Faye: "I didn't know that I was going to kick up such a storm."

I wasn't even specifically thinking of your thread Faye, though it was another which I recall. When I first landed at Mudcat there was an ongoing discussion about these Bog Beasties that ran and ran! Check Folk Club Manners if you're interested.

"One last comment from me- there is a difference between people who get up to sing and are not very good but try their best and those who can't be bothered."

Well, that seems to be a point of contention, as to whether anyone is actually so lacking in interest as not to learn their words. But my own query and puzzlement, was based on the assumption that there are these people out there, who actually want to perform but are seemingly not all that into singing the songs for themselves.

See only recently I discovered this whole secret hourd of little sparkling worlds. At first they look a bit dusty and antiquated, but give them a little love and attention and they slowly open up for you and let you inside. It's a bit like staring at some faded sepia photo that you've found in an old leather trunk in Grannies loft, and then something magical happens and the image comes to life. And there are these living figures fulfilling their microscopic destinies. But more than that, you find yourself slowly pulled into this little world, which is both of the past and yet timeless, but very much alive. I'm still stuck in the loft sifting through this enchanted trunk of old photos. Don't think I'll be down for supper til way past pumkin midnight...

Right now I don't have a burning ambition to become a performer in any formal capacity, be that as a 'floor singer', a 'guest', or whatever other assignations there are in folk clubs! I'm enjoying learning the songs for their own sake. Maybe the desire to step it up a level will come in time. I dunno, but while I do understand singing for it's own sake, I sure don't understand why someone might want to perform seemingly for its own sake. But especially when you know you're inevitably going to give a poor performance. Which does an injustice not only to the audience and to yourself, but to the song.

And that's the last I'll be saying on this matter too! Because I too seem to have generated some irritation.
In innocence I hasten to add. And indeed, as is becoming more apparant, in ignorance of the full range of issues which I may be clumsily stumbling over.