diff --git a/songbook_core/build.py b/songbook_core/build.py
index a19ccda2..1c910d81 100755
--- a/songbook_core/build.py
+++ b/songbook_core/build.py
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ class Songbook(object):
             content = self.config["content"]
             self.config["content"] = []
             for elem in content:
-                if isinstance(elem, str) or isinstance(elem, unicode):
+                if isinstance(elem, basestring):
                     self.config["content"].append(("song", elem))
                 elif isinstance(elem, list):
                     self.config["content"].append((elem[0], elem[1]))
@@ -130,8 +130,7 @@ class Songbook(object):
     def _set_datadir(self):
         """Set the default values for datadir"""
         try:
-            if isinstance(self.config['datadir'], str) or \
-               isinstance(self.config['datadir'], unicode):
+            if isinstance(self.config['datadir'], basestring):
                 self.config['datadir'] = [self.config['datadir']]
         except KeyError:  # No datadir in the raw_songbook
             self.config['datadir'] = [os.path.abspath('.')]
diff --git a/songbook_core/plastex_songs.py b/songbook_core/plastex_songs.py
index 9e39da1f..d3c30b2c 100644
--- a/songbook_core/plastex_songs.py
+++ b/songbook_core/plastex_songs.py
@@ -56,9 +56,7 @@ class beginsong(plasTeX.Command): # pylint: disable=invalid-name,too-many-public
         for (key, val) in self.attributes['args'].iteritems():
             if isinstance(val, plasTeX.DOM.Element):
                 args[key] = process_unbr_spaces(val).textContent.encode('utf-8')
-            elif isinstance(val, unicode):
-                args[key] = val.encode('utf-8')
-            elif isinstance(val, str):
+            elif isinstance(val, basestring):
                 args[key] = val.encode('utf-8')
             else:
                 args[key] = unicode(val)