Tom

I'm doing 150 singarounds a year; yes only 3 songs per night so one song of a repetiore of 40 doesn't get aired as often as one from a Guesting performer.

However I do say something original for every song for every performance. If I did frequent bookings I would still try to convey the song information naturally, and not in a scripted fashion.

When I'm doing a set or do the odd booking, I don't even plan a running order of songs, and may stray outside the selection if it seems right.

I remember playing at 'Raise Your Banners' one year and towards the end of a current song thinking "Would the audience like 'song x' or "song y' next?"

As several people have said, much of it is Horses for Courses. By experienced singers, guesting and non guesting, informing relative beginners how they present songs, etc.; then aspiring beginners can see that lots of approaches work - and make a choice which might suite their personality and prospective audiences.

Ian Fyvie