The first and third Wednesdays of each month, musicians gather at the Godnick Adult Center in Rutland. Some sing, some strum, some fiddle or play the harmonica. The instruments vary. But members of the Wild Woods Music Co-op, which formed in Rutland in 1993, share a passion for music and a desire to encourage others to join them.
The regulars start arriving around 7 p.m., and there’s an easy banter as they unpack and tune their instruments, find their guitar picks and set up music stands.
The 11 who meet on this recent Wednesday sit facing each other in a circle of folding chairs and chat and practice softly until 7:15.
That’s when the music starts in earnest. Sumio Seo, of Wallingford, picks up his fiddle and begins a lively jig, and soon every toe in the room is tapping.
This is not a jam session. It's a two-hour-long song circle where musicians take turns performing something they’ve prepared ahead of time. The rest of the group listens, provides feedback and, when invited, joins in.
Rutland resident Gus Bloch has been playing with Wild Woods for 20 years and is the group’s current leader.
"There's a lot of talent in this room," he says nodding at the group. "The most unusual thing about it is we are open to any ability and I really like that about the group. If someone comes in a novice, they’re going to be in a place that respects what they’re trying to do no matter what it is."
“It really feels like family," says Bruce Douglas, a retired science teacher who lives in Chittenden. "There's a core that has been together for quite a while, but we've also got some new people who are really excellent musicians," he adds.
Douglas plays guitar. His wife, Molly, sings and has been learning to play the ukulele. “I know I will intently watch somebody, how they strum and, 'OK, how can I, how can I replicate that?'”
"I'm a child of the '60s," says Bruce Douglas. “When I was in college, I just hung out with a group of people, there was banjo player, mandolin player, harmonica players. And you know, you'd be sitting there and you'd pick up the mandolin and you'll show me a few chords, and pretty soon you knew three chords, and you could play the mandolin, and it's just fun."
The Wednesday song circles are like that, he says.
"I have a Irish tenor banjo that I can play a few chords on, and I've actually tried playing it there, because it's a safe audience and they're very supportive when you go in there and give something new a try."
On a recent Wednesday night, the playlist included everything from old folk runes to hits from Joni Mitchell, Irving Berlin and Fats Waller. When Rutland Town resident Ron Pulcer begins to play "White Christmas", he tells the group that as a skier, he wants to send good vibes to Killington and asks everyone to sing along, which they do.
When it's Sheila McIntyre's turn, she quickly goes over the lyrics to "Hello My Baby," one of the songs she'll be playing. Churning out a rhythmic introduction on her ukulele, she reminds the group, "The louder you sing, the better I sound!" By the second verse, most have joined in and McIntyre has added a kazoo.
“So I got you all beat on … going back," says Diane Liccardi when it's her turn. The Rutland resident sets a handwritten sheet of paper on her music stand. "This is from a poem that was written by Henry Lawson in 1907 and I've been noodling around with a melody for it."
She begins to strum her guitar and the group quiets down as she sings about a soldier who dies too young and the grieving lover he leaves behind. After the first verse she looks up and apologizes, "Sorry, I need to bring this up a bit," she explains, changing the key. Then she goes on with the rest of the song.
“It's not judgey at all, and everybody's very forgiving," she says later. "Forget the words? Sometimes people just stop in the middle of a song and say, 'That's all I know' ... OK, we'll just move on. No one cares," laughs Liccardi. "It's fun."
It can also be very emotional, admits Duke Maxwell. He brings his guitar all the way from Springfield for these sessions, adding, "I lost my wife four years ago this Christmas." Some of the songs, he says, remind him of her. "But it's also kind of a therapeutic thing, to be able to play those things and express those things and kind of, you know, get them out.”
Research shows playing music, learning a new instrument and socializing regularly can all help fight aging, depression and the onset of dementia.
"You're talking to somebody who was a speech pathologist for 30 years," nods Molly Douglas, who's 72. "So when you talk about that whole left brain, right brain communication warding off dementia, yeah, anything like that is good, plus you need to plan," she says. "So when Bruce and I do this music twice a month — if we get there twice a month — it's more than just that evening, because there's a whole lot of prep time that goes into working up towards those evenings. So it's, you know, it's very, very good."
Seventy-four-year-old Blair Enman agrees. “Oh I think it's fantastic for my health. I look at my music because I can play that until the last day I live.” Enman is a retired civil engineer who lives with his wife Claudette in Rutland and Bomoseen. Music is something he can lose himself in. "It's, it's so relieving, I mean, when I have a stressful moment, I love to just go grab my guitar. I play just about every day.”
A self-described left-brained, linear thinker, Enman says playing in the song circle gets him out of his comfort zone. “I get to express myself, be a little vulnerable … do something that I wouldn't normally do and play music with a bunch of other people. It's wonderful. I mean you sing, you play, you put your heart and soul into it and then at the end, everybody gives you a round of applause."
He drives home feeling "bubbly."
"I mean, I'll get in the house and Claudette will say, 'How'd it go? You were really nervous before you left.' And I’ll say, 'I overcame it. I did it. I had fun, and I'll be back in two weeks with a new set of songs.'"
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