REDEMPTION!!!

Yep.......REDEMPTION!!!....in bigger letters this time!

In this case it's not the title of a Sergio Leone spaghetti western. It's my own personal reality show!

About six months ago, I wrote I've "had it" with the current crop of AD's at nursing facilities, the "synthetic" musicians playing them, getting fired from a 13 year account by some greenhorn AD, and everything in-between and that I was giving up playing music in general.

Well, I had two accounts ("special care" and "assisted living") in that one location where the hot shot 24 year old AD came onto the scene in "assisted living" and decided to transform the acts into something more hip and contemporary and he fired all the regular performers. So every month when I went to play for the AD in "special care" I would pass the "new" acts at the same time in the lobby of "assisted living."

I saw a young lady who was beautiful enough to be a movie actress starlet dressed in a brand new Santa outfit, a smile that stretched across the room, brand new laptop, brand new Bose L system speakers, stands, mixer, R&R cart, ....everything brand new...and singing Karaoke from the songs in her laptop. Looked good....sounded awful. She didn't know the first thing about singing or talking to an audience! She was just an....."empty shell!" (and that was a quote from one of the staff members....not me!)

But the one that really got me was the gent who I saw 2x times. Both appearances I heard the same 2 songs: One Love (Bob Marley) and Hot, Hot, Hot (Buster Poindexter), each song being "milked" for 5-10 minutes. The staff loved him....the audience was scratching their heads trying to figure him out.

Anyway, to cut to the point, the AD I was still working for advised me the "artificial" AD was being "let go" and to speak to the incoming AD about getting my account back because my former audience wanted to know when I was returning to play for them?

As you guessed, I got "re-hired" ....and with a bonus. They put my monthly gigs back to back...one just before lunch and one just after lunch. Now I don't have to drive there twice like before.

The only downside of the whole affair was that the damage has already been done. I'm now realizing that musicianship doesn't trump "politics" anymore. It really IS not about "what you know, but WHO you know!" And......I can see this is a world fast being taken over and run by "kids" in all areas. And.....the acceptance of mediocrity has never been more evident and more prevalent than what it's become these days!

Mark