Phoebe Snow claims to have a three octave range. Me, I believe her.

Sure there are songs that you want to sing, that don't quite fit. I would humble suggest that one way to develop your songwriting talents is to "rewrite' the song.

I love to do "I Gotta Find a Woman with a Chainsaw". And that desire has been justified with consistently wonderful audience response. However, the song as written has the following phrase:

I've got a cabin in the mountain, a Chevy pickup truck,
A half a pound of Mendocino "thunder f**k."

The combination of a drug reference and a curse word led me to reject the song at first. Instead, I rewrote it.

I've got a cabin in the mountain, a Chevy pickup truck,
With stereo and four-wheel drive to pull us through the muck.
.

No songwriting awards for this somewhat "tortured " phrase, but it gets me through the song without embarassment.

A friend of mine who performs professionally, also does this song. She also was uncomfortable with the drug reference (for sure) and maybe the cursing (I'm guessing). She also rewrote the line. Why throw out one line when it tortures your taste. Because she makes her money singing and is a songwriter as well, she at least spoke to the original composer to seek his blessing (I suppose it was granted). I don't remember her version, (RABID EGOTISM WARNING) but I remember liking my rewrite better than hers.

I think Peggy Seeger and Peter Berryman had an article in SingOut! about these sort of changes. I've not read it, but I was told last year at this time that it was in the works.

This is how the folk process works. As the song is passed on singers make changes both accidental and intentional that in the long run make the song work better.

Roger in Baltimore