Thank you Chris. I'll certainly give the shanties a try sometime. I do have a good, strong voice. It is unmistakeably female though. I do know some ladies who are very good with shanties but their voices tend to be right in the very deepest register. My voice would generally be called "pretty" and it works best if I choose material that is sympathetic to my style of singing.

We also have a group of very active shanty singers at one of the clubs that I sing in. I would certainly get a good chorus backing me if I sang a shanty there, but I also suspect that my version would be pale in comparison with a full blooded male singing the song and singing it well. I'm talking about men who sing shanties professionally on the festival circuit. On the other hand, there are songs that I sing that they wouldn't sing as well as me. It's horses for courses...