G-Force: I don't agree with the oft-quoted excuse that if you're over 60 - or even over 50, you can't remember stuff. I think it has less to do with age than the fact that your head is like a shed which, over time, gets filled with so much junk that you can never find anything. I think the malaise is being mis-diagnosed; I think the real problem is the present poularity of regular singarounds. People go along every week and expect to get two or three songs. As you say, you don't want to be accused of not learning new stuff, so you end up trying to sing stuff you haven't properly learned. In the 'bad old days' (according to some), when clubs had a semi pro - or even full time resident group, there were fewer floor singers. People went to be entertained and join in with choroses, and so didn't expect - or want - to get a floor spot every week. So they had time to learn their songs properly. You never saw crib sheets in those days. Singarounds were things you got at festivals, which was fine, as there weould be people from all over the country who you'd never otherwise see, getting probably one song each, and this at an annual, not weekly event. But on a regular basis? - forget it.
By the way, I'm 69, and inclined to sing ballads, and long songs with a narrative, which I find easier to learn and remember than short non-narrative songs. I'm not immune to getting the words muddled, but I think people in folk clubs can overloook such lapses if you draw them into the songs, which you're not going to do if you are getting the words off a crib sheet.
John Kelly.