Decided to open this up after I discovered the following in The English Folksinger edited by Sam Richards and Tish Stubbs of the late group, Staverton Bridge - not necessarily the fastest, but a good deal of common sense as far as I can see.
Jim Carroll

Finally, a few ideas for singers. Lifting songs off the printed page is a vastly different process to learning them by hearing them. We offer a few of our own tricks in the hope that they are helpful and that singers might also discover their own.
1. Listen critically to traditional singers from many countries. There are plenty of commercial recordings available.
2. Speak songs first, out loud. Note the speech rhythms of the words.
3. Decide what the intention of each song is. Our headings might help.
What is it all about? What does it have to say? How? If an old song, why is it worth singing now?
4. Decide whether you want to sing it free or in time, fast or slow, loud or soft, decorated or plain. In between. Why?
5. Learn it gradually. Unaccompanied. Take time.
6. All this time there should not have been a musical instrument in sight other than, perhaps, to pick out the melody. Accompaniments are the last thing to think about. If you think an accompaniment will help, put in a simple one. Put it in for a musical or textual reason, not just because you want to play your guitar. Folksingers all over the country have been discovering that the guitar is not the only, or even the best instrument to use. Concertinas, dulcimers, banjos, melodeons, harmoniums, tin whistles, mouthorgans, autoharps, even spoons are now used. Maybe try drones first. Build it up slowly. If,
however, you are starting with a guitar, we have added chords to a selection of the most suitable tunes.
7 . Sing it somewhere. Look for signs of how people react to it. Be prepared to start again.