I'm a dunce at this Auldtimer, just somebody running a folk club, who cannot sing/play or dance.

However your comment "but steady pace, brings out the best in the majority of songs" makes a lot of sense. That comment could also be applied to a lot of things in life :-)

I think what this person heard was a song(s) that she knew and they were more uptempo than the folk singers version, and she just wanted to know why folk singers do that, rather than sticking with the uptempo concept.