Benefield: New Horizons Band of Sonoma County has returned to live music. It is just what we need

Sunday’s live performance by the New Horizons Band of Sonoma County came just in time.

There is never a bad time for live music, but this show, on a Sunday afternoon in Healdsburg, seemed sent to heal.

After the devastating racially-based massacre that left 10 people dead in Buffalo, things feel very dark. Then there were reports of yet another mass shooting Sunday in Southern California.

The war in Ukraine. The potential overturning of Roe v. Wade. The 1 millionth death because of COVID-19 in this country.

It’s a lot.

I didn’t go to see and hear New Horizons with the need to be lifted or to feel all the feelings, it just happened that way.

To see them play was on my to-do list for some time. It just happened to come at the right time.

To hear a group, whose motto is “senior musicians making music for all ages,” move from Gustav Holst’s “First Suite in E Flat (Chaconne)” to “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” to “The New Colonial March” is to swing through the emotions that life has thrown at us of late.

And to hear soloist Sharon Griffith, in silver sequins and a black and maroon floor-length gown, sing “Someone to Watch Over Me” near the end of the program was almost too much.

Music, and especially live music, is a balm in troubled times. And we have missed that.

Clearly.

You could hear it in the response from the nearly packed house Sunday at Healdsburg Community Church. You could hear the appreciation for the effort, for the emotion, for the comfort the musicians provided.

I’m sure the program was set weeks, even months, ago but there was a prescience to the selections.

Take “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” for instance.

Band leader Lew Sbrana noted in his introductory remarks about the song, what a deep — and painful — history it has.

It was reportedly a favorite of Martin Luther King Jr. and was a mainstay at his services at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

Mahalia Jackson sang it at his funeral in 1968.

And Aretha Franklin sang it at Jackson’s funeral four years later. It’s one of the most recorded gospel songs in history.

And it’s own story is one of pain. Tommy Dorsey wrote it in 1932 after his wife and son died in childbirth.

I’m not remotely a religious person, but the song is deeply stirring, especially as we all grapple with pain and darkness.

I am tired, I’m weak, I’m worn

Through the storm, through the night

Lead me to the light.

We are indeed tired and we are worn. And could certainly use some light.

So when Griffiths stepped to the mic near the end of the program and sang “Someone to Watch Over Me,” I think the crowd was ready for comfort. Ready to be wrapped up in her voice and that song.

The lyrics, by George and Ira Gershwin, aren’t the most progressive, but something on Sunday felt true hearing Griffiths sing the words, “I’m a little lamb who is lost in the wood.”

Her voice provided respite for the weary and worn among us.

But Sbrana and his crew did not send us back into the afternoon sun on a somber note. Above all, this band’s music is meant to move but foremost to lift.

After John Ray led the band through “Blue Mambo,” Lew Bishop led a medley of The Beatles tunes, including a soaring version of “Hey Jude.”

When the crowd called for an encore, Sbrana had to chuckle.

“We always prepare an encore but thank you for asking,” he said.

It was “Curtain Call,” what Sbrana described as “a fun, fun” piece to play.

There are toy sounds and whistles, lots of big horns and a ton of pep.

That, like the gospel music that came before, felt needed. We wanted to go out on a high.

“We have a great time playing so we hope you have a great time listening to it,” he said.

We did. And thank you.

You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.