As someone who is just "learning" to sing at the moment, I thought your post was really interesting Jerry. I have been experimenting with all sorts of voices over the past few months, trying to find one that I can use across as wide a range as possible. However, the problem is, the voice I use for "Blackwaterside", for instance, doesn't seem to work too well for "Bye Bye Baby Blues", and vice versa. And I'm beginning to think that the reason for this is that neither of those voices are "mine" - they're imitations of other singers. I'm also coming to realise that worrying relentlessly about the mechanics of singing (am I gonna hit that note at the end of this line? Do I sound too nasal? Do I sound too throaty? Is my volume right?) is preventing me from DELIVERING the song - from giving it life. Does that make sense?

I really liked the part of your post where you say "he let the song sing him." If I can work on THAT, then when someone posts a similar thread to this one sometime in the future saying "Where does your singing style come from?" I'll be able to say "From the songs....but Jerry helped."

Cheers,
Baz.