Greetings and Introduction
Welcome! This page contains an index to a set of folk songs that I have arbitrarily collected, for one reason or another. The lyrics to these songs are presented here for easy access.P.S. I used to maintain the Tom Lewis Home Page, which includes all of the lyrics of his sea-songs. It's even better now!
P.P.S. Vaguely related to this category, I wrote a "Mummers Play" for the Christmas 2000 season called "A Christmas Chantycle", available here as the Word document chantycle.doc (best for printing) or in HTML as chantycle.html. For more Mummers Plays, see www.folkplay.info/Links/LinksModern.htm.
I've also written a short play, "A Good Samaritan", an instructional comedy, of sorts, based on the parable of the Good Samaritan. I originally wrote it as a "reader's theatre" play for middle-school kids for church, but it was picked up by the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre for one of their staged readings. In 1994, I wrote an 'homage' to Cecil Sharp and contra-dancing, channelling a bit of Mother Goose, in The House That Sharp Built. Even less vaguely related is my Shakespeare Miscellania collection.
Disclaimer and Copyright
Most of these songs are copyrighted. My intent in posting these songs on the web is to increase the general enjoyment of these works, and to help expose more people to the artists who create and perform them.As much as possible, I have included links to pages about the relevant artists. If you like a song, please follow these links, and encourage the artists by buying more of their works. Even more information about folk music and musicians is available at the Folkbook and the Folk Music Home Page.
Funny Songs
Archimedes (The Lever)
Boar's Head Carol (Parody)
The Broken Token
Carl Sagan Ronald Reagan San Diegan Pagan
Drivel
Folksinger's Life
If You Knew Nina...
Kicking The Habit
Men, men, men
More Questions To Ask
Pigs Can't Swim
Potato (Mexican Hat Dance)
Priggish Tom & Piddily Pie
Publican's Curse
Rolling Down to Bethlehem
A Snow Shanty
The Speculator
Tails and Trotters
A Wedding Toast
Jeopardy Theme (Words)
Twelve Days at Dance Camp
Manly Men (Testostertones version)
Pinewoods Camp: Table Setters Shanty
Life & Hope
A Psalm of Life
The Bravest (Sep 11)
Child of Mine
Crossing the Waters
Feet of a Dancer
Hope Eyrie
Not Me!
Reach for the Very Next Rung
The Rose
Step by Step
The Stonecutter
Swimming to the Other Side
Acts of Creation
Movin' On
Love
April Fool
Curtains of Night
Goin' Gone
Lovely Helen
Sea Songs
Safe in the Harbor
St. Brendan's Fair Isle
A Sailor's Hymn