Hello, everyone, i'm new here!

Whilst i appreciate a well-trained voice as much as the next person, i think that the beauty of folk music is that it is a very organic, and deeply human art form. It comes from the innate desire of all humans to express themselves, to tell a story, to invoke an emotional response in their audience- and a trained, note perfect, but passionless delivery of a song, no matter how good the material, will never achieve this. Of course, the two are not mutually exclusive, and a singing voice can be pleasing to the ear at the same time as being expressive of emotion which is probably the best place to be in as a singer; but on the other hand, look at bob dylan howling his way through desire. I can't listen to that album without feeling deeply moved, yet the same songs sung by others don't have the same effect on me.
Another example(nothing to do with folk, but a lot to do with how the delivery of a song can make or break it) is a recent cover version of Nirvana's All Apologies by a female singer who's name I can't remember (sorry!). Although it is sung beautfully, it fails to convey the raw emotion of the original.

Sorry for warbling on! Great discussion, by the way!