Well, guys, one person's lush is another person's "wall of sound" is another person's outrageously overdone. Where you want to be on that whole spectrum is a decision you have to make.

What I want is more examples, experiences, recommendations, cogitations...

Thinking about that continuum, with some examples:

I like Martin Carthy, I like Norma Waterson, and I like most of the material that they do. For the material that they do, I like them each unaccompanied. I also like them with minimal instrumental accompaniment: Martin's guitar, or Dave Swarbrick's or Eliza's fiddle. One could examine those styles of accompaniment. I think it's really interesting the way Dave Swarbrick mostly played unison melody with Martin Carthy, but he was not necesarily in lock-step with Martin's voice. Sometimes the fiddle came in sooner, sometimes later. There were occasional notes in harmony, or double stops. It's something I can learn more from every time I listen.

In another direction on similar material, The Watersons added multiple voices in harmony. That worked, too, and in a different way.

The Waterson:Carthy recordings have additional instrumentation, and sometimes on top of vocal harmonies. That mostly works, too. But, you'll note that that group succeeds especially by not doing it all the same way. Some songs have more, some have less. Not everyone's singing all the time. Not everyone's playing all the time. It also varies within the performance of one song, as well as between them.

Continuing on the continuum ;-) , for me, Blue Murder (Waterson-Carthy-Coope-Boyes & Simpson) takes it one step too far, and they manage to do that with voices only. It's just a little too lush for the material. There's something just a tad too smooth, as well. But, that's my personal taste. Some folks think it's great. If you're arranging stuff for yourself and for your group, you've got to make those decisions about what you're trying to create.

What works for you? How do you get there?

~ Becky