singing with american accents

Subject: RE: singing with american accents
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 31 Jul 16 - 07:56 AM

"A lot of English singers affect Oirish accents when singing songs from across the water"
Happens a lot with tourists here - never ceases to amuse the locals
I've heard Americans refer to Am-English accents as "Mid Atlantic" - in other words, neither fish nor fowl.
It seems to me that, if you wish to interpret a song and make it your own, you sing it in your own accent - otherwise, you are just aping the person you heard it from.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: singing with american accents
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 31 Jul 16 - 07:51 AM

Not me!

I've noticed some English singers affecting 'Oirish' accents no matter what the origins of the songs they sing!

Subject: RE: singing with american accents
From: alex s
Date: 31 Jul 16 - 07:18 AM

A lot of English singers affect Oirish accents when singing songs from across the water

Subject: RE: singing with american accents
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 31 Jul 16 - 04:57 AM

I like the Proclaimers doing anything! I love the way they don't try to hide their Scottish accents (most Scottish 'pop' singers sound just as 'American' as their English and American counterparts, IMHO).

I try very hard not to do the mid-Atlantic thing on songs I've learned from North American artists' recordings, but it occasionally inadvertently slips through, I guess for the reasons I gave above. I steer well clear of Scottish stuff - my 'Scottish' accent sounds more like Scouse!

Subject: RE: singing with american accents
From: Allan Conn
Date: 31 Jul 16 - 04:38 AM

I'm not so sure. Personally for instance I much prefer The Proclaimers doing "King of the Road" in their Scottish accents than Lena Martell putting on a mock American accent for "One Day At A Time". Suppose that is just a personal thing. And it depends on the singer as to how over the top the American accent is! I know there is a mid-Atlantic thing which many do and get away with - but then there is the likes of two different guys at out club who are both quite good but have way over the top exaggerated American accents when singing which really spoils it. This is admittedly maybe going way too much in the other direction but this was me just having a wee bit fun trying to not sound American on an American song.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAZvus5Hh1o

Subject: RE: singing with american accents
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 31 Jul 16 - 03:59 AM

You're right, Joe - certain accents are appropriate for certain types of music.

And I agree with the poster(s) above that those of us who learn songs from recorded material tend to sing them with at least a hint of the accent of the artist(s) whose recordings we use for reference. I 'do' a number of songs by Canadian artists - James Keelaghan, Stan Rogers, et al), and I find myself 'hearing' the lyrics in my head in a Canadian accent as I'm singing them - it's quite a feat to try still to sing the words in my 'natural' accent, and I confess I don't always succeed!

Subject: RE: singing with american accents
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 30 Jul 16 - 07:55 PM

It is my grand pleasure, to travel the world, almost from inseption, and I find the inflection of an accent in "dodgey places" to be an invaluable tool.

Scottish is my "go to resource." Most English speakers do not have a clue...and keep asking for translation...Irish is the next "fall back." Aussie, New Zealand, and South African are my final choice...for obfusication

Now...when in New Zealand .... pure, thick, USA southern Georgia drawl is sure to confound and compound the returns.

We are all actors.

Sincetely,
Gargoyle

Public folk seem to like that which is exotic...in the past six years I avoid Arabic phrases...in all places.

Subject: RE: singing with american accents
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Jul 16 - 07:36 PM

Through my lifetime, a lot of musicians from the UK have done extraordinary performances of classic blues from black US performers from the first half of the 20th centuries. Most have used an accent that sounds quite American, and I think that's quite appropriate.

Same for singing Country songs - works better with an American accent.

And then there's Lonnie Donegan. He sang lots of American songs, always in an unmistakable Lonnie Donegan accent.

Accents can be very effective - if they are done credibly.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: singing with american accents
From: GUEST,Modette
Date: 30 Jul 16 - 02:59 PM

I was at Trinity from 2002-2007 and played the fiddle regularly in all manner of sessions. The only Asian musicians I ever encountered were 'Paddy' and 'Bridget'. What on earth were you drinking, Joe?

Subject: RE: singing with american accents
From: leeneia
Date: 30 Jul 16 - 11:01 AM

I read a book once about singing in present-day culture. I forget the name of the book. The authors did research that involved hiring subjects to come in and sing pop songs they had learned from recordings.

Invariably the subjects imitated the pop singer's technique exactly. Every nuance was duplicated. If that's how people sing popular songs nowadays, I'm not surprised that people imitate the recorded accent as well.

Really, how much is there to an accent? A different kind of R, a few vowels modified...
================
I was on a cruise last year and had to get medical care. The nurse didn't realize I was American till I told her at the end of the visit.
She was suggesting OTC medications I had never heard of, and she didn't understand why I seemed so confused.

