"A lot of the songs composed by these singer song writer types, women and men, sound as if they were composed while they were sitting on the chanty".
:-)
A lot of them these days sound as though they're SINGING them "while sitting on the chanty".
Anyone can sing anything they want, as far as I am concerned.
There was a similar discussion years ago here in Aberdeen concerning women singing bothy ballads. Seems a bit academic now, since the major "Bothy Ballad" competition was won a few years ago by Shona Donaldson.