Back In The Saddle Again
 

After a 10 year layoff, my wife and I are starting to play in public again.
We will be playing primarily at City Senior Centers and Assisted Living Homes.
I play guitar and sing. My wife accompanies me on banjo.

So far so good but one person that is in charge of the music at one of the A L Homes suggested that we play songs that the residents will know.

I think that we have a good number of familiar songs in our set list but I'm asking all of you for suggestions.

Some of our songs so far are,
Country Roads, Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Puff, Wild Montana Skies,
15 Years Ago, Last Thing On My Mind, and Jessie James.

We are adding, I'll Fly Away, Red River Valley, This Land Is Your Land
and Where Have All The Flower Gone.

Please suggest some other songs that may be well enough known for our shows.
Thanks,
Dale.

An old hippie friend of mine sang Rainy Day Women at an old folks home. He didn't get invited back.

Good luck with your shows and hope you both have fun. :)

We're doing the same thing - taking a short break this winter to write more original material but also working up some older songs for some assisted living facilities in the spring and summer. We looked for older, upbeat songs. Here's some we've added that go over well:

I'm A Believer
Splish Splash
All Shook Up
The Great Pretender
Sweet Caroline
These Boots Were Made For Walking
Folsom Prison Blues
Somewhere Over The Rainbow
I Saw Her Standing There
Rock Around The Clock
On Top Of The World
Stand By Me
Country Roads
On The Road Again
Runaway
Can't Help Falling In Love
King Of The Road
Fly Me To The Moon
Wonderful World

There's a bunch more, really old public domain stuff that we can do but we've found that most of the above stuff while maybe not music from their youth, was popular enough when they were young adults that they remember them fondly. By the way, ALL of the above songs are very easy to play.

Somewhat of a spectrum:

https://youtu.be/4GvD_NQrLFo

https://youtu.be/P8tTwXv4glY

https://youtu.be/80QHRTQ3Kmw

https://youtu.be/mZmiefQ5y4U

Our duet has played at a number of AL facilities and still do.
We have found that to a certain degree most of the residents don’t care what we play as long as it’s good. We do Folk, Country , some Gospel, Americana and even some blues.
We also throw in a couple of old standards once in a while. The reality is we only play for an hour or so. You can’t get too much more than 12-15 songs in that amount of time.
We have gotten a request for Free Bird a couple of times. I’m not kidding.

Think: how old are these folks? What was popular when they were aged 10-50 (or so)?

We are playing for people from their 60's to their 90's.
Out background is Folk Music mixed with some Bluegrass and Country.
I do solo vocals.

Who'll stop the rain by Creedence... great song, not long and very easy to learn.

Ticket to Ride by The Beatles.... Again... great song, short and easy to learn

Wild Horses by The Rolling Stones... Another easy one to learn and if you can find someone to accompany you on stage with a 12 string, this song can sound like an absolute dream performing it live.

Being one of those in the 60-90 year range (but not in a home)...

James Taylor/Sweet Baby James
Carole King/You've Got A Friend

There's a really sweet song by Donovan perfect for banjo called The Naturalist's Wife (I think).

Cat Stevens/Moon Shadow
Joni Mitchell/Both Sides Now, Little Green

Folk song: Green Green Rocky Road (Dave Van Ronk)

Just to name a few.

Blowin' in the Wind

Tambourine Man

I play several skilled nursing and assisted living centers on a regular basis. The main thing I've discovered is that they want the fastest songs you can do. These are only one hour performances, but I always leave sweaty and exhausted. I love every minute of it. Seeing these folks singing and clapping and even getting up and dancing is just amazing. The places I play love bluegrass, faster gospel songs, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams Sr. I always get asked for those and keeping the audience engaged and involved gets me invited back for regular performances. When anyone asks me for advice on playing one of the facilities, I always tell them "play it like a biker bar, they want to hear the high octane stuff."

Roger Miller's
 

...KING OF THE ROAD. Everyone will know it and try to sing along.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZuQhP3rn6o

Some great suggestions so far.

My wife and I did a show to day for a City Senior Center.
Our set list was a mix of fast and slower songs.

At the end of the show, the lady in charge came up to us and told us that she and the others there liked our music.
We are doing these shows for free as we are getting back at it again.

The lady in charge told us that she would be calling us to come back and play for them again.
She offered to pay us next time.

Guess they really did like us.