"When opera singers sing folk songs it often seems that their priority is the musical sound rather than the sense of the song. That can apply to other singers, of course."

How does one who has sung soprano in church choirs most of adult life, lose that formal almost polished sound and adopt a more folk sound?

I tend to pitch songs lower and lower which makes my voice a bit more folkie and unfortunately gravelly. But I do this out of fear that if I start to high, I will end up sounding like I did singing hymns and solos in church . I try to imitate other English folk singers as much as possible. But irritatingly, the Virginia way of pronouncing certain long vowel songs like I and A still seems to come through when I am attempting English folk .

Any tips would be gratefully apprecitated.

Should I start a new thread with this question or is it a viable tangent of the current one?