Diane,

Your question mirrors the discussion that has been happening on the League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling discussion list. How to present storytelling to people who know nothing about storytelling but think they don't like it?

Since you are also a singer, two story formats occur to me that may be useful to you.

One is the song introduction. I can imagine a twelve minute traditional story being used to introduce a three minute song.

The other is cantifable: a story with musical accompaniment that occasionally breaks into a song chorus. As examples, I think of Gordon Bok's "Peter Kagan and the Wind", and a story recorded by the Boys of the Lough about trying to get a baby to go to sleep.