Ron’s Story:
Ron, a consummate entertainer with a talent for country and gospel songs, knew he had a voice at a young age. “But I was so shy I would get someone else to read my book reports in school,” he says today.
Growing up in Florida, Ron remembers that God and music were his friends. Although he never had any formal training, at age fourteen he started playing guitar and memorizing signature songs of the classic country artists. Following his service in the U.S. Navy, Ron put together Southern Comfort Band. In addition to working a regular 40-hour a week job, he and his band played state fairs in New England and all the military bases, including the United States Coast Guard Academy. As a young adult, Ron had ventured to Alaska to help build the famous pipe line. There he encountered Merle Haggard in concert. His life’s ambition jelled. He dreamed of record contracts in Nashville and tours on America’s stages. However, life rerouted his dreams.
In 1985, he and wife Connie moved to Nashville. Ron hoped to land a record contract. For a couple of years, he coached Randy Travis—before he became country music icon Randy Travis—on some of his monster hits.
“Back in Connecticut, Connie’s mother had a stroke,” Ron says. “As tough as it is to get signed to a record label, I said, ‘I can always come back.’ We returned to Connecticut and took care of her for nine years. Connie worked days; I worked nights.”
After Connie’s mother died, the couple returned to Nashville. However, record executives said, “Well, Ron, you’re over 25 now….” No one signed him.
For eleven years, Ron and Connie lived in Lebanon, Tennessee, down-the-road-from Nashville. Connie worked at Cracker Barrel Corporation, and Ron kept on writing songs, recording his own CDs, and working a regular job.
In Lebanon, the Shepards bought their first new home. Someone gave Ron the idea to remodel their house, sell it, and keep the capital gains. In a light bulb moment, he said, “That’s how a poor man can get rich!”
In 1999, they moved to Fort St. Lucie, Florida, and Ron continued buying and selling houses, putting in ten-hour workdays on remodels. Yet, he kept pace recording albums.
In the past 26 years, Ron and Connie bought, remodeled, and sold five houses. They had ended up in North Carolina to help a friend build a recording studio. The studio failed and Ron started tooling his musical dreams for an RVing lifestyle. For two years while waiting for their last house to sell, he traveled to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and performed at campgrounds. “Entertaining the RVing crowd is fun,” he says. “I’m blessed with a voice and a wide range, singing Waylon Jennings, and then switching to Vince Gill, and everything in between. My music appeals to many tastes.”
When their house sold, the Shepards paid cash for a new 38-foot Winnebago motorhome and headed for Florida, where they had already established a domicile. In route, Ron called ahead to campgrounds and offered an evening of entertainment with the opportunity to sell his CDs in exchange for an overnight’s stay. Usually within two hours of his contact, an owner calls back asking when he can be there.
Ron notes that Florida alone has over 1,000 campgrounds, not including the 55-plus gated communities. Their first year as full-timers, Ron performed at KOA’s largest campground. The manager there sent him to KOA Naples/Marco Island. He played one night a week in exchange for their site. On the other nights, he was free to sing at other venues. The KOA management contracted Ron to perform again from November 2011 through March 2012. He also has bookings with a 55-plus community in Florida.
After their first winter in Florida, Ron accepted a contract with Compton Ridge Campground in Branson, Missouri, to play one evening a week in exchange for his site. He also played at an indoor mall on Highway 76 in Branson. Traveling from Florida to Missouri, the Shepards paid for only one night’s camping.
Ron is getting his foot in the door with East Coast Entertainment, a company that handles many record label groups. He hopes to do corporate parties and family reunions. “Those jobs pay well, plus, they offer accommodations at the hotel,” he adds. “I might have to drive a couple of hours to a gig, and perhaps only get one a month, but that would help with my income.”
Ron’s Tips:

1. Record numerous CDs to sell. Workampers in entertainment could not do this with only one CD.
2. The key to this chosen work is variety and the ability to entertain audiences.
3. Establish a business. Ron’s is Shepco Music. He maintains a web site, www.cdbaby.com, where campground and resort owners can click on a sampling of his music.
