Folkfest: Over Forty Traditional and Contemporary Folk Songs (Chord Songbook)

This type of book is quite common, but unlike those usually seen, this one has far more complicated chord shapes, which makes me wonder if the chords more closely resemble those actually played by the performers. Take for example Kate Rusby's "Game of All Fours": in her own songbook, which has the melody in the key of C, there are but three chords, C,F and G. In this book, there are 23 chord shapes in the key of G! However, Ralph McTell's "The Streets of London" has 13 chords although they are not the same as those in his own song book "Songs for Six Strings".The difficulty of the songs is varied, but with few truly easy arrangements, of which "The Irish Rover" with three chords, G, C and D is the easiest. There are several with alternative tunings, Joni Mitchell's "From Both Sides Now" being a favourite that I have attempted in open D, but I am not brave enough for "A Woman Like You" by Bert Jansch in DADGAD with sometimes 2 to 4 strings not picked in any given chord shape.To describe the selection as acoustic rather than folk would be more accurate, and well known songs are often not arranged by those peformers best known for them. Here's the full list:Song Performer Tuning ChordsAlbion Heart The Albion Band Standard 12Annie's Song John Denver Standard 9Another Quiet Night in England Oysterband Standard 15At Seventeen Janis Ian Standard 14Barbara Allen Pete Seeger Standard 7Closer to Fine Indigo Girls Standard 11Danny Boy Eva Cassidy Standard 14Days Kirsty MacColl Standard 8Diamonds & Rust Joan Baez Standard 16Dirty Old Town The Dubliners Standard 5Everything You Need Adem Standard 19A Father & A Son Loudon Wainwright III Standard 6Finnegan's Wake Christy Moore Standard 4Fisherman's Blues The Waterboys Standard 4Flame Turns Blue David Gray Open D 13From Both Sides Now Joni Mitchell Open D 7The Galway Farmer Show of Hands Standard 9Game of All Fours Kate Rusby Standard 23I Walk the Line Johnny Nash Standard 8If I Had a Hammer Peter, Paul & Mary Standard 6If I Were a Carpenter Tim Hardin Drop D 5I'm Going To Be (500 Miles) The Proclaimers Standard 9The Irish Rover The Dubliners feat. Shane MacGowan Standard 3Let it Blow Richard Thompson Drop D 18Light Flight Pentangle Standard 10The Lucky One Alison Krauss & Union Station Standard 10Part of the Union The Strawbs Standard 6The Queen & The Soldier Suzanne Vega Standard 13Rising For the Moon Fairport Convention Standard 13Rosemary Lane James Yorkston Open G 7Scarborough Fair Ewan MacColl Standard 5The Setting of the Sun Seth Lakeman Open G 10She Moved Through the Fair John Martyn Drop D 7Song to the Siren Tim Buckley Standard 10The Streets of London Ralph McTell Standard 13This Land Is Your Land Bob Dylan Standard 4Universe & U K T Tunstall Standard 17Volcano Damien Rice Standard 10Where Are You Tonight? June Tabor CGDGBD 15Who Knows Where the Time Goes Sandy Denny Standard 10A Woman Like You Bert Jansch DADGAD 9

I bought this book after reccomendations from my guitar class. It has some popular and traditional tunes. There is no music score but it gives words and chords. It also indicates the tempo which is useful if you are using a metronome.Personally I was a bit dissapointed as I expected a bit more-not the fault of the book really just false expectations.For the money that I paid I think that it was really good value.

This book was somewhat disappointing as the majority of the songs, in my opinion, were definitely not traditional and leaned more towards the pop end of the "folk" genre. However if you are not after traditional folk songs this book is definitely good value for money. May I also commend Amazon for their superb return/refund system.

good for begginers to the folk cicuit, or those who are learning , such as school children and the like.

Chord sequences not the easiest but can be made easier if transposed and by cutting out some of the other chords.

Did not have enough traditional old songs that I was wanting

I'm a recent purchaser of these kind of chord songbooks. If you're not into this genre then you're unlikely to get as much benefit out of it as others - yes you'll need to know the tune as there is no melody line. That said, it saved me time working out the chords, they're all here, and getting clarity on the odd word I've sung wrongly for years was refreshing!