"don you said that those who got access to stages had to pass professional or adequate muster. Sorry you said it. You did not want to hear hard to listen to voices.."

NO, Conrad. I did NOT say that! All anyone has to do is go back up the thread and re-read what I actually DID say.

And as far as "hard to listen to voices" are concerned, such as people who don't know the tunes of songs and simply sing random notes, or who sing off-pitch—NOBODY wants to listen to that. Not just me! If someone sings in a monotone so you can't distinguish an actually melody and/or mush-mouths the words so badly that you don't know what they're singing not even academic song collectors will waste their time trying to record them!!

Of course, if you can bring it off, Conrad, no one is stopping you from trying to be the Florence Foster Jenkins of folk music.

Florence Foster Jenkins had a truly unique singing career. Possessed of no ear for music whatsoever and more money that brains (curiously enough, but undoubtedly with compete innocence on her part, people around her kept dying like flies and leaving their money to her; perhaps the reason they died was that it was the only way they could escape listening to her sing), she regularly hired Carnegie Hall and gave recitals. The recitals were usually sold out. She also made a number of records, and managed to sell quite a few.

But what drew people to her concerts and had them buying her records was that people were absolutely astounded by her totally gawdawful singing voice, her cpmplete lack of ability to assess her own singing, and her sheer audacity. The audience came to laugh at her. She was so bad that she was hilariously funny!

Now this may seem very cruel on the part of her audiences. But she was happy. She had the singing career that she wanted so badly!

Here's a sample of her work:   The Queen of the Night's aria from Mozart's The Magic Flute.   CLICKY.

Good luck on your singing career, Conrad!

Don Firth