In an interview I once did for Folk Review with Martin Carthy & Norma Waterson [long long ago, before there was Eliza!], Norma said of a young girl singer then making a name on the English Scene, "The trouble is, when she gets to an ironic or disobliging bit in a song, she curls her lip. I think one should just sing the words and leave it to the song to curl its lip".

Similarly, I have never enjoyed the City Waites, mentioned on a recent thread (& I have told Lucie this & have said so in many reviews & am not speaking behind anyone's back), because they sing 'naughty' songs in such a naughty, o-so-roguish, smirking tone: I think it far more effective just to sing the words and 'let the song do the smirking', as Norma might have said.

What do others think?

Michael