'Joy Perrin finds her niche playing for senior citizens '
Marin Independent Journal
Carla Bova, Feb. 18. 2007
Guitarist and singer Joy Perrin tours on a regular circuit.
Perrin's devoted audiences do not jump and jive or body slam in a mosh pit, but when she performs there is no denying the action.
Her groupies toe tap in their seats, shimmy in their wheelchairs, or clap from their hospital beds. Almost everyone sings along.
"I like to engage seniors," says Perrin of Muir Beach. "Senior citizens don't necessarily want to be soothed, as some people presume.
They want to be interested. They want to be captivated. They want something that is going to perk them up and make them say,
" I haven't heard that song in 50 years. Oh, I want to sing along. Oh! You make me feel so good!"
The old favorites Perrin plays evoke memories for seniors in retirement communities and adult day programs and spread cheer to recovering hospital patients
"I'm a therapeutic musician in addition to being a concert and party entertainer.", maintains Perrin. With her Strolling Minstrel Therapeutic Room Visits program,
her musical room visits cheer patients, help people with dementia light up, and captivate the developmentally disabled.
"I go to their rooms, ask them if they would like some music of their choice, and I try to engage them and lift their spirits. I document responses (anonymously),
showing they have had a meaningful activity that day," Perrin says. "I have had people who haven't spoken for years perk up and they actually start singing with me,
to the utter amazement of their caregivers."
A full-time professional musician for more than three decades, Perrin, 55, has racked up a long and varied playlist that spans from the 1920s through the 1970s
in genres from swing, jazz, blues and folk to country, rock, gospel and children's tunes (for kids parties). Her extensive songlist makes Perrin popular entertainment
for private parties, birthdays, weddings, corporate events, and fund-raisers. She loves partnering with activity directors on 'themes', selecting songs to create a
Hawaiian luau, a Western hoedown, Good Old Summertime, a 'senior prom', as well as presenting special shows for all major holidays. "Because of my experienceof 30 years,
being in so many different kinds of bands and playing so many different kinds of music, I have got a humongous repertoire with very broad appeal," Perrin
says. "I usually have something for everybody. I am kind of a musical chameleon."
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