Jack's "Good thing you weren't around to tell Burns that." got me chuckling, as I heard Jean Redpath state on Prairie Home Companion this last week (for perhaps the zillionth time) that Burns wasn't known as a singer, and many of his songs set to fiddle or pipe tunes were essentially unsingable by a human. In years past she amplified it by "unless you had a third lung under your elbow." Many tunes, good and otherwise, span a range few vocalists can navigate.

Trying tunes out in other time signatures can be amusing, but to suggest for a contemporary classic like Ashokan Farewell that it's an improvement? I just can't see it. I still have a bit of a difficult time switching gears on "Star of the County Down" as a waltz or the same tune in 4/4 as "Kingsfold" in hymns.

Joanne in Cleveland