After traveling up and down the east and southern Gulf coasts of the USA, and trying to catch every arranger keyboard player act I could find, I saw ever kind of cheater you can imagine, including one on the Jersey coast that was playing the music from a digital recorder/player, while at the same time, having some good look gals and a guy in front of him singing. Really sounded good, but than I saw that his arranger keyboard wasn't even plugged into the wall outlet. The keyboard's power cord was neatly coiled and suspended on a velcro strip attached to the stand leg, but not completely hidden from the audience. Fortunately, his singers were top notch and the ladies were very attractive, so no one seemed to notice that his fingers were falling on dead keys.

In Florida, there seems to be a zillion have guitar will travel entertainers, some of which are very, very good, while others relied heavily in those prerecorded backing tracks. I saw one guy strumming and picking his heart out using a solid body guitar, but the guitar pickup was not connected to anything. Again, this guy had a great voice, he was quite handsome, very well dressed in country attire and the ladies loved him.

When I was enjoying my time living aboard my sailboat in the Florida Keys, and packing my usual setup, I had all the work I could possibly handle. I sincerely believe there were a few good reasons behind this, while the guitar guys were working one or two jobs a week. I provided something they could not with a guitar and 100-watt amp next to them, and maybe some backing tracks. I provided the audience with variety from all genres, country, country rock, Jimmy Buffett (Can't go wrong with Jimmy in the south), some smooth jazz, oldies rock and roll, waltzes, polkas, etc... If some handed me a note with a song request, it was rare that I could not perform it. One of the lines I often used when introducing myself at the beginning of the performance was "If you have a special song that you want me to perform for you, just write it on the back of a $20 dollar bill and I'll be more than happy to take care of it." I never expected that to happen, but by golly, it did on several occasions.

I hated to leave the Florida Keys and sail back to Maryland, but my loving wife of 60 years threatened me with divorce of worse if I wasn't home by the end of March, 2013. On March, I tied the boat to the dock in Perryville, Maryland, she was there to greet me along with some friends and in the freezing cold, we sipped on a glass of champapgne. During the more than 30 plus years I was an arranger keyboard entertainer, I think I may have used backing tracks a half-dozen times, however, I always played along with them and this was songs that I was just not comfortable playing while singing.

Good luck,

Gary