George

Surely you are entitled to be someone else when you are singing a song. Its like a speech in a theatre. Its someone's impassioned statement - not necessarilly your own.

People don't say to Ian McKellen or Helen Mirren - that's not your voice. they are quite legitimately trying to express a character other than their own.

I have no real quarrel with people using a 'traditonal' voice. I just object to their endless contention that it is somehow less of an imaginative creation than Ziggy Stardust.

The thing is, that several traditional songs are best known in this country through singers that voices which have American mannerisms. Nottanum Towm - surely best known from Bert Jansch, being a good case in point. Also the Childe Ballads - many of us got to hear them first off from Joan Baez.