well, lamarca, it sounds like the "learning songs to be clever" thing is something you have personal issues with because you think that is what you were doing...but I kind of doubt that most people who go to an effort to learn new material would admit they do so in order to demonstrate how clever they are...this does not make sense to me. I think as long as one does not go out of their way to "show off" their vast repertoire at the expense of an otherwise pleasurable performance or gathering (like when certain sessiun instrumentalists in the Boston area insist on playing tunes they darn well know none of the other musicians are familiar with, so they can be assured of playing solo), then traditional singers should be encouraged to collect songs anywhere they can find them. Obscurity does not matter to me; the song's beauty or appeal does.

And as for "fake" accents...I sing songs in Irish and Gaelic language, and sometimes Breton and Cornish. None of them is my native tongue (in fact most singers who sing such repertoire would probably not consider these their first languages). So to sing in these languages, I need to pronounce the consonants and vowels properly; if I used flat, broad, American-style vowels, for example, I would not actually be singing in thise languages. I have heard people try to sing in Irish who use Americanized vowel pronunciation and it sounds terrible. I have gone to a lot of trouble to learn how to pronounce these lyrics credibly and as correctly as I can. If that makes me pretentious, so be it. I don't see this as being "fake" but rather an attempt at authenticity, and I see nothing wrong with it. if we all stuck to songs that matched exactly with our own regional dialects or accents we'd be mighty boring singers.

Peg