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Paul Ferguson has more than 30 years as a professional musician, after first picking up an oboe at the age of 8.

Since then, he’s taken up keyboard and guitar, and parlayed his talent into a thriving entertainment career.

The crowd-pleasing Ferguson uses his healthy repertoire of songs and styles, his laid-back, friendly personality, and his pet birds to create a unique entertainment experience when he plays.

Ferguson spoke from his current stint in Alexandria Bay, N.Y., about everything from his music and backing tracks to his pet parrots. Just don’t bring up rap, karaoke, or Billy Ray Cyrus if you want to keep the normally personable musician smiling.

Q: You were a keyboard player who now plays mostly guitar. How did that happen?

A: I’ve always played a few chords on guitar, but after a neck surgery in 1990, I lost much of the dexterity in my right hand and don’t have the endurance to play keyboard for a whole gig. So I began to lean more toward guitar, which I like playing almost as much. Plus, being wireless, I can “wander” the audience, make eye contact, and become more personal with people, breaking the ice, developing a rapport, examining tattoos —whatever advantage mingling brings.

Q: You have a pretty good argument for using backing tracks in your gigs, as well as a personalized way of using them. Can you tell us a little about that?

A: All of us would much prefer playing with another “pulse” onstage, but economics these days dictate the small ensemble, or “single.”

I call it “audio illusion,” the art of sounding bigger than one person onstage.

Tracks allow us sound as big as a band without the payroll. With a vocal harmonizer, I can add up to five voices cloned from mine, for vocal-based groups like the Eagles, Beach Boys and Everly Brothers. Equipment is expensive, and a solo act does all the work, from setup to tear-down, as well as play and sing.

Many hours of investment go into each song. We may all begin with the same MIDI file, but if we don’t customize it, we would all sound alike.

Editing a song includes putting it in your key, removing the instrument part you’re going to play live, adjusting the tempo, fixing an ending and intro, balance the volume of each instrument, then learning it. By putting your “signature” to a song it becomes your arrangement.

We (musicians) swap/trade files with each other, but they will all sound different coming out the speakers. No matter how full the sound, it is just notes and music in a generic sense unless you combine a human element to every song. Anybody can learn to play a MIDI sequence, but you must perform it to sell it — body language, facial expression, vocal styling ... and probably most important, read the crowd.

There was a time when we had to defend our use of tracks, but nowadays it’s accepted.

Q: Tell me about your repertoire of songs, and your most and least favorites.

A: I would guess I have 500 to 600 songs sequenced, computerized accompaniment, while I play keyboard or guitar and sing. My new keyboard will add a few hundred more songs that I don’t have sequenced. It will play drums, bass, strings, etc., to any pattern I choose. If I know the song, I can play it instrumentally with the melody on piano, organ, sax, etc.

If the patron requesting the song knows it, they are more than welcome to come to the stage and sing it. I encourage “sit-ins” as long as they realize this is not karaoke. You can’t spell crap without rap, so I don’t play rap.

“Achy Breaky Heart” is gone from my list — permanently.

Q: So what’s with the birds?

A: At present, I have four parrots, one or two of which come(s) to gigs with me. Even if they aren’t allowed in the restaurant, we have bonding time for the ride to and from the gig. My birds have brought so much happiness to hundreds of people over the years. I’ve been told by some patrons that they’ve never touched a bird before. After an hour with one of mine, they want one. They have their own following, especially at the Snook. Visitors will come back year after year to play with the birds.

Q: You used to work a comedy/music show with longtime partner Andy Taylor, and that’s what took you up north again. How is that different from your usual one-man shows?

A: Reuniting with my partner of 20-plus years at his restaurant was a refreshing change from the “background” gigs of Florida. It’s “showtime,” where people come to be entertained, laugh, applaud for solos, stand in line at the end to thank us for the good time they had. We were a show band during the 70s and 80s, playing show rooms from Disney to Playboy clubs. The curtain went up and the challenge was on: “Entertain us!”

Unfortunately, those days are gone. If it doesn’t come at you in Surround Sound, blow up, or morph in some way, it’s not entertainment by today’s standards. Our competition is cable, satellite dishes, Internet, video games, and yes, karaoke. People don’t want to sit and be entertained; they want to be the entertainment. I’ve come to realize that even bad singing is entertainment.

Q: You get around this area quite a bit. Why so much travel?

A: I have a philosophy not to play exclusively in one locale. Economics and hurricanes. Charley was a good example. I lost a few gigs on Fort Myers Beach, but still had work on Marco and in Port Charlotte. I don’t want to be referred to as “He’s good but we saw him at X Tuesday, he was playing at Y on Thursday when we were there, and last night we ran into him at Z Bar.”

Southwest Florida has the best “energy” as far as I’m concerned. I used to think this area was a mecca for solo, sequenced acts — and may be again in the future. But the hurricane blitz of recent have diminished the abundance of gigs that flourished until 2004.

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Ferguson will be back at the Snook Inn, where he’s been a regular for 10 years, on Mondays and Tuesdays starting in October, from 6 to 10. You can also see him in venues from Port Charlotte to Marco. Check his schedule at www.paulferguson.com.