I never sing. I'm my band's jovial harmonica man. But tonight, due to staff shortage, I'll be singing Galway Girl. There's no way I can maintain a Steve Earle accent, nor should I nor will I try to. I have a lusty voice with a distinctly northern accent, I'm 74 and, as such, I can't be constrained by any strictures levelled at one by the folkie accent police (and I especially won't be singing down my nose). I reckon that all those old singing boys and gals in ages gone past just went down the pub to have fun and would have told, had they existed, the po-faced folkie police where to get off.

So there.

And I might cup my ear once or twice because it works, but no finger of mine will ever penetrate my external auditory canal...