"I still am not convinced that anybody can interpret and enjoy the songs while they are being read from a page, either singer or audience."

I've heard *fabulous* personal renditions of songs, given whilst a prompt has been within eyesight of the singer. And I've heard poorly sung songs from out of a folder too. As a listener, I simply cannot come down either way on prompts by others, because I really think that the quality of performance is entirely down to the ability of the singer - prompt or no prompt.

For myself however - I asked here and elewhere for advice on singing traditional songs before I went out to clubs. The advice I received emphasised the importance of setting a song to memory, so that it beds into you and you become intimately familiar with ever one of it's nooks and crannies.
Personally, I've found heeding that advice has been most worthwhile.

Although I started learning last year by memorising, initially I'd still keep my prompt just casually within sight (only resorting to a glance if hitting a blank), but because I determined from get go to memorise my rep. I now comfortably go out to sing without any prompt. I lost my words on one song the other night (and so missed a turn as I completely blanked and couldn't even improvise the verse), but I've found that odd moments like that become rarer, the less you are willing to allow yourself to resort to the security of printed words. And importantly I've found the *real* security comes in feeling safe to mess up ocassionally and be 'imperfect' amongst friends. Even better is to learn to recover through fast thinking and improvising a fitting alternative to the words you've memorised (arguably exactly the way traditional singers might have done, all the time?).

But to return to Jim's point, while I can't speak concerning issues of interpretation with words as a *listener*. I will say that learning to swim without armbands feels very freeing, and so too does walking without crutches, and likewise singing without word-sheets. The *experiential* difference between KNOWING a song through and through and being dependent on a support in order to sing it, feels a pretty substantial one to me. I'm glad I started out by determining to memorise my words, it's been well worth it so far. And now that I'm venturing forth into the 'muckle sangs' (longer narrative ballads), I know it can only get better..