4. Be persistent. Remember Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner’s Daughter? Seek contacts and connections.
5. Ron takes his own photos and creates his labels for CDs. He duplicates photos at Staples. He owns a tower that duplicates seven CDs at a time, and invested in a $1200 printer to make more professional labels.
6. He notes that a mechanical license to sell his CDs through both ASCAP and BMI is necessary. “BMI holds copyrights to the older songs with artists such as George Jones, Hank Williams, and Ray Price,” he explains. “ASCAP holds rights to music by Allan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Brad Paisley, and other younger singers. However, the performance premises must also have licenses. A limitation to performances if a campground owner does not want to invest in both.”
7. Two sound systems are helpful; one to leave on premise of a weekly gig, the other to carry to different venues.

Jerry and Sharon’s Story:
Jerry and Sharon Mays share a similar path with Ron—giving up good jobs with benefits to take their music on the road. Sharon grew up in an artsy, noisy, musical family. In the 1960s, she says young men ran through their house regularly, jamming with her dad, a guitarist for Narvel Felts. Years later, Sharon discovered those men were Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Harold Jenkins, aka Conway Twitty.
In an opposite background, but with the same hard work and God-fearing beliefs, Jerry grew up on a farm. “Jerry didn’t know he could sing until he met me when he was 18; I was 16,” Sharon says. “After we married, we were full-time-part-time musicians, trying to hold down jobs and sing on vacations and weekends. We honed our skills singing a cappello, working hard on our harmonies.
“But we wanted to do more. About a year ago, we felt God urging us, ‘…go full-time now. I’ll make a way.’ We were used to the security of a paycheck, insurance, nice vacations, a new car, and shopping. A lot of that went by the wayside. Gospel singers don’t get rich!”
Based in Branson, Missouri, as “The Heart and Soul of Branson,” the couple put together a variety act with oldies, do-wop, gospel, and some of their original songs. They host their own weekly radio-Internet program called The Gospel Groove with Heart to Heart, perform often on Branson Live Radio with Karen Berka, and frequent the stage at The Night Light Beacon of Branson. “Voices of Glory,” a vocal group recognized in the top five on America’s Got Talent, recorded the Mays’ song, “Father Who Cares” in an album that went to number one nationwide. Summer of 2010, Jerry and Sharon opened for the Kentucky Head Hunters. “Hardly any gospel groups open for Kentucky Head Hunters,” Sharon says. “But they took off their hats and listened. Afterward they said, ‘We needed to hear that music.’”
“We entered songs in a national song-writing contest for DayWind Records, and in 2010, one of those songs won at the National Gospel Association,” Jerry says. “We’re also co-writing with other writers around the country. A couple of our songs are under consideration for movies. “Second Chances,” is about the Chilean mine disaster, and we presented it to Brad Pitt’s management team, now working on legalities for a movie. We hope we don’t end up on the cutting room floor!”
Wanna-be RVers, the Mays bought an older coach and took their act to the Rio Grande Valley in January and February 2011. They discovered Showcase in the Valley where all the activity directors of resorts go to look for talent. “We had nine minutes to present our act and show our variety to an audience of about 700 people,” Sharon says.
“The director of Sunshine Resort, the largest in the Valley, said, ‘I’m booking you is because your sound is unique. But you were the only performers who stepped to the edge of the stage and reached out to connect with the audience,’” she continues.
The Mays admit they are novice RVers. “We love RV Resorts,” Jerry says. “We’re booked for 2012 at the Padre Island KOA. Many of the resorts in the Valley have a larger population than the towns around them. But we never pull in as a stranger. People are ready to be our friends even before we know them!”
Sharon says: “Our wildest dreams could never have pulled together so many connections for us. As soon as we stepped aside—left jobs, insurance, and retirement, we’ve been floating without a net. Yet, our needs are met and we’re doing what we dreamed. We love gospel music and the oldies. We love seeing smiles on people’s faces when we start singing. We often question why God is sending us to particular places, why the radiator cracked on our motorhome, why our tires blew, but we would not change anything.”