I was re-reading this thread this morning after a thought struck me last night. When I first got into the folk-singing thing about a year ago I had great difficulty with the 'to accent or not' problem. Now the issue seems to resolve itself naturally on a song-by-song basis. I was mulling to myself over why this should be, and I came to the conclusion that familiarity with singing has made it more akin to speech. When I speak I freely use whatever variations of pronunciation, emphasis, phrasing etc work with the context & company - this forms a huge part of the expressiveness of what I am saying at the time. I often use appalling grammar and varying pronunciations when chatting. Certainly my 'expressive' speaking is not at all the same as the more formal version I might use in an unfamiliar situation or in a formal presentation. It has a lot to do with feeling confident enough with the basic tools of the language to be able to paint it up with a bit of colour. I also am increasingly aware of how the tunes & rhythms of songs are closely tied to speech patterns (the rise & fall in tone etc) - so song becomes even closer to conversation. I'm not sure how that makes my singing from the outside (could be appalling, but never mind - I'm only a late-night-drinking singer so far)- but it feels great from the inside, which makes me happy. SO - my new rule on accents etc is : If I would say it then I can sing it.

What d'you reckon? Does that sound fair, or barking?

Kris

PS. In support of my theory : the Irish both speak and sing excessively expressively - in general more so than any other group of English-speakers. Can't be coincidence...