One can give an intro without giving a lecture. I try to do a mix--songs that require no explanation and maybe a few (a few, mind you) that need a quick introduction for context, but it depends on the audience. Casual audiences don't care; other musicians very often will find it interesting. When we play at living history events we give intros to nearly everything because that's the point of a living history event: An attempt to educate the public. Generally, though, I know a lot more about what I'm playing than I tell the audience, unless someone asks for more information.

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How do I honor tradition? Well, for one thing, I didn't convert to Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails when I was in high school.

I'm actually a little perplexed by the question. It's not that I haven't thought about it, but I'm not sure that "honoring the tradition" is separable from doing what most of us do anyway in learning/living the music and finding the balance between older traditions and keeping it alive. If you change it too much, it becomes something else (which can be a good thing or we'd have many fewer forms of music, but it's still different). If you keep a death grip on tradition, it gets stale and you drive away people who would otherwise participate in its evolution.

When I play the fiddle, it's a little bit Bill Hicks, a little bit Dwight Lamb, a little bit Nate Kemperman, and a little bit me. I learned a lot listening to them and I want to play like them, but not just like them. Imitation is what recordings are for.