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VMTA has been an active advocate for music therapy in Virginia for over 25 years. Our organization has made a concerted effort to bring music therapists together through state meetings, the creation of regional music therapy groups, MAR Conferences, and social media.
- Overview
- Son of a legend
- A reassuring space
- A few songs and some memories
- A lifeline
- The desire to heal
Music works in both magical and clinically substantiated ways in communities with rich musical traditions that span bluegrass, country, gospel, and more.
Rodney Harmon of Floyd County, Virginia, has been flatfooting for 60 years, but never had he danced in a health clinic. He can thank Joe Smiddy for the pleasure.
Smiddy, an allegedly “retired” pulmonologist, is the volunteer medical director of the Health Wagon, a nonprofit that provides care to those in the region most in need. On a mild Saturday in September, Harmon is among patients who’ve traveled to the Remote Area Medical (RAM) pop-up clinic in the rural southwest Virginia town of Jonesville to take advantage of free healthcare services, those offered by Smiddy and the Health Wagon among them.
The queue for care began forming outside Lee High School in the wee hours. Folks now wait patiently, quietly, in the gymnasium. Smiddy, taking a break from pulmonary screenings, straps on his banjo. Dressed casually, as is his custom, he steps out on the gym floor and becomes a wandering troubadour. Approaching a woman, he asks, “Now, what town are you from?... Oh, I know your folks.” Together they sing “Amazing Grace,” “how sweet the sound.”
For another, he serenades with a few verses of “I’ll Fly Away.”
Some glad morning when this life is over
Smiddy is the son of the late Papa Joe Smiddy, a university chancellor, Appalachian music preservationist, and banjo player—a legend. Dr. Smiddy has played music all his life; it would make no sense to him not to incorporate it into the healthcare he administers.
The free medical, dental, and vision care services are what folks have come for, but Smiddy sees further opportunity.
These mountains of southwest Virginia and eastern Tennessee are home to a rich musical tradition shaped by the ballads and fiddle music of the British Isles, the banjo (an African instrument), hymns, the blues, and a smattering of other influences. It’s expressed in old time, bluegrass, country, gospel—the borders of genre are often indistinct.
The more traditional music is channeled through flatfooting, a dance style in which the feet stay close to the ground, as well as clogging, a full-body, high-stepping affair. Everyone in these parts was brought up dancing, or so it seems. Harmon judders, beckoning a muscle memory. He’s no more self-conscious dancing in a health clinic than he would be at home. It’s encoded in his being.
The RAM clinic is a welcome sight. This region faces some significant healthcare challenges. The four westernmost counties of Virginia–Buchanon, Dickenson, Lee, and Wise–all rank near the bottom in the state in health outcomes, including higher instances of asthma, COPD, and emphysema. Black lung disease remains prevalent; most alarmingly, an advanced stage, progressive massive fibrosis appears to be on the rise.
Smiddy is well aware that health outcomes are shaped by where you work, where you live, how you live, and your access to services and healthy food–the social determinants of health. When not in his office, he’s usually out on the region’s serpentine mountain roads, piloting his mobile X-ray unit, with which he also brings music.
Lollie Saria has been struggling with a heroin addiction for almost a decade. She now lives in Roanoke, Virginia, having relocated from West Virginia. “I tried to move away from it,” she says. “But then fentanyl became really predominant in this area, and I've been struggling with that.” She hasn’t used the drugs in more than three months.
Saria’s path to recovery entails regular visits with Jim Borling, a music therapist. He’s a professor emeritus of music and former director of music therapy at Radford University who practices the Bonny Method of guided imagery and music. These sessions offer Saria shelter.
The American Music Therapy Association defines music therapy as the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship. The settings in which its practiced span the life cycle, from neonatal ICU to hospice. Among the most common clinical populations served are children with developmental disabilities, adults with behavioral health issues, including substance misuse, and those suffering from dementia.
Noel Anderson is founder of Anderson Music Therapy in Roanoke, a practice specializing in care for children, commonly those with autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). She and her therapists work with kids to improve their cognition or executive-functioning skills.
“When we hear music, we’re instantly drawn toward it,” Anderson says. “It lights up our brain in so many areas.”
Music is predictable, she says, and that can be comforting. “There’s the verse, chorus, verse, maybe a bridge …” The pattern facilitates a sense of relief that can reduce anxiety.
