Richard,
"I can't say I've found Jim Carrol's performances electronically preserved on the tube for posterity (yet) - so he might be as good as he seems here to assert that he is."
Please read what I wrote about my protracted but highly enjoyable career as a singer (21 Oct 08 - 03:40 AM ) - I am no longer a singer and I have never claimed any great merits for my singing when I was doing it regularly.
Nowadays my interest is confined to the survival of the music I have devoted over two thirds of my life to.
I have always argued that folk song will only survive if it is taken seriously as a performing art (please read my quote of MacColl on work and pleasure before howling about po-faced singing). If people think that the way ahead is to throw open the floor for wannabe singers to practice in public - sorry - beg to differ.
Nick has the right of it when he says about amateur dramatic societies - "people come along with a wide spectrum of talent and are usually found a spot somewhere within a production which echoes that talent" - rather a far cry from turning up with your crib sheet and automatically assuming that you will be given a spot. I would have to take both shoes off to count the number of sing-around clubs I have never re-visited where the wannabes outnumber the singers who remember the words and the tune and sound as if they know AND ENJOY what they are singing about.
I spent twenty years involved in workshops being helped with my singing and hopefully helping others to become better singers - I even started one in Manchester many years ago.
Surely the way forward is the same as the reply the lady received when she asked "How do I get to The Carnegie Hall" - "Practice lady, practice".
Jim Carroll
PS Have just re-read my posting - not very well put together I'm afraid, but it's very difficult to concentrate over the sound of clashing egos - and not just Richard and the Cap'n's