Hi, Ferrara! It looks like all bases have been covered on this issue. Most of the nursing homes where I play have one stand-up mike and a mike stand. But not all of them. Yesterday, my wife and I went with Pastor "Skip" for our monthly service at an area nursing home. They don't have a stand-up mike and stand (or at least they have never set one up. Pastor "Skip" has had throat problems his whole life and his voice doesn't project well, so he just walks up close to the patients and speaks slowly to them (A good idea, in itself, as long as you don't exaggerate in a way that sounds condescending.) As you now know, I have a strong voice, so I don't bother bringing the amp that I have that I can run a mike and a guitar out of. It weighs a ton (although when the Gospel Messengers sing, I bring it and set up four mikes... and bring the amp in with a luggage cart much like the one Susan mentions. Most rooms where I sing are small enough that I don't feel a mike is necessary for my voice. If you can be heard at the Royal Mile, you can certainly be heard in almost all nursing home rooms.

If I could add anything else it's that residents of nursing homes need to be touched, perhaps even more than they need the music. For me, that means being as close to the patients as I can get, and moving among them before and after I sing, laying my had on them and talking with them. Being recognized as an individual means everything to the patients(and all of us others, too.)

Finally, I can't imagine lugging in a full sound system with speaker and speaker stands, an amplifier and mixing board, and all that. I have never played in a room that could justify that level of amplification. My amplifier/equalizer and output lines for mikes and a guitar is self-contained. I needed one with four mike outputs. You could probably find a LIGHTER-WEIGHT amplifier than mine that has fewer mike outputs but would do the trick.

It was great meeting you and Bill in D.C. :-)

Jerry