Chris Smith: Floyd Herald couldn't get to the Hot Club of Cowtown concert for his birthday, so it came to him

It's tempting to say that what kept the heart of 80-year-old and seriously ailing Floyd Herald beating last week was the anticipation of a concert at the Luther Burbank Center by Austin's Hot Club of Cowtown.

But let's keep to what we know for sure:

Herald, who's lived in Sonoma County 50-plus years and who used to sell shoes at REI and wore out many a pair himself muscling up and down mountains, was really, really looking forward to last Wednesday's gig by the hot jazz and Western swing trio.

“It's my dad's favorite band,” shares his daughter, Katy Cardwell. “He followed them for years.”

Cardwell helps to care for her father, who last year developed an incurable Glioblastoma brain tumor and moved this past January into the Serenity Villa care home in Sebastopol.

Herald has been a widower since the death three years ago of his wife, Jan, who created the library at Petaluma's Wilson Elementary School that bears her name.

Floyd Herald was doing fairly well physically last summer, getting around with a walker, when his daughter and his son, Chris Herald, learned that his favorite band was coming to Sonoma County - on his 80th birthday!

Chris and Katy were among the first fans to snatch up tickets to Across the Great Divide, the March 27 tribute at the LBC to The Band featuring both Hot Club of Cowtown and The Dustbowl Revival.

But in the months since his kids bought the tickets, Floyd Herald's tumor has grown and his condition and mobility have sharply eroded.

At present Herald, who prior to working for REI traveled widely for decades coordinating the ocean shipping of produce by Del Monte, is immobile and in hospice care at Serenity Villa. There was no way he could go the LBC last week.

Well aware of that, Aida Reznik, who owns and operates the care home with her husband, German Sinitsyn, about a week ago took the bull by the horns.

Reznik did some research and located the manager of Hot Club of Cowtown. She wrote a long email that shared the story of the terminally ill fan in Santa Rosa who has tickets to the show at the LBC for his birthday but can't go. And Reznik asked if the trio, which has toured with the likes of Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan, might come play at Serenity Villa.

The answer came: Yes!

This past Tuesday, the band's Elana James, Whit Smith and Jake Erwin strode in, greeted the beaming Floyd Herald and the home's 17 other residents, most of whom deal with various degrees of dementia. Then Hot Club of Cowtown went to town.

With James on the violin, Smith on the guitar, Erwin playing the upright bass and all three singing, the visitors rocked the house for about an hour.

Katy Cardwell watched her dad as he took in every note of the private birthday concert.

“Oh my gosh,” said the guest of honor's daughter. “He had tears running down his face for the whole thing.

“It was one of the most beautiful things I ever experienced in my life.”

Cardwell and her brother couldn't be more grateful to the band, and to Reznik and Sinitsyn of Serenity Villa.

How is their dad doing now? Hey, he's doing.

You can reach Chris Smith at 707 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.