When I explained that I was American and had never heard of any of the medications, she was surprised and embarrassed. I have never tried to sound British. I just talk my own Wisconsin-Missouri hybrid.

I tell the story to show that accents aren't as deep-dyed as we think.

Subject: RE: singing with american accents
From: meself
Date: 30 Jul 16 - 10:16 AM

Simple answer: guitarist/singers are trying to sound American; concertinist/singers and unaccompanied singers are not.

Subject: RE: singing with american accents
From: Leadfingers
Date: 30 Jul 16 - 07:56 AM

I tend to learn songs from other people's recordings , but when I have a rough arrangement sorted , and it sounds at all like the original , I leave it for while , until I can definately make it MINE

Subject: RE: singing with american accents
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 30 Jul 16 - 06:59 AM

I don't find British people singing in a fake 'American' accent any more irritating, in fact considerably less so, than the fake-'rural-English' sing-through-the-nose style affected by many folkies during the Great British Folk Scare of the late '60s/early '70s and beyond. That 'accent' wasn't a true regional accent at all, but was invented by Trad singers, I'm guessing, in a misguided attempt to sound 'authentic'.

When I'm singing 'folk-type' songs, I sing in my natural English accent. If I'm singing Rock, Country etc., I have a tendency to lapse into 'Mid-Atlantic'. Fake American accents seem to be more of a 'thing' amongst young singer/songwriter, teenage-angst,TheVoice-wannabe kinda people in the area I reside in.

Each to his/her own, AFAIC it's just a 'fashun'. It's the song that matters, not the singer's accent (no matter whether it be real or assumed).

Subject: RE: singing with american accents
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Jul 16 - 09:11 PM

Hi, Modette - this was during the "Celtic Tiger" era - maybe 2005 or so. As I walked through the streets of Dublin, it felt that everybody there was under age 30, and they came from all over the world - and they all got drunk on weekends and vomited on the streets.

In the fiddle session Martin took me to, most of the fiddlers were young, and many were Asian - and they were very good. Not so with the singing session - all the singers there were old and Irish, but I could hardly hear them because of the noise from the young people sitting at the bar.

My second experience of Dublin music was about 2012, and it was far better.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: singing with american accents
From: GUEST,Modette
Date: 29 Jul 16 - 03:02 PM

'Asian fiddlers'in Dublin? Where was this, Joe?

Subject: RE: singing with american accents
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 29 Jul 16 - 02:36 PM

I think it's probably most indicative of from whom the singer learned the song -- especially from a recording.

Tom (Tom Hall, Mudcat's Curmudgeon) used to confuse Brits who heard him sing because they couldn't place his accent. In actuality, his "accent" changed with the song, depending on whose recording he was listening to while learning it.

Linn

Subject: RE: singing with american accents
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Jul 16 - 02:28 PM

On my first trip to the West of Ireland, about 15 years ago, I had a hard time finding traditional music. Everywhere we went, performers were singing American Country music, complete with the twang. We walked into one place, and the band leader said, "Uh-oh, here are some Americans. We'd better play some Irish music." So, they launched into "Black Velvet Band." At the time, the Big Hit seemed to be "Las Vegas in the Hills of Donegal," by Goats Don't Shave. I didn't get traditional music until I met up with Martin Ryan in Dublin, and he took me to a vocal session (with Frank Harte singing), and to an instrumental session (lots of young, Asian fiddlers, but they were good).

On my second trip, I spent a long weekend in Dublin and sang with several Mudcatters at sessions. And I spent a great day birdwatching with Martin on Galway Bay, with an afternoon session at Kinvarra.

But that first experience of hearing country music all over the West of Ireland, was quite a surprise. The singers sounded very American when they sang, and very Irish when they spoke.

Stay away from that country music, Dick. It's not healthy for you. But hey, let the people sing how they want to sing. They seem to enjoy it, so what's the harm?

-Joe-
P.S. I sing with an American accent myself. It works for me, and I'm not very good at any of the other ones. I do try to speak German with a Berliner accent, though.

Subject: RE: singing with american accents
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 29 Jul 16 - 01:50 PM

I think, though I could be wrong. that there have been a number of threads on this Good Soldier. I seem to recall someone suggesting that it may not be deliberate but just the way the song is...Could that be so ?

Subject: singing with american accents
From: The Sandman
Date: 29 Jul 16 - 12:59 PM

Jst recently, I have noticed the amount of guiatarists/singers in Ireland, who are not american, singing with some class of an attempted american accent, i do not notice concertinist singers doing this or unaccompanied singers, any ideas anyone?