"Talk to me, now." (Pauses, again, and tunes a string.) "Anybody out there from out of state? " he asks, and then beginning his first set with Margaritaville, he adds, "I’ll buy you a drink."

And he really means it! As a solo performer, here, he’s intent upon immediately engaging listeners. He’s upbeat and audience-friendly, a real people person, quick to indulge an unexpected guest that wants to step up to the mic, and although he usually performs alone at Fannie’s, he likes to accommodate other local performers who occasionally join him. On this particular afternoon, singer, Connie Duma croons a couple of tunes, Roeder Kinkel sits in with his harmonica, and a couple of out-of-town guests also sing. Randy plays familiar stuff, spanning several generations, including music of the 60’s and 70’s, rock, rhythm and blues, as well as golden oldies, standard dance tunes, and of course, beach music. According to friend and fellow solo artist, Charlie Sherrill, Randy ‘Hat Man’ Smith is, by far, the best ‘Buffett Man’ around. Randy Smith grew up a lot closer to the shores of Lake Eerie, however, than to the ocean. He was born in a small town near Pontiac, Michigan, in 1957, into a family that was steeped in the atmosphere of the near-by Detroit music scene.

Also, he says, "My mom was a bartender, and the music was always around." A self-taught musician, who started playing guitar at age eight, Randy spent a number of years finishing school and playing in garage bands, and then, while working and kicking around the Detroit area, he played with several small three piece groups, and began developing an acoustic style that was inspired by such artists as Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee.

In 1986, Randy and friend, Alan ‘Lagger’ Saple, also a guitarist from Michigan, decided to pick up and move South—to Florida. They formed a duo called A1A, and started playing gigs in Jacksonville and Saint Augustine. A lot of musicians worked in that area. Randy remembers seeing members of groups like Lynnard Skynard , or The Allman Brothers Band hanging out and jamming at Sunset Grill or at Trade Winds in Saint Augustine. That’s also where he first met another musician, and Tybee resident, Darryl Wise, who was living and playing down there at the time. The duo that Randy and his friend Alan formed, eventually split up, and Randy began doing his own thing. He laughs about his signature tag name.

Speaking of getting here, Randy says that in Saint Augustine in 1990, the former manager of the Savannah Bend Marina, Scott Martins, heard him, and invited him to come up and play at the marina in Thunderbolt. Soon he was commuting to regular gigs, and had discovered Tybee. In 1992, he made the move up from Florida, and started looking for gigs out on the island – that was the same year that Charlie Sherrill found his way back. Randy met Charlie, and Rick and Debbie Sheridan while they were playing at the Old Desoto Beach Club. When he started playing there, he fondly became known as Randy ‘Hat Man’ Smith. He played there often, and also, at Doc’s Bar and practically everywhere else around that had live music. For a while, he and Charlie alternated nights playing Doc’s. Like Charlie, Randy learned to use the midi sequencer to record background tracks to accompany his solo act, and he remembers a time when Charlie took him along to help demonstrate the versatility of the ‘black box’ to a group of Jack Boylston’s students. Boylston remembers it, too. "They could do just about anything they wanted to do with that thing," Boylston says, "They could make a flute sound like a drum, for instance. There was surely a lot of potential in it."

Indeed there was. Randy says that for a solo guy like himself, and certainly, for a guy like Charlie Sherrill, such things have made a world of difference. Randy has nothing but praise for his friend, Charlie—for his music and for his success here on Tybee, and there is also another person for whom Randy has a lot of admiration. That’s Ms. Sylvia Gott.

Randy has been playing full-time now for the last fifteen years. He regularly performs at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Savannah, Thursdays through Saturdays from 9PM ‘til midnight. It’s a good, steady gig, but it keeps him from getting out to the island as much as he’d like. One of the first songs he learned after arriving on his (quote) "Planet Tybee" was Jimmy Buffett’s A Pirate Looks at Forty. That says a lot about his affections. Randy loves to play on Tybee. As a matter of fact, for the last three years, since Jenny Orr, the owner of Fannie’s on the Beach approached him about playing there, he has promoted ‘everything Tybee’ as much as possible from his microphone. You will find him there from 3PM until around 7PM (Tybee Time) every Sunday afternoon from Memorial Day through Labor Day, and on into the fall, weather permitting,. Recently he’s also been playing again at Doc’s Bar and at Rascals Beachside, too.

Randy Smith is a promoter, mainly of things having to do with the welfare of others. He volunteers at area outreach missions, plays for community benefits, and has played on the Tybrisa Pavilion for the crowd from the local nursing home. He has a heart for helping, believes in honesty and in communication….and wants to ‘treat people right’. One thing that Randy really appreciates about Tybee is how "everyone is accepted here".