Les, something that helped me.

You learn a song two ways:

1) muscle memory

2) thinking memory

Use both. Practice over and over and over until you can just let yourself go and your fingers seem to automatically go to the right place. Also memorize different starting places by thinking about what notes to play...be able to name them.

Have you ever lost your place and had to go back to the beginning to get back on track? If you practice the second type of memory, thinking memory, you can start anywhere. Jitters seem to go away when you are "over prepared."