I noticed Maddy Prior in a concert some 8 or so years ago had all her music on a stool. An occassional glance didn't make me feel like she wasn't interacting with her audience enough as Dick Greenhaus mentioned. She wasn't "reading" from her lyrics, just seemed to use them from time to time as a reminder. I suppose when someone like Pavarotti uses sheets to sing an operatic theater piece (definitely should be some audience interaction there since it is "high" theatre) he should be chastised most roundly. Ah well, as I said I never use one anymore and thus new songs sometimes sit around until they are firmly entrenched in the memory with no chance of skipping a verse (some of those 20 verse English and Celtic Ballads are a challenge though!). I've seen some great performers lose lines of a song and I wouldn't have minded if they had had their music there as a backup. Just my 2p.

Kudzuman