Sandy, exactly. I could sing My Lagan Love in the classical style, but I don't. It just sounds too artificial that way, although I do appreciate O'Hara's and Church's performance. For myself, I let the most of the Italian training go with that particular song, because it just gets in the way of the feeling. It makes it sound stilted. More 'raw' is better in that case.

Isn't it typically American that our society values a song by how well it sells and how many trophies it gains (based on how well it sells)? I think that is one of the things that is the appeal for folk music. It isn't that fluffed up prize show dog, the pure bred with all the fancy titles and breeding on the hit parade. It's the song I sing while sitting around with friends, a connection to my emigrant Irish grandfather, a scruffy mongrel that has taken on the changes that came from me and everyone that came before me who sang it. It's the song that has an old family history, but feels right when I add a verse that comes with a twist from my own life.

Alice Flynn