I admit to having fallen into this syndrome.

At the that time, though, I was falling apart physically. In order to stay closer to home, because my wife was also deteriorating, I took advantages of offers to play on steamboats on the Mississippi River every other day -- five months a year. That dovetailed nicely with school shows I did during the winter months. Also, I was doing festivals and concerts and some touring when it fit my schedule. But I was able to check in at home often too. It was impoortant.

In many of these situations, I had DIFFERENT AUDIENCES every time I played my songs. That made all the difference!! The river gigs had to be tight to hold the attention of retired folks with no real interest in "folk songs". The school performances were for pre-schoolers and older kids in the same audience--while also trying to satisfy teachers and principals varrying agendas and expectations.

To do this tightrope walk, I fell into repeating too much "that worked"! Still, I rarely planned shows and did strive for off-the-cuff freshness in my shows. I always strove to relate recent events to the old songs from history I loved so much---just to show modern people we were all in the same boat, and, as Utah Phillips says, "The past didn't go anywhere!"

So now, to the consternation of some of you, I repeat myself too often here in this forum. ;-)

Art Thieme