Re Chattanooga Choo-Choo, I'd always thought 'shine' meant 'smile'. Is this where the term 'shine' for blacks comes in (like the aforementioned toothpaste)? Or am I wildly off-key here?

Generally, I'd say it was courteous to avoid singing songs which would be considered offensive by ppl around. I know a few fun but 'non-family' (if you get my drift :-) songs which I wouldn't sing at my local folk club, but there's another place I know of where they'd go down a treat.

But I think there's some songs that just don't work if you're a white person singing them. It'd sound odd if I was to sing about being a hobo in a boxcar, just as a black person singing songs about how they fought in the Irish civil war might sound a little out-of-place - I do think that realism plays some part in it. Same thing as there being some songs which are really women's songs and others which are men's songs. Maybe it's just me - I know that if I don't feel comfortable doing it then it's not going to work properly, though.

Grab.