Yeah! I came to this late but accenting or dialecting (?) a song is (or should be) like acting. While I write this I am listening to Mike Seeger singing and playing (playing!) in "dialect". He is recreating a specific recording by a specific person and playing a specific instrument in a specific style. I value such a performance because it allows me to know a song in it's original context. As for being entertainment... I don't know. I find it more scholarly in a way. I play stuff and sing stuff as best as I can manage from what I hear. I can't read music, the conflict between the left brain linearity of the notation clashes with the right brain sense of the art in the lyrics, music, and instrumentation. (huh?) anyway I have always been able to (can't avoid it) slip in and out of regional dialect to such a degree that when I speak French I am sometimes taken for an Italian, not a Yank! I have always been concerned that this would mark me as a "phoney" or something but so far no one has ever commentd on it to me. Doncha love these threads!