As I understand it, Fred is in the clear all the way around*. It's the venue and/or publisher who needs to pay copyright fees, not the artist.

Incidentally, whether he makes any money at any of these gigs is irrelevant to the legality of things. Of course the copyright servicing agencies are unlikely as a practical matter to prosecute the very small frogs in very small puddles.

Dave Oesterreich

*Assuming he's not publishing his own CD.