‘Jimmy’s Old Time Radio Show’ is one of Canada’s foremost entertainers. A specialist in concerts for care homes, Jimmy, or James Skarnikat of Hanover, ON, turned his gerontology background into a thriving music career entertaining seniors. Formerly a Nutritional Manager in long term care and retirement homes, his interest in the growing field of seniors care began in the 90s. A chef at the time, he attended the Food Service Supervisor program at Toronto’s George Brown College, beginning an unlikely journey toward becoming a top entertainer. Perhaps it was just a matter of time before his love of music melded with his work with seniors.
Performing coast to coast to rave reviews, Jimmy is currently planning his 4th Canadian tour. His last tour took him from Sydney, NS to Sidney, BC, 149 shows in 15 weeks. With that, plus the balance of the year in Ontario, he now averages 300 – 400 shows annually. It’s a vast market, with care home venues in every town, with endless variation, it being continuously interesting. Each home is unique, from lavish city retirement villages to modest ocean-side cottages, big and small, public or private, from retirement living through long term care, locked dementia floors to hospital wards, seniors activity centres, even churches, legions, and service clubs; all are related off-shoots. Jimmy will tour the Maritimes in the fall of 2018, then head west next in the spring of 2019. It’s a big country, one that he commands more and more. Where he used to do Canada within a calendar year, he’s so busy now, he has to split the country in half.
As if not busy enough, Jimmy also performs to general public audiences, playing, recording, and promoting his own material as “Skarni”, a segment of his Baltic last name. His work entertaining seniors has become the driver for his own music, affording Skarni the ability to visit recording studios across the country, creating a unique Canadian sound.
Working with seniors as he does, the recordings by Skarni have been influenced by his Old Time Radio Show. A few of his songs reflect the sentiments and themes he encounters. The song “Bad Man” on his self-titled debut record was inspired by Johnny Cash, the song coming to him while rehearsing for a JC themed show. His second record, “Across The Great Divide And Back,” includes the song “Why’d You Have To Ask Me,” a throw-back to an old-time country sound, written on a rainy Winnipeg afternoon in between concerts, reflecting on touring and being away from home. Other seniors’ inspired songs are planned for future projects as Jimmy works to foster a stronger societal focus on Canada’s aging demographics.
Seniors have been good to him, so he endeavours to give back a little.
Jimmy’s asked all the time if he has “tapes,” so in the summer of 2017, he began a recording project laying down some favourite classic covers. “Jimmy’s Old Time Radio Show – Volume One” will be available toward the end of 2018. It’ll be an honest reflection on the songs, played as he always does, simply and with reverence, on acoustic guitar with voice, pure music, the way his audiences tell him they enjoy it.
His classics record will be part of a trifecta of seniors’ focused projects. Also in the works, Jimmy is writing a book about being a professional care home entertainer, with quips from his 1300 + concerts, plus insights to offer those in the retirement industry or anyone close to seniors. Already getting interest from publishers, the book will offer the unique insight from Canada’s #1 retirement entertainer, from the time he mid-song caught a falling lady, to stories about the legends shared by those that actually met them, to the iron grip handshake of the oldest living Canadian Mountie, many endearing stories, the hospitality shown him from Atlantic to Pacific binding everything together. For Recreation Therapists, insights are offered, from safe activity rooms to taking bookings, from the temperature he likes his water to best infection control practises, many subjects exploring the full-scope of his experiences, all with love and thanks to a vast and dynamic industry.
Also planned, a concert video will be filmed and made available to care homes. Seniors have long days to fill, so Jimmy’s goal is to provide a memento to his many generous venues, something that can be viewed and enjoyed by the seniors as an activity, a presentation of some favourite hits.
Jimmy’s 2018 concert schedule is booked solid and it includes several visits to south-western Ontario. If he could, he’d bring every senior the gift of music, so show by show he is tenaciously working toward that goal, travelling and performing constantly, recording, writing, working hard, and learning more and more from the road. It’s been a great ride so far and there’s no stop in sight.