woody, I've been thinking about your letter and what I'm gonna say will conflict with a few people here, but I've played the guitar and taught guitar a long time so I think my opinions are as valid as anybody's.

first off you seem quite desperate to perform - at least you did in your first letter, so you've got to prioritise. I think to turn in a decent performance has to be one thing in your life, and your guitar studies is another. Sure we would all like to play like Doc Watson, but it ain't gonna happen in five minutes or even three months.

there is nothing quite as bad as listening to someone doing the same repetitive fingerpicking pattern to a song - particularly a long song . there is no other way with fingerpicking - you have to put the hours in - I do now, after over forty years playing - most of that time as a professional.

so for your performances you need a simple technique

first off make sure you've got the two and three chord trick off. that is you move naturally without hesitation and you hear the chord change without having to 'know' when it comes

second don't choose songs with lots of chords you can hardly do

experiment with different sounds til you find something you like - different guitars, different strums, different plectrums, using different parts of the hand, later on different tunings, putting effects like phase and chorus on a guitar. these are all things you can do without putting the man hours into practise

many guitarists find they don't need any more than this - I never see Paul Weller for example doing much more than this, but what he does sounds right
wishing you all the best