Eddie, we are way different, and there is nothing wrong with that.

When we started on the cruise ships, we had our own lounge, 6 nights a week, and one additional afternoon set.

We saw the kind of music that was lacking on the ship and leaned that.

We were supposed to play strict hours, and by the second week we noticed a pattern so we talked it over with the cruise director. We started playing long, no-break sets on the nights when we had traffic, and on nights like the passenger talent show when no one was on deck we sat in the promenade and drank coffee.

The result was we started breaking all-time revenue records for that lounge. The brass in Miami looks at bar receipts figuring where the people are spending their money is where the best entertainment was.

The reward was 3 years of work on a 3 week contract with paid vacations and a passenger sized room with a porthole.

We still often play 3-4 hours with no break. I'd rather talk to the audience from behind the mic than go table to table during breaks anyway. Before and after the show we do visiting time with our extended family of friends.

We play songs we know they like, tell jokes, have running gags, and generally just make a party atmosphere.

We have been invited to parties on one guy's yacht, a couple from Montreal told us if we ever visit Quebec again their house is our house, we get hugs, kisses, and a lot of love from our audience. We like that.

While performing we get applause every 4-5 minutes, we see smiling faces beaming at us, we see dancers on the floor having a great time, and we get people bringing new faces and asking us to play particular songs for them. It's a party, and we are the life of the party.

I've never had stage fright and don't get nervous. Perhaps because I started at a young age. I look forward to each gig. Instead of saying I have to go to work today, I say that I GET to go to work today!!!

My first paying gig was in Junior High School. I was in the school band and after school I was in a rock band. We were terrible, but back then everybody was. We got our first gig playing for a school dance. There I was on the stage with my best friends in the world, playing the music we worked so hard to cover, and to my surprise, that cute girl who wouldn't acknowledge my existence in English class was looking up and "making eyes" at me. And at the end of the night they paid me for that experience! That's when I decided that this is what i want to do for the rest of my life.

There is more than one right way to live one's life, and this is my way. I'm following my bliss.

And VideoTrack, you are correct. I see no reason to give this up. I'm having a good life.

I'm concerned about live music when we all get back to work, but I'll take things as they come. Right now in isolation we are working on 2 new style e-discs, 3 new fake e-disks and revising an old fake e-disk with newer styles.

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks