And often I'd give a long intro to one o' the shortest songs I knew. I was striving to show that between the lines, there's often more info than in the song itself. For instance:

"My Sweetheart's A Mule In The Mines"
I drive her without any lines,
On the bumper I sit and tobacco I spit,
All over my sweetheart's behind.

This spare lyric is about a guy who spends more time with his mule than with his own wife and family---ie. the mule is his sweetheart. He's underground working for ALL of the daylight hours. He's proud of the fact that, after years of practice, he has perfected the talent of hitting a fly on the mule's butt with his tobacco juice!

I'd use it in workshops I'd do for teachers in Northern Illinois schools to show how they can use folksongs to teach history---but they have to put thought into the process. They need to bring their knowledge of the given historical era to their reading of the lyric to show the students how folksongs are truly a window into the past.

Art