I like to know the origins of songs, and I like to be told them by the performer - as a listener, I find it adds enormously to my experience. Not, necessarily, the whole story in great detail, but a synopsis is nice. As a sea-song and shanty fan, the stories are part of the context - often there are words in them which have been lost to our vocabulary - or place names I haven't heard of, so it helps me to understand the song - knowing where Maui is, for instance or what a kanaka is....or the fact that Three Score and Ten was written as a broadsheet to raise money for the families of those who died in the storm, but the date was changed because the real date didn't scan! It all adds to my enjoyment of hearing the song.

I suppose I most enjoy performers who are also interested in imparting some of the story of how a song has been handed down, rather than just giving a striaght performance, to be judged on their musical ability. It also enables me to enter into the tradition and pass on some of their knowledge, in telling other people.