Years ago Roy, as he’s lovingly called by his fans, played at the Rolls Turning Company, drawing RPI students down the hill to enjoy his shows. Then he moved to Bangor, Maine. Still, the “eclectic guitar” player—as he dubs himself—returns to RPI one weekend of the year, much to the delight of the alumni who remember him from their school days.

It is a shame that more current students at RPI do not show up for this free show—it really is worth your time. Roy makes it impossible to sit through the show without laughing out loud at some point.

The main stay of Roy’s shows is his audience interaction. He encourages audience participation, not only in singing along, but also in chatting between songs as he tells his jokes. Roy has a lot of character and thinks quickly on his feet. More than that, though, he plays off of the audience, drawing everyone into the performance.

He also uses his music to lighten the hearts of his audience. There are short songs—“If I gave my heart to you, I’d have none and you’d have two.”— and other humorous songs thrown into the mix. Perhaps my favorite was the “Dueling Tubas”—where Roy played the guitar and…a “tuba”. The music fit in perfectly with the talking, only proving that Roy is the ultimate showman.

This is not to say that Roy is not a good musician—quite the opposite: He’s phenomenal. He has a very smooth voice that complements his guitar perfectly. He also picks songs that just fit his style of playing. As old stand-bys of any Roy show, “Slip-Sliding Away,” “Hurricane,” and “Garbage Barge” all made an appearance.

While he does cover a lot of songs, Roy has a penchant for changing lyrics to suit a moment. He also doesn’t limit himself to a single genre, but plays whatever songs he likes. Most of the evening was very “perky-uppy”—not to be confused with “perky yuppie—but he did play quite a few slower songs as well.

At the end of the show Roy, always the crowd-pleaser, came back to the stage amid much cheering for an encore about a car that’s thinking about how it wants to be taken home by a guy (very Stephen King-esque): “Rusty Old American Dream” by David Wilcox.

All told, the show lasted for about three hours. You don’t really notice the time passing, though. It actually feels like you’re meeting with a bunch of old friends. Well, friends who might have children—second generation Roy fans.