why do some sing in usa accent

Subject: RE: why do some sing in usa accent
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 12 Nov 18 - 09:05 AM

I'll gloss over my attempts to sound like an deep South bluesman but merely mention the Polish shanty group I met in Greece this year who did their best to sound Irish on some of their songs. To sing some such genres in "Oxford English" (or Brummie English in my case) would sound very odd.
RtS

Subject: RE: why do some sing in usa accent
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 12 Nov 18 - 09:29 AM

I used to love listening The Red Army Choir singing 'It's a Long Way to Tipperary
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: why do some sing in usa accent
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 Nov 18 - 11:40 AM

yes theres a great scene in Das Boot where the German submariners are sailing along singing to an old recording of Tiperary. I used to love seeing Bill Caddick singing his song, The Writing of Tiperary.

Great song. Reverend Gary Davis used to sing it as well.

Subject: RE: why do some sing in usa accent
From: GUEST,Modette
Date: 12 Nov 18 - 12:34 PM

Here you go, Jim.

Red Army Choir - IaLWtT

Fantastic.

Subject: RE: why do some sing in usa accent
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 12 Nov 18 - 01:01 PM

Thanks for that Mod - I'll be grinning all the way to the pub tonight
Jim

Subject: RE: why do some sing in usa accent
From: Gozz
Date: 12 Nov 18 - 04:28 PM

We seem to have broadened this conversation quite a bit, but I would like to take us back to what Dick originally posted and examine in more carefully.

He spoke of singer/songwriters who were not from America singing in (their own approximation to) an american accent. So we are talking about someone who writes a song for themselves to sing, but in a accent which is not their own. So the question is not just why sing in an accent that is not your own, but also why write a song for yourself to sing in that false accent? I agree that taking a song in a different dialect even to your own can be challenging, but why deliberately make if more difficult for yourself to sing successfully by writing it in this way? Way up near the top of this thread people have mentioned the influence of pop culture, where the same problem has existed for years IMO. The only other explanation I can think of is that they write the song hoping some big star will take up on it, rather than for them to sing themselves.

I don't like it either Dick. It makes me cringe when I hear it at singaround sessions or open mikes around here. It often destroys the feeling of sincerity one can get from some singer/songwriters.

Subject: RE: why do some sing in usa accent
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 Nov 18 - 04:54 PM

Bloke in a pub I used to frequent sang "Delilah" in a broad Lancashire accent.

I saw a leet on the neet as I passed by er windder...

It was brilliant.

Subject: RE: why do some sing in usa accent
From: skarpi
Date: 12 Nov 18 - 05:46 PM

I would like to hear a Fake President singing the fake song ...

well you play the tune on the instrument 100 % like it was written
right , why ?

Same with the singing , the song is from US you try to sing like it was done in the first time ,

but it is always best to sing it with you own noes as we say it ...

so don´t stay in the fake world , get real , be your self .

Subject: RE: why do some sing in usa accent
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 12 Nov 18 - 07:57 PM

To continue the thread drift, I'm enchanted by Marta Sebestyen singing Leaving Derry Quay

Subject: RE: why do some sing in usa accent
From: Mr Red
Date: 13 Nov 18 - 03:06 AM

If I may quote Martin (touches forelock) Carthy MBE

"You can do anything to a folk song, anything at all, and it will survive. Except ignore it"

Subject: RE: why do some sing in usa accent
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 13 Nov 18 - 05:41 AM

> To continue the thread drift, I'm enchanted by Marta Sebestyen singing Leaving Derry Quay

An interesting example! Here we have someone whose native language is not any variety of English singing an Irish song. From the singing alone she could almost pass for Irish, having only slight differences in the accent. All well and good. The only thing wrong with it is that the accompaniment is a tad too loud relative to the voice, making the words a bit harder to understand.

Now, what if she had sung in RP or some sort of American English instead? That would seem to make no sense.

Or what if she (or any non-native English speaker) had lived somewhere in the English-speaknig world and become fluent in the local variety of English, e.g. Liverpool, New England, Kentucky ... and then sung an Irish song? I myself am unsure of the right answer to that one.

Subject: RE: why do some sing in usa accent
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 13 Nov 18 - 06:15 AM

Never heard, or even heard of, Márta Sebestyén before, but I like that track very much. I'm going to check her out. Thanks for that link, GUEST: Gerry!

Subject: RE: why do some sing in usa accent
From: Will Fly
Date: 13 Nov 18 - 09:04 AM

I'm usually a libertarian when it comes to performing and accents - do just what you will and accept the consequences is what I say - but, I do share Gozz's comments about non-Americans writing songs and then singing them with an unnecessary American accent. I know a Scottish singer-songwriter whose speaking voice is lovely. He also writes quite good songs - and then destroys their credibility by singing them with an American accent rather than his own lilt.

So, on that particular score, I would give a nod to Dick's original comment.

Subject: RE: why do some sing in usa accent
From: Vic Smith
Date: 13 Nov 18 - 11:07 AM

To continue the thread drift, I'm enchanted by Marta Sebestyen singing Leaving Derry Quay
So am I.... and I love the way that she segues from that into a song of Greeks being expelled from Turkey in the days of Ataturk and then back into the Irish song.
I love the banjo playing on that track which was played by her ex-husband who produced and all the others on that outstanding album Kismet which is one of my all-time favourites.
Certainly, you can hear from her accent that she is not Irish but I don't think that you could tell this from her exquisite timing and phrasing. Of course, she had an excellent tutor of Irish music studies in Andy Irvine. In return, Andy learned a great deal about the timing and phrasing of all those Magyar and Balkan tunes from her. This dates back to the time when Márta and Andy were very close(!). Her parents were both leading Hungarian ethno-musicoligists and she has followed them with an enormous and broad knowledge of European and middle-eastern song.
Could I refer Backwoodsman and anyone else for that matter to listen to anything by her? All her albums are great, the solo albums and also the wonderful albums by Muzsikás, particularly Morning Star, The Lost Jewish Music of Transylvania, The Bartok Album, The Prisoner's Song and Blues for Transylvania but all the twelve albums of Márta and Muzsikás have their strengths. The only thing that is better than them was to hear them live - mesmerising stuff!!!

I think I'll go and sit somewhere quiet and calm down.