Sinéad, thanks for an excellent post on this and your comment on the future of folk. I wholly agree with much of what you say. I admit that there are singers, both male and female, who grate on me, including some of the most respected folk 'legends', and others who raise goose bumps but, as rule, I prefer the stronger voices (just as well, as mrsleveller was trained as an opera singer and has amazing projection). In the end, though, it's all a matter of taste (and, sometimes, of mood) and there's certainly no right or wrong way to sing a folk song, so if you don't like someone's approach then, after you've given them a fair hearing, simply don't listen to them.