I sing "Kitty Kane" once in a while, and find it (like many of John Warner's songs) a very powerful song - enough so that I can sometimes see folks in the song circle getting a bit uncomfortable at some of the lyrics. I tried changing it to the third person ("She came up the Thomson...") - and it's still a well-crafted story of a woman and her times - but to my mind the power is missing.

I do wonder what would happen if Lester Simpson's "Polly on the Shore" was sung in the first person - it's already a powerful song and might be quite overwhelming if Polly were telling it "live and in person" through the magic of folk music.

Please note that I'm not suggesting that we should all rush out and change every song in sight - but I do find it interesting how much difference an apparently minor change ("I" to "she") can make.

JudyB