In another thread (Showmanship - or Showoff?) Stewart said the following:

"...Like watching a city-bred folksinger from a middle-class background trying to sing a song about a poor share-cropper with a "Woody Guthrie" accent and dress."

He certainly has a point. However, what happens if you love singing, love folk music have a good voice but you're middle class who speaks with received pronunciation?

I suppose that songs about love and death are common to everyone but many of these are Scottish or Irish. Nothing is worse than a put on accent (most pop music) or an artificially roughened voice.

Can anyone suggest some good songs for the middle class?

One of my favourites is "the Queen of all Argyll" as done by Silly Wizard - a great tune and real poetry - here is a girl I really want to sing about but never can. It's getting to the stage that I feel guilty for playing an Irish tune on my fiddle, particuarly in front of a real live Irish person! What contribution can the middle class make to folk music?

Richard.