Yes, McGrath, your last paragraph is spot on; too much jumping through hoops to satisfy the latest fad instead of just concentrating on the music.

I believe myself to be a half-decent singer and musician but a poor songwriter. Most of my material is therefore written by other people. My approach to singing and playing other people's material is basically to do what I think sounds best, irrespective of whether it is very close to or very far from the version(s) that I have heard others perform or record.

For me, the important thing is to focus on the song itself as much as, if not more than, any particular version, which is really just a starting point, and to think about what I can do with it.

I know this is just a matter of taste, but I do not enjoy listening to performers who slavishly "reproduce" someone else's version of a song note for note, nuance for nuance, grunt for grunt.