(**************Slight thread drift alert**************)

Don's similar experience and Susan's reaction to Amazing Grace brought to mind how interesting it is when we imprint, like ducklings, on one particular version of a song, frequently the first heard. It becomes the "right way" template in our heads. Few of us are obnoxiously evangelical enough to insist that it's the only right way, but in our heart of hearts it's OUR "right way". Satisfaction in our own interpretation can mean how closely our version approximates this internal template.

"Folk Processing" brings lots of variations on familiar material that spans the range from brilliant to desecration: from seeking out variations on a song, or lyrics sung to another melody, to finding versions/verses/melodies that suit us better (or make us clench our teeth). I think of Joan Baez as my starting point for singing, and loving House Carpenter and Lady Mary/Palaces Grand , with my interpretations informed by other peformers/texts. There are other songs where I find, no matter hw much I love a perfomer, the version I've imprinted on is too perfect to change. What comes to mind is how I learned Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy - Copper family version passed through several people. I adore Brian Peters,love listening to him, yet his version with a different melody is something I just skip over.

In the end, I see it as a bit of musical maturity to be able to look at a whole range of interpretations, and have a developed enough taste to direct how we want to sing a song... Without a slavish adherence to ONLY the versions done by THE SACRED perfomers. The vitality of the music is increased by mixing it up, hearing it from unexpected directions. Taste is knowing why you prefer it one way or the other not just "because that's how X sang it."

It's not the singer, it's the song.

Joanne in Cleveland getting off her soapbox now