On a Thursday afternoon in October, Smiddy and his mobile pulmonary unit are in Bristol, Tennessee, parked outside Healing Hands, a health clinic that offers services to the region’s uninsured. He’s provided free screenings to a steady stream of patients today. Emily Orr of Johnson City is the last of them.
Oh, so soon, and very soon,
We are going to see the King
“We’re pleased to catch up with you,” Smiddy tells Orr, thanking her for coming while he uncases his guitar. Breanna Burke, a community health worker joins him in singing “Soon and Very Soon,” an Andrae Crouch gospel hymn.
Twenty-four hours later, 20 miles to the northeast, in Abingdon, Virginia, a banjo picker is making house calls. Mark Handy is a family physician, cattle farmer, country store owner, five-time national flatfooting champion, and, says 91-year-old Levonda McDaniel, a “precious person.” McDaniel is a resident of Commonwealth Senior Living, where Handy has several patients.
“Tell me where it hurts at, baby,” Handy asks, gently examining an injury to McDaniel’s leg. He checks her vital signs. They discuss other ailments and potential issues. Once finished, he picks up his banjo and composes a song in the moment about Poor Valley, where McDaniel was raised.
On this day, Frye is Handy’s final call. It’s after 5 p.m. A light rain begins to fall. These drives along Hayter’s Gap Road and countless other two-lanes nourish Handy’s soul. He treasures his visits to the homes up in the hills and hollows. Across four Virginia counties and two more just over the North Carolina line, there’s hardly a road on which he hasn’t made a house call.
Back at the office, there’s paperwork to do, then the 80-mile drive back to his farm in the Ennice community of North Carolina’s Alleghany County.
The following night, his band, Tune Town Old Time String Band, takes the stage at the Carter Family Fold, in nearby Hiltons, Virginia. The venue is run by Rita Forrester, Handy’s dear friend and granddaughter of Sarah and A.P. Carter, who, along with Sarah’s cousin Maybelle (often called the Mother of Country Music), comprised the original Carter Family band.
When the spirit summons, Handy drops his banjo and does a little flatfooting. This audience spans at least four generations, but the most spirited, and best, on the dance floor are, almost exclusively, the eldest. Some have arrived with partners, some have not.
Handy’s mom, Peggy, takes in the scene with considerable relish. “Look at her,” she offers, with a nod toward a fancy dancer. “Grinnin’ like a mule eatin’ briars.”
This is old time music. It resonates to the core of those who were raised on it.
Music reaches deep. Research indicates it can assist in lifting traumatic brain-injury patients out of a coma.
Earl White is a retired respiratory therapist and a fiddler. He recalls playing for a man who was on a ventilator, heavily sedated, incommunicative. As White played, a tear rolled down the man’s cheek. He survived and later told White that the music had inspired him to keep fighting, to live.
Music is there, ineffable, a soothing salve. It’s the spirit rising in Frye as she embraces “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” embodies it, and is lifted by it–rapturous: “I did it!”
On the evening of the day Smiddy played “Rocky Top” for Harmon, he convenes with an informal band at Shades of Grace, a storefront church in downtown Kingsport that reaches out to the “Last, Least, Lonely and Lost.” Some among the musicians have experienced homelessness, addiction, trauma. A set of gospel numbers offers rich release.
During a service here, or when providing free medical care, Smiddy might say, “Raise your hand if you play piano.” Or, “Raise your hand if you play guitar.”
He’s then made a connection, and will ask, “Could we give you a COVID vaccine? How can we help you? What do you need?” The portal has opened.
Apr 29, 2022 · Eva Augusta Vescelius was a prominent woman who contributed to the development of music therapy practice in the United States. From the turn of the twentieth century, she worked to establish the use of music for health, starting with her first public paper presentation in 1900.
Music Therapy License Created in Virginia The American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) and the Certification Board for Music Therapists (CBMT) are excited to announce that on Tuesday March 3, 2020 Governor Ralph Northam signed into law HB 1562.
The regulations shall (i) set forth the educational, clinical training, and examination requirements for licensure to practice music therapy; (ii) provide for appropriate application and renewal fees; and (iii) include requirements for licensure renewal and continuing education.
Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program.
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Feb 28, 2023 · Later in 1941, Harriet Ayer Seymour founded the National Foundation of Music Therapy. These were all crucial steps in the advancement and promotion of the concepts and ideology that is music therapy. Through articles, journals and educational courses, music therapy became accepted and established.
