Glad you made it back, MAB. I can imagine how tired you are, so thanks for the response. I did read the entire previous post - I just must have missed someting.
Justin - I agree about the long songs. People just get fidgety. Maybe not so much in Texas becuase they are used to the longer songs? But here in Jersey at least...you are mostly dealing with people who have the attention span of a gnat. It's just fast paced around here (one of the reasons I'd really like to retire elsewhere!) But anyway, people get fidgety and they will stop listening and if every song that you do is like that, they will come to expect that from you, and next time they see you perform they'll tune you out the second you start singing. Just my opinion. Have you tried taking any of your long songs and shortening them a bit? Or, maybe you just need to speed up your tempo a bit. Maybe you're singing them too slow?