Posted by banjo25 on Wednesday, December 20, 2006
I didn't have anything to do with this but I thought it was a really neat story. I have pictures I can e-mail if anyone is interested.
Craig
Joshua Morgan, a 12-year-old patient at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt literally stumbled into the Bluegrass experience of a lifetime. Joshua had gall bladder surgery on Monday, but was feeling pretty good by Tuesday morning, so he went looking for a piano to play.
"Joshua has a gift for music, back at home in Benton Kentucky he plays with the youth orchesta and plays piano for our church, so he wanted to go down to the hospital chapel and play for a bit," said his father, Matthew Morgan. "We walked by the stage area and butterfly garden and saw Dan Tyminski from Union Station and we said uh-oh, we have to stop and see what's happening here."
It was the Kaylen for Kids (K4K) music event, the second annual performance by bluegrass greats for the patients at the hospital, sponsored and arranged by the Kaylen Foundation. Jerry Douglas, Dan Tyminski, (both from the band Union Station and also known for their work on the Grammy award-winning soundtrack to “Oh Brother Where Art Thou), Maura O’ Connell, Casey Driesson, and Brian Sutton and Bella Fleck were on hand. The group struck up the music and laid into some wonderful holiday tunes. Joshua and his parents were in seventh heaven.
But that wasn't the best of it. When the band learned what big fans the Morgans were, they gave Joshua a rare and wonderful opportunity. Casey Driesson offered up his fiddle and Josh began to play with the group.
"That was something, because Joshua plays a four string fiddle and Casey plays five strings..." Matthew said. "but he picked it right up and they played "Jerusalem Ridge" together."
The rest of the Morgan family got a full report by cell phone. Each of the family's four children is a musician. Matthew even had a photo on hand of Joshua with His brothers Nicholas (age 11), Elijah (age 8) and their little sister Allisa (age 4) standing in the family backyard with instrument in hand, playing their hearts out.
"Joshua really knew how special it was, he called his grandmother and they said it was about worth having to have surgery to get to play with those musicians," Matthew said. "We listened to their CDs and that made the experience so special for Joshua, and points out how great the Kaylen Foundation is for bringing this kin d of joy to the patients."
1 comment
on “Cool story from Vanderbilt Children's Hospital”
Just Bill Says:
Wednesday, December 20, 2006 @4:32:59 PM
What a great story! ...and a great example of how bluegrass musicians give back. Thanks for sharing this, Craig.
just Bill
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