It always seems to me that if so much of your attention is concentrated on the correctness of pronunciation then you are missing the point of singing somewhat.

This seems doubly so in a folk or traditional context where you are unlikely ever to here the colour and nuances of the song as originally sung because accents and manners of speaking are constantly evolving and moving on. Every singer adsdds their own colour and touch every time they sing.

I sing songs as they affect me. Sometimes the message of the words is the most important thing and I focus on that. Sometimes the words are trivial and the sound is more important. Either way up singing to a policy is a bit soulless. I speak with my own accent, forged by my time in Glasgow, its environs, in London, in the West Midlands and by the contact I have had with people from all over the world. It is still recognizably Scottish but not exactly the same as anyone else. To suggest that there is a correct way for you to read out my writing here would be nonsense. Those of you who know me may be able to hear my voice in the occasional word or phrase.

Equally important when I speak, or sing to people it is to communicate to them. When I moved from Glasgow to London I found that I had to change how I spoke so that people understood me. Burns wrote in very different voices depending on his intended audience. When I sing "My love is like a red red rose" it is not in the English of upper class 18th century Edinburgh or in the rough Laland Scots of rural Ayrshire or Dumfries but I hope that my singing tells the listener something about the song and of my history in getting to the point where I am singing it.