Backwoodsman, I'm with you. When I first saw the thread title, I wondered how long it would take for some folk purist to step up and assert that songs must be memorized. It came on the third message.

The alternative, I guess, is for us to satisfy the purists and sing the same ten songs all our lives.

I think rather than having to follow a bunch of rules, the best thing to do is to do the best you can to present a song to the people hearing it. I notice that Lomax and Sharp and others collected songs from people who were not always the best singers, and who did not always remember lyrics perfectly. But these singers sang the songs the best they could - and carried on the tradition so we have it now.

O you mighty purists, don't condemn other singers for what you see as their shortcomings - listen to them, even if they aren't as good as you think you are.

-Joe-