I don't think at all it is a given that the goal of some song circles is to socialize and hear new songs. For some of us it is a chance to sing new or old songs together, hearing the best possible music that we can produce. I personally don't need music to socialize by and I don't need socialability to do musical things. I think if we confuse the two too much we get less great music. There is nothing wrong with socializing aorund music, and I think a lot of this discussion is about that, but for many of us it is about the music and not the socializing, which, say at a camp, we could accomplish by eating meals together, going on walks, washing dishes, sitting around the fire. mg