Re: Singing Squares

I can't speak to the question of which singing squares are popular in any particular community (and I rarely attempt them myself, since I'm not much of a singer), but for what it's worth here are a few resources for callers looking for singing squares in the traditional (as distinguished from MWSD) style. Rich has already said "I am familiar with the ones on Ralph Sweet's CD and Bob Dalsemer's two collections," meaning Ralph's _Shindig in the Barn_ CD and Bob's _When the Work's All Done_ and _Smoke on the Water_ albums. Ralph's book _On the Beat with Ralph Sweet_ https://store.cdss.org/books/product/1052-on-the-beat-with-ralph-sweet?sear… includes over thirty singing squares with printed music, calls, and, in some cases, teaching tips and/or notes about the music. The book also includes a nice collection of patter squares. Nils Fredland, who assisted Ralph Sweet with his "On the Beat ..." book, has also edited a book titled _New River Train_ https://store.cdss.org/product/1046-new-river-train with music, calls, and notes for forty singing squares from the repertoire of the late Keith Blackmon of western New York. The CDSS websites Square Dance Resources page https://www.cdss.org/resources/how-to/square-adance-resources includes a "SQUARE DANCE VIDEO AND AUDIO" category with, among other things, 25 videos of singing squares and some links to other resources. This page on the Square Dance History site https://squaredancehistory.org/items/show/881 will lead you to seven videos of singing squares called by Debbie Gray and the Deb-U-Tones (back-up vocalists Alice La Pierre and Julia Huestis) at a dance in Cambridge, MA, in 1989. The videos (at least the sampling I've just looked at) include walk-throughs. [Two points to note: (1) Debbie's walk-throughs seem quite well suited for the dancers she was calling to. Beware that contra dancers in many communities in 2017 are less familiar with squares than Boston dancer were in 1989. (2) The vocalists in the video are sticking together with accurate timing. Group vocals by people who are less well rehearsed can easily become unintelligible. Also, I think Debbie's mike is s little hotter than the others.] The Square Dance History site has lots of other pages with the tag "singing square" https://squaredancehistory.org/items/browse?tag=singing+square Some of these have clips of modern western squares, but there are also quite a few with material suitable for traditional-style dancers. If you can find a copy of the album _Square Dance Party with Ed Gilmore_, it includes several singing calls suitable for traditional-style dancers. I have this as a 33 1/3 r.p.m. 12" LP album packaged with printed calls and explanations. I believe it was previously issued as a set of 7" 45 r.p.m. discs. I don't know whether the material has ever been reissued in a (non-bootleg) CD or mp3 version. Walter Lenk has a collection of singing squares here: http://www.configular.com/SingingSquares/ ( also linked from https://squaredancehistory.org/items/show/812 ) In includes about forty dances, grouped into four categories ranging from Walter's favorites to ones he pretty much never calls, plus a link to even more in a collection that Walter transcribed from the call book of the late Chip Hendrickson: http://www.configular.com/SingingSquares/Chip_Hendricksons_CallBook.pdf Finally, a note of caution sbout learning singing square from printed sources: I don't know about the rest of you folks, but when I read the calls for a singing square without having heard them either live of on a recording), I often find myself slightly puzzled about how some of the syllables are supposed to be matched up in time with the notes of the tune. In some cases, I think it would be quite easy for a reader to come up with an interpretation that doesn't quite match what the author intended, even if it's not as consistently off as the mismatch of lyrics and melody demonstrated here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYjIj23-7D4 --Jim