"Post-prandial post"
Didn't mean to criticise - been there myself - the night before last, in fact
BTW
Ewan, having grown up in a Scots household, had a perfectly good Scots accent when he cared to use it.
As an actor, he chose to neutralise it so it could be understood in laces like Darkest Droylsden and when he decided to specialise in the ballads, he applied that to his singing.
I remember being able to understand his ballads virtually from day one - it made me a life-long devotee.
I also remember listening to Jimmy McBeath Davy Stewart and even Belle and Sheila for the first time and looking down for the sub-titles - as my old man was born in Glasgow.
Singing has to be a two-way process (folk, that is).
You have to make it move you by not moving away from yourself too far while at the same time, communicating that song/ballad/tale to whoever you're singing to.
I had an odd experience regarding accents when I was working in a public hall in London.
I befriended an Iranian-Kurd caretaker in the hall and we found we not only shared political views, but both of us were avid film-buffs.
Ali ran a film club for his fellow Kurds in the hall and he approached me with a video copy of Jim Allen's, Ken Loach's film, 'The Big Flame, set in the Liverpool Docks.
He wished to insert Kurdish sub-titles and he requested I translate the film from Liverpoolese into English so he could then translate it into Kurdish.
Jim Carroll