Kevin - that is completely brilliant. I hope you don't mind, I've just copied that & shared it on Fb (with attribution, of course; if you do mind, too late! Bwuhahaha!! ;-) ).

As for the general experience, I'm not a proper folkie, I'm a lapsed re-enactor. My music-making was almost always background noise; people enjoyed it being there, but they either didn't know enough to know whether I was screwing up, or couldn't hear it well enough ditto! The times I felt nervous was if a hush fell over a revel (as it sometimes does) and suddenly your thinking "Sh**! Now everyone can hear me..." :o Or occasionally when I filked something and had to sing it - I could feel the nervous vibrato that no-one else, apparently, could hear...

However, the really comparable thing I have done is storytelling. "Once upon a time, and it wasn't your time, and it wasn't my time, but it was somebody's time..." Out loud, in front of an audience (I am only here at Mudcat in the first place because of meeting Tig at Festival At The Edge!). I not only did the full on "hesitate" in the first story I ever told (at a medieval revel again), I also went (slightly sotto voce) "Bugger!" as I realised I'd, errrr, temporarily mislaid what came next! Sudden deep breath, perspira... I mean, inspiration returned & on I went. (No! Not on & on & on! Honestly, some people... :p )

Afterward I mentioned this to a couple of people. Perhaps they were just being polite (though I don't think they were), but both said "I didn't even notice". And one of them sent me details (because I said "If you hear of something like this...") of the first week long Course At The Edge. And then I met Tig at the Festival at the end of week. And etcetera.

*ahem*

If you don't enjoy it, don't do it. If you do enjoy, do it. The hell with what anyone thinks! You will always be your own biggest critic, because you know exactly what you thought you were trying to get across. The audience is just listening & enjoying. And, in my very limited experience of folkies, they do what storytelling crowds do - it doesn't matter if you are crap. You're willing to stand up & try to entertain others. They'll applaud you simply for having the cojones to do that. Very many others can't face trying it...