David, see if maybe this puts you back to rights with "Carrickfergus."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_RMKkzJ ... re=related

Knowing that taste is a very subjective thing, I apologize if I just made things worse for you. I enjoyed it, in any event.

Hi Mike

No problem with this one - the song sung simply in a relaxed contemplative style is how I like it sung.

David

I get REALLY sick of Whiskey in the Jar. Hell, I hate the fact my Irish rock band plays it. Great traditional storytelling via lyrics BUT if I hear the Thin Lizzy version one more time...

Matt

I briefly downloaded someone's collection of something like 70 covers of Whiskey in the Kilgary mush-a-ring dum-a-doo. Ouch.

Yikes! How random is that for a collection?

Matt

Hmmm, I like "simpler" versions of Carrickfergus better as well. Jim McCann's version in particular. Doesn't need the "flashy" vibrato and all that. Besides, I feel rather strange about women singing Carrickfergus - I mean, it makes little sense, unless the singer is lesbian, and even then, it is "weird". By the, way, a smile always appears on my face when I hear a woman singing the last line "Come all ye young men and lay me down."

Thanks BigDavy (I think )
I made myself sit through them both. The 6+ minutes for Carrickfergus seemed a lot longer when listening to it. I wanted to reach through the screen with a cattle prod and gee them all up a bit, or give Ms Moore a slap on the face and make her stop the overkill on the vibrato....urggggh!!!!
Dreary, and what's a woman doing singing such an obvious man's song?

It has never struck me as weird or strange to hear a woman sing a traditional song written from a male perspective or vice-versa. Traditional ballads are stories set to music. The singer functions as the story teller.

Steveb

When I tell stories, it's either about me (told in 1st person), or about someone else (in 1st person). I really can't imagine telling a story of someone else from 1st person. But maybe I'm just weird, could be

To my thinking, trad ballads work a bit more like a short story or narrative poem. Many of these are written by women in the 1st person perspective of a male main character (or vice versa). Even if you hear them read aloud by someone of the "opposite gender", it doesn't seem strange (to me at least). Modern pop/rock/country music works a bit differently, as most songs in these genres are really written as "personal anthems", often with a romantic or sexual theme. This makes it harder to reconcile the singer and the song if there's a gender mis-match. I agree that it'd be a bit weird hearing a woman sing "She's Always a Woman to Me" or a man sing "Whose Bed have Your Boots been Under"!