To each song, respect... even in the sessions in pubs where the folk session is once a month and therefore the audience is half locals who expect to be able to chat in their own pub, a single voice commands attention. It occurs so often, and when the instruments return, so does the conversation- we are trained these days to go shopping against music-noise. I agree with the contributions that suggest the difficulty of accompanying many songs- too often the accompaniement forces a quantisation, takes away the connection. Imagine a conversation or oration which was regular pulses for 3 minutes...