It isn't really karaoke until after the fifth beer... unless you're at a sushi bar, in which case the seventh round of saki may be substituted.

I'll second (or more accurately, third or fourth) the "just do what makes you comfortable" angle. In my ever so failing to be humble opinion, totally live music is preferrable to canned, but canned is still better than watching someone fidget and drop notes because they need SOME sort of backup.

Not folk, but one of the great 'acoustic guitar' performances I've seen is David Byrne's "Psycho Killer" from "Stop Making Sense", played alone on an empty stage, with only a boombox playing a percussion track to back him up.

M