I'm not persuaded by Whall's reference to English ballad singers. I've never heard a field recording of an English traditional using anything like the exclamatory yelps, particularly at the beginning of a line, that Hugill makes on his recordings.

However, a kind of brief falsetto glide (can't remember the tech term for this) at the *end* of some lines ceratinly does exist, esp. in the Southern United States. Without further evidence, it may be safer to assume that this is what Whall had in mind.

At any rate, my point is simply that the testimony of Whall and Hugill, balanced by Carpenter's recordings, indicates that yelps were more common among West Indian shantymen, and others, like Hugill, who learned directly from them.

Short of grant money and a time machine, we will never know definitively whether this was true. Undoubtedly singers varied, maybe even from shanty to shanty. But in the light of what we can hear directly from Carpenter's singers (as well as those on the L of C LP, recently rereleased on CD), I think it is a mistake to *assume* as historical fact, that *most* shantymen used as much ornamentation as did Stan Hugill.

One or two of Carpenter's singers were Americans, as are most of those on the L of C album.