Getting Out From Behind the Keyboard

These days I'm stepping out. I've been doing a little comedy for some time now during my shows and I usually take the wireless mike and walk around the room. It gives me a chance to chit chat with the people, and it's a nice break from the music. Now I'm getting a little more mobile with some of the music as well. I recently acquired a new piece of equipment, a Ketron Midjay. It's an incredible little box that weighs a whopping 7 & 1/2 pounds. It's the guts of a full arranger keyboard as well as a MIDI file, MP3, and WAV file player. It has a 20 gig hard drive so it can hold a whole lot of stuff. I'm loading it with some really great back up tracks so I can go out into the audience while singing. This adds a whole new dimension to my already fun filled shows. I've been getting some great feedback as a result of this. I'm always looking for ways to improve, and this new toy has really added a lot.

A Normal Life

I'm writing this at 7:30 on a Saturday evening after having returned from the movies with one of my sons. This is an amazing thing for a professional musician/entertainer to do. During most of the past 40 years I never would have been able to do this. I'd be scrambling around running from one job to the next. The difference lies in what I'm doing now. The majority of my performing schedule is in retirement communities and most of their events are during the week in the middle of the day. As a result, very often I have some free time on the weekends. It's a new way of life for me. For so many years I worked a very late Saturday night only to get up at 6:30 on Sunday morning for a busy day at church usually followed by at least one private party. While I do have a job tomorrow afternoon, it's a one hour show that will leave me exhilarated rather than exhausted.

This has brought a balance to my life that I've never known before. I'm doing more dates than ever, but they are for shorter lengths of time and they are scheduled more evenly throughout the week. The crunch day now seems to be Wednesdays. I usually have a triple. But I can sleep in a little on Thursday so it evens out. I'm going to settle in for the evening, read a good book, and then get a good night's sleep. And to think I'm a musician.