No, Rob - you're quite right about an appropriate accent. What I'm saying is: sing whatever you want, however you want - your audience will tell you quick enough whether it works or not! As granny said - "and pay for it"...

There are no rules - it's trial and error and how well what you do works out there in front of an audience. I happen to like singing material by Leon Redbone, Jimmie Rodgers, Doc Watson and the Delmore Brothers. I've no doubt that if I was totally crap at doing it, my audiences wouldn't be clapping.

I was brought up in Lancashire and Scotland, with a Lancashire-born father, a Suffolk-born mother and earlier generations from Kildare in Ireland, and have spent nearly two thirds of my life living in London and Sussex - with a lifelong love of American jazz, blues, ragtime and early country music - and English music-hall songs. So - all to play for!