Constant Listener,
I am jazzed that my little blog is starting to cook. However, I am about to move across an ocean, back to the motherland. Having unrealistic-optimist tendencies, I was hoping to have a slew of posts ready to take me through the summer, so that you'd never notice that other things were going on in the background. Between preparing for teaching, preparing for gigs, and preparing for an international move, I have run out of time to plump up this substack. And who knows, maybe it'll become a thing — taking summers off to do other stuff, like you're supposed to do when you are involved with school. We shall see.
One of the other things that has been happening in the background is that I have been preparing indices.1 I know, it's like the kind of thing only librarians and academicians are supposed to get excited about, but I'm asking you to get excited about it, too. I know I am. I realized early on that if I wanted this blog to be truly useful, then it couldn't be a mere list of random two-chord songs. It needs to be navigable. People need to be able to find what is useful to them at the moment, instead of slogging through many, many, many posts.
A very long time ago, in my undergraduate years, we were required to buy the book Folksongs North America Sings by Richard Johnstone. It's a Kodalý-based songbook resource with an outrageous amount of indices. For me, this was the most fascinating thing about the book. I started an Excel spreadsheet and compiling stats on songs with the data about them that I wanted to know. Need a 4-note tune in minor with no syncopated rhythms? Now I know that "Skin and Bones" fits the bill,2 and can use that with the students who need more minor tunes in their eyes and ears. One index that is missing from the Johnstone book is harmony. There are no accompaniments, no suggested chords, no suggested recordings, which is ultimately why I don't use the book so often. Harmony was something I made sure went into my Excel file. That said, I understand why Johnstone made the choice he made. There aren't definitive ways to harmonize these songs.
So I am going to leave you with my own outrageous amount of indices, which will be duly updated with new posts, come fall. See you on the other side of the ocean.
Dear Powers-that-Be, if you are looking to add more functionality, a drop-down menu index function would be so rad. The archive is nice and all, yet has but one function.
At least some versions of the tune, anyway. More on this song in the future…