Having grown up only slightly west of Donegan I would say that his natural accent was more accurately suited to "Dustman" than to "Rock Island Line". I was recently watching an old programme "Folk Britannia" where Lonnie sang "Rock Island" on a tv show and the cod american accent (sorry McGrath you are wrong)really was somewhat toe curling but what was even more so was in the same programme Ewan attempted a scottish accent on a song of which I can only recall the chorus "Tum a Hi Dum Doo, Tum a Hi Dum Day". It was obvious that Ewan never conquered the accent despite his heritage. (Cue one ton of bricks from Jim).Thinking about it I guess that Donegan was more Scottish than Ewan. Glasgow as opposed to Salford.

Hoot