What I mean by "dirty" is opposite of clean, sweet style of ballad songs. Some twangs and a bit of hoarseness here and there would probably enhanced the songs a lot.

Maybe comments of Tony Mads and Tom Cavanaugh previously are in line with mine when referring to "dirty". These people and others(including me) are your friends, Scott - so, I am sure the comments are genuine/honest and very likely valid for most of "general populations" (g). Since, you're a professional and out there to please your audiences, you probably should care about it.