In many ways, it's a perfect job for Randall Royer.

"I couldn't imagine doing anything else," the Black Hills State University music professor said. "There have been times I have tried to do things outside of music, and no, I can't do that."

Royer was brought up in a home where music was more than just his parents' professions, so when it came to his own life work, he said, "I didn't have much choice."

His parents both taught at South Dakota State University, and his mother, Ruth, had been a professional orchestra musician. Royer himself started playing in rock bands as a youngster in Huron, then in Brookings, where he finished high school and SDSU.

Despite their classical bent, "My parents always listened to jazz," he said.

He played guitar and string bass in college. "It was all quite natural."

"When I was in Wyoming, I played lead guitar in a country band; we made money hand over fist - and we were awful," he said. Nowadays, "country is kind of the rock music of the '70s; the bluegrass stuff is more jazz than country now."

Royer has been active in a wide range of community activities, but it's obvious music is his passion.

"I couldn't imagine doing anything else," he said.

This year, he has a guitar major as a student, Joe Kissack of Moorcroft, Wyo., which is a bit unusual for a small university on the Northern Plains. Kissack is working on a combination of classical and other styles for his senior recital.

Royer is in his 13th year at BHSU. Before that, he was in recording, teaching and working on advanced degrees in Wyoming and Utah - and, of course, playing music.

Although he's proud of helping to produce some top music teachers and performers, Royer noted that South Dakota has a strong reputation of producing professional musicians, from classical to country.

"I would say there is nothing else to do in the winter except survive. Maybe it's the work ethic," he said of the reason.

If anything, he said, the good work ethic sometimes makes life difficult for students at the Spearfish school.

"A lot of our students are full-time students, but they also have full-time jobs to pay for it," he said. "They work hard."

He leads the BHSU jazz band, the chamber orchestra, teaches private lessons and plays duo jazz guitar gigs several nights a week in Spearfish, plus makes special appearances as a jazz guitarist.

Royer's two gigs a week are in Spearfish with Dick Rausis.

"Dick and I kind of bumped into each other," Royer said.

In a way it's an old sort of story for musicians. Royer saw an ad for a guitar amplifier, got his wife, Teri, in the car with him and headed up the hill from Spearfish to Deadwood.

Royer walked into Rausis' apartment leaving his wife in the car while he checked the electronics to make the purchase: "Then 90 minutes later I walked out," he said.

The two plugged into the amp and lost time. They kept playing together and fell into a couple of gigs.

"I'm basically rhythm," Royer said. Rausis comes from the Southern California jazz culture where jazz guitar legends tended to play: Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis and others.

They have 200 to 300 standards in their book.

"We're very lucky, Dick and I, having steady gigs," Royer said.

He likes the early 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. play times at the Spearfish Canyon Chophouse and Whiskey Bar on Thursdays and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Clubroom of the 7 Grill in Spearfish

Their jazz, Royer said, is unique. "It's different, even though what we play is old. For where we play, it fits the bill," he said.