I'm nearly blind and deaf, I can't walk but I can play guitar...
Busking is a tough way of making money at the best of times.
The young musicians, who usually entertain passers-by outside shops and railway stations, have a hard enough time enduring the wind and rain which is an occupational hazard for outdoor performers.
It certainly isn’t something you would expect a disabled, partially sighted, and hard-of-hearing great-grandfather to put himself through.
But Dave Hines, 71, of Dalys Road, Rochford, or Country Dave as he is known to his growing band of fans, is proof busking is not just a young man’s game.
Dave raises money for charity by performing outdoors for hours on end in streets across south Essex, playing guitar and singing while sitting in his mobility scooter.
Dave said: “I love it. It’s easier to ask what’s right with me than what’s wrong, but giving up’s not an option.
“I can’t walk, I can hear a conversation one-on-one, but I’m lost in a group.
“If you stand in front of me, I can’t see your face, all I can see is your body form, but that doesn’t stop me playing guitar and singing.”
Dave and his musician friends raised hundreds of pounds through street performances in Rochford. The money will go to the Children’s Trust, which cares, rehabilitates and provides intensive therapy to children with brain injuries, and the RNID.
He said: “I love busking and will keep on playing to people for as long as I possibly can.”
As well as a long list of country tunes, Dave is also a folk music fan and, as a life-long pacifist, has a special passion for playing anti-war songs.
He said: “I know hundreds of songs, by people like Johnny Cash, Guy Clark, Willie Nelson, Woody Guthrie, Don Williams, Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell.
“People ask me how I remember them all and I have to admit I don’t all the time. I might get the odd verse mixed up, but I don’t think it matters, as long as you play it with feeling.”
Widower Dave, who has three children, six grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren, didn’t learn guitar until he turned 50 and only recently started performing in public.
It was about two years ago Dave was asked to show off his guitar skills by pub landlord Ian Dane and he has never looked back since. He has even formed a busking band, known as the Pale Riders.
As well as Dave and Ian, 48, on bass and vocals, the band includes Alan Wednesday, 58, on harmonica, James Goulding, 26, on guitar and vocals, and singer Wendy Morgan, 51.
Ian said: “I think Dave’s great. If you watch him, you can see he’s never happier than when he’s performing. His whole face lights up and he draws in the audience through his love for music.”
Alan added: “Frankly, I think the man is absolutely priceless. He doesn’t let anything stop him performing the songs people love.”
