How to fill the empty spaces between songs?

Good morning, everyone.

Over the weekend, I had my first live show. It was a small turnout, but fun nonetheless.
One thing I struggled with, that I didn’t realize until the night of my show, is banter. I was told by another musician to just play the beginning of the next song(good advice), and just talk slowly and share what the next song means to you. The problem with that is that being so new to the music scene, most of my songs are covers with a few originals sprinkled in.
What I didn’t other night was thank the audience, then either go straight into the next song without saying anything or just start mindlessly rambling with things like “we’re just gonna jump right into this next one.”
PLEASE help me figure out better ways to engage the audience when I’m not playing and singing. Thank you in advance!

Sincerely,

A performer, NOT a public speaker