I have always tried to sing in my own accent as much as possible. With the ballads I anglicise what I can but leave specific dialect words if I think they'll sound totally wrong if changed.

I was at a "ballad session" yesterday and sang the Border Widow's Lament. I sing "heart" instead of "hairt" and "went" instead of "gaed" for example but leave in "brawer bower". In conversation later one person (Irish) asked me if I was Scottish as I sounded it, another (Scottish) said that they much preferred it when, like myself and another singer, we didn't try to put on a false accent.

Now I'm just confused. I know I try to sing in my own accent but it seems different things come through to different people!

(I'm much more put off when English people sing "Bob Dylanish" songs they've written themselves in pseudo-American accents.)