Although she has no formal vocal training, Harrison and Edelstein found that her haunting and unpolished voice suited the spirit of their compositions perfectly.

Yet Folkways' implicit acceptance of unpolished voices and casual recording also helped train musicians and listeners in broader ways: to prize the raw, the earthy, the self-taught.

The unpolished voices injected a sense of haunting reality, underscoring the knowledge that the drama being commemorated had taken place just across the street from where the audience sat.

Tonight, in her unpolished, Long-Island accented voice, Mrs. McCarthy recalled the day of the shootings, saying it started her on "a journey against gun violence in this nation."

Never mind Van Gundy's unpolished voice as a detriment; Hubie Brown is no Perry Como.

Governess," he said in his flat, unpolished voice, "I regret to inform you that there has been another attack.

The band's lyrics can be oblique or plain-spoken; Mr. McCaughn sings them in a high, unpolished voice.

"Oh Lord, Katrina and the water flowed," Mr. Marsalis sang, in an unpolished but soulful voice.

I loved her raw sometimes unpolished voice, it was such a breath of fresh air among all the over produced divas that are now out.

She's a Seattle-based songwriter with a confidently unpolished voice and music rooted in quasi-Appalachian fingerpicked guitar.