Grateful Alive band plays for peers

The Grateful Alive Band generates enough energy to rally a Deadhead - at least according to one fan who lives at St. Martha Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare in Downingtown.

But evidence of the band's impact on audiences at veterans' hospitals and nursing homes isn't measured in decibels, bongs, or beer bottles - rather, in foot-bouncing, hand-tapping, seat-swaying, and singing, even among those watching the performance from a horizontal position.

Among a population suffering from ailments and sometimes boredom, the treat of live music - from polkas to platinum - by a cadre of musicians their own age can often be enough to transform them from "just OK" to even "joyful."

"It's heartfelt," noted Catherine Gummo, a resident at Brandywine Hall in West Chester, who saw the musicians perform this month. "You can feel it in the music."

Totaling 16 - when they all show up - most of the Chester County Grateful Alive Band members are at least in their 70s, some in their 90s. Once a week, including during the summer, the group practices together or performs gratis at senior centers and events across the area. It's not your typical amateur band, which has been at it for more than 20 years.

"We don't retire," mused band director Mary Aldworth, "we die. We've almost all played up to the end."

No joke. Violinist Carolyn Bergh Barker remembers when a talented player had a stroke during a performance, and the band had to stop to get her to Paoli Hospital.

"That's how dedicated we are," said Barker, who has played with the band since the early '90s. Now 87, she was recruited in a coffee shop with a friend who plays piano for the Pennsylvania Ballet. She had held various part-time jobs as a medical secretary and piano teacher.

Jozef Bobik, 93, plays violin for the Grateful Alive. The retired Marine Corps intelligence lieutenant colonel and former principal of Paxon Hollow Middle School in Broomall never had formal music lessons, but he plays a little of everything. He credits his love of music to growing up in a singing household awash with the Slavic languages of his immigrant relatives.

His recruitment mirrors the serendipitous experience of many of his colleagues: He was volunteering in a thrift shop when an early member of the group, the late Virginia Love, walked in to sell a clarinet.

After a short conversation, she said to him: "We have a group -."

The Grateful Alive's tenor sax player, 75-year-old Tom Chambers, was a councilman and mayor of West Chester. His brother had found him an old alto sax at an auction years ago, remembering how he had played the saxophone in high school. If Chambers was going to bother ever playing again, he said, he preferred a tenor, and he headed out to shop for one. On that very outing, he ran into band director Aldworth, 73, and her "roadie" husband, Ozzie.

"We have this band -.," they told him.

"The timing was great," said Chambers.

The group continues to expand to include retired lawyers, clergy, and politicians, who find it satisfying to bring performances to peers who typically can't seek out live music themselves.

"It's fun," said Rabbi Sue Greenberg, almost 80, who plays violin. "So many dimensions: My fellow bandmates are a great bunch of people. And we're doing a service, going to places and seeing people come alive when we play."

Mastering new music keeps them sharp, as well, said Aldworth. "Learning a new song is a challenge. The rhythms are tough. But sameness would make it boring. We're constantly evolving."

The band's repertoire includes gospel music dating to the 1800s, tangos, polkas, and lots of platinum, hit-parade, and Grammy Hall of Fame tunes. "Audiences used to dance to this music," Chambers said. "It brings back floods of memories for them."

The musicians also perform a medley of military service anthems, and any veterans in the audience are asked to stand or wave their arms so that when they hear the theme of their particular service branch, they can be recognized.

The Grateful Alive performs regularly at the Coatesville Veterans Affairs Medical Center, where assistant recreation therapist Erik Fernitz said the residents perk up for the concerts.

Sometimes, patients who have difficulty speaking are able to recapture some of that skill through song, Fernitz said.

At Brandywine Hall, Hayley Guthridge directs recreational therapy for residents, who are treated to a host of entertainment throughout the year. But the Grateful Alive band stands out, she said.

"They're inspirational to the residents; they relate to each other." Not to mention, the band doesn't charge for the concerts.

Virginia Schawacker, 76, has played viola with the band for more than 20 years. She's one of the few professional musicians with the group.

"I love coming into a place, seeing fingers begin to tap, faces becoming alert, people singing whole songs," she said. "There's something about music. . . . It's a gift."