As a ballad singer, you are also a story teller

As both a ballad singer and a storyteller I see no relationship between ballad singing and storytelling ...

Sorry if I trod on any toes there. I simply meant that ballads are generally stories, in the sense of setting a scene, describing events which leading to consequences and some sort of conclusion; and I see it is the ballad singer's role to get that across. I take your point about histrionics though and it is certainly true that the vast majority of the VOTP recordings - for example - are very much a straight presentation with little in the way of theatrical embellishments.    (I can't say all without listening to them again, but the ones that aren't must be a tiny percentage)