It's all so uncreative, all this sneeering at each other for whatever accent you feel comfortable singing in. Ian Campbell, a protege of Ewan and founder of the Ian Campbell Folk Group once told me that his own Dad's singing style was based on that of Al Jolson.

American music hall acts were popular in England from about the 1880's so its hardly surprising that there has been cross fertilisation in different singing styles. My own mother (Lancashire/Irish) always affected accent of crooners like Bing Crosby when she sang. Ian Campbell's kids sing with Jamaican accents in the group UB40.(probably outselling their Dad and Ewan and the Seeger family and influencing more would be singers out there!)

Ewan MacColl was a great human being, a great artist and achiever, and he was wrong about some things and he was right about others. he did his best. It is pretty obvious from this thread that most of us who met him, found him and Peggy approachable and pleasant.

I just don't see where these people are getting off - saying shitty things about him. Okay so he admired some weird people. Martin Carthy once told me that he admired Cecil Parkinson....no I didn't get it either, but as the French say chacun a son gout, everyone to his goat, and handing out white feathers ....well that is despicable.