I'm not a singer on the level of most folks here, and don't have audience feedback to say "oh, you sound like..." Mostly I know who I would LIKE to sound like, and attempt, in my feeble way to emulate. Cindy Mangsen has a delivery that sounds as easy as talking - that transparent putting across the song endears her voice to me so much.

Yet, other songs I've learned from the singing of other individuals leave a residual trace that even I can feel. A couple of my favorite songs come out with some Irish sounds, from endless listening to Brigid Malone of Gaping Maw, or Robbie O'Connell. Some come out with Brit around the edges if it's something I learned from John Roberts & Tony Barrand or Lou Killen...or....or... And so it goes...all over the map.

I suppose, for me, much of my delivery depends on what version of the song I've heard is my favored one, and stress and pronunciation come from that, as much as do lyric selection structure. I remember a slight criticism of some friends in a Come For To Sing review of an early recording of theirs that found the American voice doing a Scottish song with accent somewhat forced. It's a concept I struggle with, in singing things that only really rhyme or scan well with an accent I don't have in nature. I don't have the knack to mimic voices, which seems to be what is necessary for those singing in a broad (insert your accent here) that isn't their own. I know those who have it - Mike Mazur, a Cleveland Irish/Polish, mix can open his mouth and out comes the sound of Tom McCaffrey, an Irish fiddler and storyteller.

This lack of mimic ability and a gut-level reaction to singing a song that is manifestly from a very male viewpoint has kept me from even attempting to put some songs I dearly love into my repertoire. I think what divides me from those who are natural singers is that they DO find their OWN voice, usually fairly early (that lovely young lass from Indiana, ElizabethwhoselastnameImangle comes to mind).

Joanne in Cleveland