age 8 and lullabies.) While it's possible that a reader could find a song of interest thumbing through individual sections, or guess in which section a particular song might nestle, they're far more likely to use the Titles index in the back.īecause readers are likely to turn to these books to sing familiar tunes, the differences Rise Again has compared to its predecessor are not insignificant. In both books, the songs are organized by theme. (But again, I'm probably in the minority here.)
It does mean that folks like me (who can read music) who love exploring unfamiliar songs need to turn to Spotify, YouTube, the CDs by Patterson and Blood featuring basic melodies, or the public library to learn the songs, but that means turning away from the pleasures of diving into the book. (You can see part of a sample page here.) This is an eminently reasonable decision - only a small percentage of the population can actually read music, and if you're trying to choose songs to sing, you're probably going to gravitate to familiar melodies for which you don't need the music.
The basic structure of both books is to include lyrics and chord changes, along with some basic songwriting credit and recording history, but not to include melodic notes. So while I don't know if I'm the followup's primary audience, I'm certainly more predisposed than the average American to find value in Rise Again. We purchased the original Rise Again (the 15th Anniversary Edition) more than a decade ago, and while I can't say that it's led to nightly rounds with the family, neighbors, or strangers passing by on the street, we do dip into it occasionally. Assuming three minutes per song, that's another 60 hours or so of singing.
The late Pete Seeger contributed a preface this time around and Billy Bragg the foreword. Now the pair are back with Rise Again: A Group Singing Songbook, a sequel featuring another nearly 1,200 songs for singing alone or (presumably preferably in the eyes of editors) with others. (The fact that no less than Pete Seeger wrote the introduction was a leading indicator of the book's acceptance in the folksinging world.) Musicians and songleaders, the two of them in 1988 edited and published through Sing Out! magazine Rise Up Singing, a collection of 1,200 songs. No doubt Peter Blood and Annie Patterson, the editors behind the Rise Again Songbook, strongly agree. On its surface, the answer is "no," but the act of singing together produces a lot of other changes that might nudge the world into a better place, particularly in how we deal with people we meet.