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Baxter-Curren Kitchen Band playing music the old-fashioned way

Fern Kwasigroch and Rachel Wallace could have a tough time pawning their musical instruments. They would probably have better luck using them to make macaroni salad or Angel food.

After all, Kwasigroch plays the bundt cake pan, with the help of a fork, and Wallace is a master with the salt and pepper shakers, filled with macaroni, for that extra jingle.

“I usually hit the cake pan with a spoon, but it broke, so now I’m working on a fork,” Kwasigroch said.

The two women are among the eight-member Baxter-Curren Kitchen Band. The group, made up of senior citizens who frequent the Baxter Curren Senior Center, make music the old-fashioned way, using kitchen utensils and other household items.

The members dress in old-fashioned attire, including long dresses and bonnets and have two standard pieces of equipment, a piano and an accordion. Other instruments include a rolling pin, a bass made out of a paint bucket, a cheese grater and a fork and spoon, plus the salt and peppers shakers and bundt cake pan.

Mayme Day, the eldest group member, hopes to find another keyboard player so her hands will be free to play the washboard or rub board.

As for Wallace, she said, “The only maintenance required on my instrument is to change the macaroni inside the shaker once in a while.”

According to Day, the kitchen band was started around 1968. Day was invited to join the group soon after and said, “I’ll keep playing until I’m 95.”

Day started off playing the washboard and then moved on to the kazoo, which she mounted inside a coffee pot. When one of the group’s former piano players left, Day taught herself to play the piano.

Gene Phillips, the accordionist, is another self-taught musician.

“We had another accordion player, but he got Alzheimer’s disease, so I went and learned to play the accordion,” Phillips said.

Making the rounds

A glass case inside the Baxter-Curren Senior Center displays the many honors the Baxter-Curren Kitchen Band has received — most recently, the Farwell Convalescent Center Volunteer of the Year Award.

Debbie Parmer, activities director at the Farwell Convalescent Center, said residents enjoy watching and listening to the kitchen band because of their style of dress and homespun sound.

“The band has been coming here for several years and our residents always look forward to seeing them,” Parmer said. “They tap their toes and sing along to the music which brings back memories.”

The Baxter-Curren band gets song requests, such as “You Are My Sunshine,” “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” and “It’s a Long Way to Tiperary,” which they sing in their own version, “It’s a Long Way to Tucumcari.”

The group plays at other area nursing homes, as well as at Baxter-Curren’s monthly potlucks. They performed at the National EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) convention in Ruidoso last year and regularly participate in the Senior Olympics’ band competition. Once, they played for a hillbilly wedding on a Halloween night.

The kitchen band does rely on a few modern devices, a few microphones and small amplifiers.

Phillips said he prefers it that way. “If we mess up on stage, most people don’t even know it.”

Day said their music is a far cry from the modern day rock ’n’ roll her grandchildren listen to, but Kwasigroch quickly interjected, “We’re making music, baby! All that other stuff is just noise!”