One of my favorite versions of Barbara Allen has her "walking the highway home". That wasn't found in earlier versions. I won't sing a song I can't change in some way. Not because I have to do it for ego reasons, but more because I have to understand it better. I would try to avoid taking out specific references, though, that give the folk song it's special meaning. If I don't know what they are, I'll look them up, ask somebody or wait and not sing it until I know what they are. Some of the best traditional variants of folk song have come about through "lyric creep". The song adapts to new environments.

Frank Hamilton