here is an example of a singer who has been acknowledged by many as being a very good traditional singer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsxG06FMA-Y
if one listens to his singing, he sings in a norfolk accent but his diction is clear, he does not sing like bert lloyd with a smile on his face.
JIM SAYS
"Anybody who ever saw a live performance by Bert Lloyd will have been aware of his habit of 'grinning' while performing - not so much a reflection of his (I'm sure) sunny outlook on life but a deliberately contrived technique to produce a hard tone on some songs, contrary to the somewhat light, airy one he generally used.."
It is clear IF ONE LISTENS that HARRYCOX did not do this, he sang naturally.
I have never heard a traditional singer sing in the way[ and i hve listened to a lot] bert lloyd did, with a contrived technique to produce a hard tone, I can only assume this was an Idea introduced into the revival by lloyd, there appears to be no examples of this amongst english traditional singers.
I would advise against doing this [unless you want to sound like bert lloyd]
her is fred jordan[tradtional singer] singing with a shropshire accent, but diction still clearhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh5i_M5kkxg
jim carroll, again
"The command and use of tones to handle different types of songs and to produce variation in a performance of a number of songs, was one of the major features of the work of the Critics Group"
There is no evidence in either of the two traditional singers enditions[harry cox, fred jordan] of this contrived technique.
it is of course completely up to people how they wish to sing stylitically, my advice is to be yourself[ not be an imitation of anyone BERT lLOYD OR ONE OF THE CRITICS GROUP.