Thanks, Howard.
I think there's a good chance that I have 500 songs memorized, but they're songs not suitable for a folk singaround, or they're songs everybody knows. At singarounds with accomplished singers, I like to sing songs that are new to me - and I hope they're new to the people who are listening. I find the condemnation of certain "purists" to be restrictive. If they're so insistent on memorization, I can sing the entire Peter Paul and Mary Songbook, every word of "God Bless America" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem" (with two melodies), and "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" (and the rest of the scores from two dozen musicals).

To me, it's enough to pick songs that are appropriate to the situation, and to sing them as well as I can - even though I may make a mistake here and there. If I have to be restricted by all sorts of snooty rules, I think that's a real damper on creativity.

-Joe-