"Jim: Please flick on the sarcasm meter please."
Will do - apologies - usually quite good at picking it up as I'm prone to it's use myself.
I think the basic question is, 'What do you want to see when you listen to a song'.
From the point of view of both the audience and the singer, the answer to me appears simple - The song.
At least two of the older singers we recorded have described the act of singing as "like sitting in the cinema' (hopefully without the smell of that **** popcorn).
Perhaps it might be asked, "should the audience listen with eyes open or closed?"
I find myself listening to songs - particularly ballads - with closed eyes, though I have been told by several singers that they thought I'd fallen asleep.
Walter (again), provided extensive visual descriptions of his songs; the physical appearance of his characters, their dress, the surroundings......
He once made the fascinating comment about his long version of 'Van Dieman's Land', "That's a long old song, but it was a long old journey" - for me, a perfect example of a singer relating to his song.
We don't tell singers of other genres of songs how they should behave in front of an audience - why should we tell singers of folk songs - assuming that's what we are talking about (never sure nowadays).
Jim Carroll