Interesting thread. From so many aspects.

I only met Ewan and Peggy a few times, and I agree they were helpful and kindly. I only knew them from publishing one of my songs in The New City Songster, and chatting a few times on the phone and after gigs.

I don't know but I should have thought Ewan would view the ballads as first and foremost, performance material. As in Shakespeare - it's not really important to fully comprehend every word.

The mistake most people make with this stuff, is not in committment to the material, but in committment to the performance.

Personally speaking it's not for me.

Once you have been privileged to see someone like Ewan tackle this with the gravity a Shakespearian actor would give to the part of Lear, you should have some inkling of what the part demands - and whether you have it in you.

It is in the performance that the substance of the piece lies.