One of the things I try to do every few years is to take a month off from work (I play music full time.), and drive around the nation to meet up with fellow musician/OMB entertainers. In doing this I've learned a lot, and I've met some wonderful people. If you can swing it, I would suggest doing the same. Visiting your fellow zoners, watching them wow their audiences, taking notes on how they sound, their gear setups, and taking a serious look at musical employment opportunities in each location you visit. There has always been hotspots for music jobs. Among them, at least in my findings, are the mid-Atlantic region (MD, DE, VA, NJ), the mid west (KY, OH, IN, IL) and the New England area (CT, RI, MA, ME).

Most of the places I checked out in the south, FL, TX, LA, MS, GA, SC, NC, paid little or nothing for the nursing home performers. The retirement communities were not much higher in pay scale, both averaging $50 to $75 for a 1-hour performance, or about half what you can get in the better locations. There were a fair number of retirement communities, some of them very upscale, gated communities where they had full-time ADs working. Most had weekly happy hours, some had their own pub/nite-club, while others had large banquet halls for their larger, monthly parties. It would take a bit of legwork to get established in these areas, but in the end I sincerely believe you could make a decent living.

Nite-clubs, upscale restaurants, American Legions, VFWs, animal clubs--they all paid about the same, regardless of the area. Average was $150 to $250 for a four-hour performance. And, if you had a bad night because of nasty weather, the management would pretty much blame the entertainer. Yep, it's your fault if a blizzard hits and no one shows up to get plastered at the local bar. Go figure!

Good Luck in your quest,

Gary