I don't think singing in church has anything to do with why more and more people in the US - or the UK for that matter - are using folders of songs when doing floor spots at clubs.

I personally think it's an urge for the spotlight coupled with the idea that anyone can do it: just take a parcel of songs, pick one at random and - hey presto! - you're an instant performer. The motive, in my view, is not to entertain an audience but to get attention. Now, I'm sure many of us started off wanting the limelight - I know I did - but in my day (the 1960s), you earned it by hard work and application. And the audience mattered.

It amuses me that people should think performing to an audience in the folk world takes little or no effort when, in any other field of activity it just isn't so. I used to enjoy playing tennis as a teenager - but I was bloody useless at it and wouldn't have dreamed of entering for a tournament just because I owned a tennis racquet.

My advice to singers who use a prop at folk clubs is this: You more or less know you're going to do a floor spot. You know you'll get probably two - three at most - numbers to perform. Why, for feck's sake, can't you take the trouble to learn your two songs properly before you insist on getting up and performing? Then, when you've learned your two songs and done them to everyone's satisfaction, learn two more - and don't come back to perform at the same place until you've done so. You might well perform at less frequent intervals, but you'll come across better when you do.

I don't include singarounds or sessions in my little encomium - let people do as they will in those arenas - but doing your stuff well in front of an audience (probably paying) needs a bit of work. And the irony is that it's so much more satisfying and rewarding for the performer when the work has been put in.