Thanks, Phil, that's good to hear. Parts of this thread were beginning to sound as if one flew to the U. K., customs stopped you at Heathrow and excised unacceptable songs from your song list.

The only times I've ever had anyone object to what I sing and the way I perform was a guy who was passing through Seattle from Berkeley, one of the Berkeley Ethnic Purists (this was before Bob Dylan, but he was doing the same thing: roughening the sound of his voice and trying to sound like he'd just rode into town on the turnip truck).

The first thing he objected to was my guitar—a nylon-string classic. "REAL folk singers use steel-string guitars!" he informed me (where does it say that in the Bible?) And he was contemptuous of the fact that I didn't screw around with my voice, I just sang the best I could. Most really good singers of folk songs do just that.

In fact, a very good voice teacher I took some lesson from (really BIG no! no!!) told me to keep my throat relaxed, support my voice with the diaphragm, and sing openly. That way, it should last me all my life—and so far, so good!

By the way, voice lessons don't make you sound like an opera singer. Many aspiring Pavorottis and Renée Flemings wish it were that easy!

Don Firth