Donny,

When I was working in nursing homes I used backing tracks and played guitar over them. I used Band in a Box as the basis for the tracks but I also used EZ Drummer and some other things and blended it all in Cubase. The advantage is you can make the tracks just how you want them. The disadvantage is the time involved to get a large enough catalog of songs. I would think a compromise of an arranger with occasional backing tracks for special songs would be the way to go.