There's another aspect to this, which arguably pertains more to folk than to some other genres, and that is the question as to whether or not a technically perfect vocal aught really to be expected or indeed desired?

As I said uplist, we're not describing highly sophisticated melodies by and large which perhaps demand strict mastery of timing and tuning in order to be pulled off effectively - but fairly simple and robust ones - ones even perhaps which require a bit of individual character and colour invested in the storytelling (for my own part, I feel traditional song is much more akin to theatre or drama, than narrative story but that's by the by) and interpretation doesn't necessitate perfect pitch.

An musical contact (not a folkie) threw a bit of Amon Duull II at me and suggested that I learn how to break out of what he found to be a monotonous adherence in my vocal to prissy technical correctness: Archangels Thunderbird I wonder if this would be 'enhanced' by autotune? I think he made a good point, though I've still to learn how to let go of those hand rails..