Interesting thread. To add my two-penethworth: Female: Sandy Denny (because she made me want to sing, and her song are so beautiful) K D Lang (because I fell for her many moons ago and her songs are so real and right for her voice) Alison Moyat (not folk, but a damn fine voice and as she is the singer I most resemble and sound like, I thought I should mention her :) Alison Kraus (beautifully clear angelic voice.... I'd love to sing the way she does :) Macy Gray (again not folk but a favorite of mine and I greatly admire the way she has taken the raw sound of her voice and used it to create such wonderful music) The female singer out of All About Eve (sorry not sure of her name, but she makes me tingle and I think she has a v. pure voice

Male: Dave Burland ( I'm a Barnsley lass myself and to hear Dave live was a treat) Dick Gaughan (His voice is so rich I could eat it :) Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull (He just does it for me and the songs he sings are so all encompassing (IMHO) that Tull are my band of choice on most occasions) I think it is not really possible to quantify a 'perfect' singer. A singer has to use their voice to best advantage for a particular song, in a particular genre, at a particular performance. Some technicly brilliant singers just fail to inspire any emotion, whereas less perfect singers can use their voices to much better effect, and make you *feel* at a given performance. This is the criteria I use to judge music. If a singer doesn't make me want to sing the song too, then, usually, I don't like it much. I'm not saying I can sing it, but I always want to try! *Hugs* Liz