New questions.(The SONGFINDER: A reader-assisted song search service)

Mark Gregory passed along a query from Malcolm Loy about a working-class poem or song entitled THERE AIN'T/AREN'T NO SCABS IN HEAVEN. Loy was employed for 40 years as a coal miner in New South Wales, so it might be Australian in origin. Any leads?

D. Kingsley Hahn is looking for a recording of Pete Seeger (with Arlo Guthrie?) of THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND with all seven of Woody Guthrie's original stanzas, including "freedom highway," "private property / no trespassing" and "relief office."

Sally Porter asked for SING-ALONG SONGS WRITTEN BY YOUNG SINGERS (30 and younger). Thus far, only one response: George Mann recommended Evan Greer's "Picket Line Song."

In his v.21#1 column, Michael Cooney mentioned a magazine circulated on 5" reel-to-reel tapes titled FOLK VOICE (1958-72). Bill Clifton recently contacted me in his search for copies of this interesting title. I was a subscriber but have no copies in my possession, including the one which had my 1962 interview with Neil Rosenberg about bluegrass music. Folk Voice's coeditor, Jim Marshall, has reported that he possibly has master tapes of 25 (out of 81) of the issues. Does anyone out there have any copies?

I have been assisting Fred Stollnitz in identifying origins of songs to be included in a revised version of the Swarthmore College Alumni Songbook. One item, LYDIA PINKHAM, remains a puzzle. It is mentioned in the v.39#4 issue of this column in connection with a 1951 parody by Johnny Standley, "Grandma's Lye Soap." I had supplied a 1904 sheet music titled "Our Lydia," published in Jersey City but with no indication of authorship. The tune seems to be "I Will Sing to My Redeemer." Can anyone trace "Lydia" back to earlier appearances and a particular authorship?

Lou Curtiss forwarded a request for a song about wanting to die from eating POSSUM PIE, with a line about needing "a million waiters to bring me sweet potaters." There is a refrain on the Internet quoting Gene Owens, but no verses. If you find this one, you will not only make Lou happy, but also Jack Beard, who was searching for songs about southern foods (v.53#4).

In 1945-46, I attended the fifth grade at Worthington Hooker Elementary School in New Haven, Connecticut. As I recall, we spent much of the year learning a song called SULPHUR/SULFUR MATCHES. As a result, the following lines have stuck in my mind all these years: "Sulphur matches, sulphur matches makes a flame like yellow hair / If you strike a sulphur match a fire soon blazes there / If at night you should need a light strike a sulphur match and your lamp soon glows / Tiny torch my fingers scorch then puff and out it goes." I figure the only way I can drive the ditty out of my mind is to find it in print and ascertain its authorship. Thus far I've had no luck. Who can help?!

If you are looking for a song or can help find one for someone else, write to "The Songfinder," Sing Out!, P.O. Box 5460, Bethlehem, PA 18015-0460 and we'll forward it to Joe Hickerson. Or send e-mail (answers only, please) to songfinder@singout.org. Questions seeking specific information (such as a recording, printed version or copyright information) should be accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. Please include as much detail in your answers as possible (your daytime telephone number, complete title of the work in question, author or artist's name, recording catalog number or ISBN/LCCN, publisher and publisher's address, if available).