Yes, whispering is terrible for the vocal chords. You won't catch me whispering. ;-)

Deckman's solution is the same as Chongo's, only Chongo doesn't sing. (He's never broken down under torture or intimidation of any sort.)

Ron, my natural vocal range is a tenor as far as I know...from about Bb on the 5th string up through about D on the 2nd string. At a pinch I used to be able to sing the E on the first string okay. This is very similar, I think, to Lightfoot's range. Dylan could comfortably sing a bit higher than that when he was young (as well as going down rather low too), I think he would go up to about the G on the first string, so I have to move some of the older Dylan tunes into a lower key. I've also found that if I move some of my own songs down a key or two now, it suits my voice better than when I was younger. So my voice has deepened a bit, but I'm still basically a tenor.

The singer's voice I'd most like to have if I could would be Jackson Browne's in the 70's. Or Mary Chapin Carpenter's if I did a sex change first... ;-)

I love listening to Dylan, specially in the 60s, 70s, and 80s stuff...he's got a terrifically "tough" sounding and flexible voice with great dynamic force...but I don't much try to make my own voice sound like his when I do Dylan songs (except now and then just for fun). Only Dylan...and Mark Knopfler...can really sound like that, so I leave it to them. (Knopfler sounds a lot like one of Dylan's common singing styles...Dylan's had other sounds, though, at other times which Knopfler's voice doesn't resemble in the least).