Thread drift: You are correct, Jim. It's not a finger, it's cupping your hand behind the ear to hear yourself better I am not very good at saying what I need to say, but I do know that many people affect that pose because of the iconic MacColl picture. I must say that the only time I have ever had to do that to hear myself was in a very noisy pub and I finally gave up singing after about two minutes.

Back to the topic: this is interesting about Fowke and the lumber camps. Now that I think of it, I seem to remember that Frank Harte also spoke the last lines of songs as does Cathal McConnell, so this being an Irish thing makes sense.

Thanks for your contributions, all. I'd love to read any other additions to this.

Debra Cowan