GUEST, lox "But it would annoy me intensely if he/she had the arrogance to extract all of it's flavour and charm and "translate" it into a "relevant modern form"."

I'm with Brian and Mary here, particularly with the old ballads. The whole point is that they are stories. Stories need to be communicated. The best way to communicate is in your own voice, not someone else's. I don't want people in the audience thinking, 'Oh, that accent isn't very good', or 'That accent/word/whatever sounds strange'; I want them to be listening to the story.

That sentence of Lox's above got to me too - *if* all the song's flavour and charm was extracted, it probably *would* be arrogant. If I couldn't do the song without extracting all the flavour and charm, I wouldn't do it - at least, I don't believe I would. I'm not sure what he/she means by "relevant modern form". I try not to change the form, but I hope it would be understandable to whoever is listening. As to relevance, except that human emotions/morals are always relevant, I'm not sure a song/story has to be so. It doesn't stop it being enjoyable.

Barbara