I finally read this interesting thread. It reminded me of my first performing. When I first began singing and playing on the mountain dulcimer, David asked me to get up and play with him at an Ark performance of his. I was in my middle twenties and I was then unable to get up and do that and poor David was left playing accompaniment to what he thought was going to be a hot dulcimer tune. Of course, anything he did was superb. So I missed out on a terrific debut duet. It probably would have launched my career as a folk singer!

The next time I actually got on stage was at a coffeehouse in Nortwest Detroit at a performance by my good friend Eric Glatz. I played two songs and the entire first three rows was young autistic children and adolescents from a local institution. I still remember the raucous hand movements the kids made while I played. They were a forgiving audience. I was terrible.

My easiest years of performing were then in Arkansas where I moved to immerse myself in mountain music. Stage fright evaporated under the dogwood trees in the Ozarks. I played everywhere with little self-consciousness. I wonder why. I've never regained that feeling of ease in performing and have done less and less as the years roll by. I think it was because that was what I wanted to do, I was young, and cared less about what people thought than about what I WANTED TO DO.
I wanted to sing old songs.

Nowadays, I feel like I did when I was at that coffeehouse in Detroit. At any rate, I think it is essential that young people get up and do their best. I hail them and even though most of what I hear by singer/songwriters at any age doesn't appeal to me, when the song is universal in theme and it is performed on key that is good enough for me. We all have to find our path in life.