Peggy has also said (at Augusta Vocal Week) that the "sing in your own language" rule, which I believe she described there as "sing songs from your own tradition," had a very positive side effect.   A lot of members of the club, people like A.L.Lloyd, stopped singing American folk songs and started looking for more British songs, and it motivated them to look into their own heritage of folk songs and source singers.

Actually Peggy and I frequently differed on this issue during her ballads class. For instance, on whether it's acceptable today for an American singer such as Judy Cook to sing British ballads (I said among other things that if Judy dropped her repertoire of British songs it would be the world's loss ... but I admit I'm a strong Judy Cook fan...); and whether it's wrong to use the word "wee," as in "little wee son," in an American ballad. I argued that Almeda Riddle used "little wee son" in at least one song she insists she learned as a child, and you can hardly say Almeda's singing isn't authentic....

Peggy did sing a Scottish song, Robert Burns' version of "Hap an Roe," at a late-night song swap. It was a treat to hear it, too, very well sung. But she said she wouldn't ever sing it in a performance situation.

None of this helps with identifying the singer with the Cockney accent of course.

Rita F