Your experience, Cap'n B, sounds like mine - except it was 1965 when I started. I can't remember anyone ever bringing along music to a club on those days. We simply practised and practised until we got it as right as we could. (Monty Python:" If you told the young people of today, they wouldn't believe you...").

At a club I used to go down here in Sussex - until recently - almost every single performer plonked their music down on a music stand. Now, I don't mind a bit of that, and I do appreciate that people have to learn - and I also occasionally stumble over a word here and there - but it's as far removed from the folk clubs I remember as it's possible to be. I got so fed up with it, I just stopped going there. The whole evening just seemed so lifeless, only generating any interest when someone got up and performed from their heart.