The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #151783 Message #3548737
Posted By: GUEST,jim bainbridge
13-Aug-13 - 06:00 PM
Thread Name: Singing in Different Accents/Dialects
Subject: RE: Singing in Different Accents/Dialects
AS a Geordie who's spent time in Kent, London, Scotland, Ireland and El Hierro in the Canaries, am quite happy to sing songs from all places without worrying too much about my accent- leave others to judge how successfully! Wouldn't even attempt some of Hamish Henderson's or Rabbie Burns', much as I love them.
Think I get away best with Scots Irish songs, to which I think the Geordie accent has some affinity? When singing Irish songs for the locals 20 years ago in the Mizen area of West Cork, I was asked what county I came from- my answer of County Durham produced a few headshakes in response, but they must have thought I was Irish. By the way, there was little Irish music in the area then- which was why a Geordie brought up in NE folk clubs got the 'tourist' gig for many years.
I tried the same thing in Boulogne when I lived in Dover, but even though I had a beret and a bag of onions, the locals weren't deceived at all, despite my accent, which owed more to 'Allo 'Allo' than Georges Brassens....