I seldom manage to do a set without some blabbering -- I once tried to do without any, and got five songs into the set before saying anything much about the songs, and people seemed relieved that I finally started talking. Usually, I can't stop talking, and my train of thought has many branch lines, some short runs, others long hauls, but all connected -- I've been known to interrupt one aside with another, then another, sort of like the news from Lake Wobegon, without the wit. Usually, though, someone hijacks my train and makes me come back to the subject.

I do have a few lines about tuning ("I've got it surrounded!" and "Tune it or die -- trying!") and usually say something appropriate about the song I'm about to do, hopefully without too many side-tracks for that train I mentioned. Part of it depends on the situation, the stage, as it were. Some stages are a-joke-a-minute stages, others are nearly scholarly convention-type stages, where the introductions even have their own footnotes.

The good performer knows which stage he or she is on, and the bad 'uns don't.

Bob Clayton
(once called 'the silent Bob Clayton' though the Lord knows why)