Please help solve and explain this question, it's pretty tricky.

Question

Nick, Ryan, Simon and James from the band Dandelion sang a few songs at their first concert.
Always three of them were singing, and one was playing the guitar in accompaniment. James
sang the most songs of all of them – 8. Ryan sang 5 songs, which was fewer than anyone else
from the group. How many songs did Dandelion sing at their first concert?
(A) 8 (B) 9 (C) 10 (D) 13 (E) 26

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I find it hard to believe that in the several days you have been posting this question, you have made no headway on its solution...

James: 8
Ryan: 5
We have to assume that Simon and Nick each sang 6 or 7 songs. So, start playing around with the playlists.

I get
JRN: 2
JNS: 4
JRS: 2
RNS: 1

Nick & Simon both sang 7.
Total songs: 9

Answer 2

Sorry about that, nobody gave me a really good solution, until now! Thank you very much Steve