MUSIC FOR SENIORS SHELTERING IN PLACE
CARMEL >> Lisa Chappell was wondering if she should report an outdoor party during the pandemic, or join it. The Carmel resident was out for her daily constitutional when she heard live music playing on Lincoln Street. Once she came closer, she saw a duo, bundled up against the cold, singing into mics and playing their guitars in front of a wall of windows fronting Visionary Assisted Living and In-Home Care. Sometimes they’d wave to the residents gathered inside to hear their concert.
“I didn’t dare interrupt, but the music was so lovely, I had to stay and listen,” Chappell said. “Their voices blended so beautifully, I wondered who they were and where I could hear them again.”
Turns out they were locals Andrea Carter and Darrin Michell, two members of the popular trio “Andrea’s Fault.” Since 1995, the cover band, with their wide-ranging repertoire of songs and styles, has played just about every venue and event on the Monterey Peninsula, including Sundays at Cypress Inn, and weeknights at Cibo in Monterey. Until COVID canceled their calendar.
“This is our 25th year of being a band, so we’d planned to have a huge anniversary concert,” said Carter. “Then the pandemic hit, and we couldn’t perform anywhere.”
Except for Visionary Assisted Living. Two years ago, staff from the organization contacted Carter, looking to arrange live music for their residents. She started solo, singing standards and playing the guitar at the dining-room table, during their lunch hour. A year later, she began bringing musician friends with her to “mix it up a bit” for her audience.
“When COVID hit hard in March, and everything was shut down, I didn’t want to disappoint the residents, but I knew I couldn’t come in to sing for them,” Carter said. “That’s when I realized, if I performed just outside their windows, they’d be able to see and hear me, from a safe and social distance.”
To create a more dynamic show from outside, Carter invited longtime partner and bandmate Darrin Michell to join her. Every Monday since then, the “Pandemic Pair” has put on a noontime concert of jazz standards, Beatles songs, country music, blues, ballads, and a little rock’ n’roll. When Chappell happened by, they were singing Ruth
Etting’s 1931 hit, “All of Me.”
Off to a shy start
Andrea Carter admits her music career came out of being shy. After she was sent, as a child, to a sleep-away summer camp in her native New Jersey, her counselor drew her out by introducing her to the guitar and equipping her with three chords, which got her through camp. When Carter came home, her parents bought her a jazz guitar, but she wasn’t yet interested in jazz. Her brother took the guitar and bought her another—the same model, she says, Paul McCartney used when writing “Blackbird.”
“So, although never formally trained, I’ve played guitar since I was a girl, and music has always been important to me,” she said. “But I was still so shy, I waited till I was 45 to get up on Open Mic Night.”
It was 1995. Carter went out to Morgan’s Coffee & Tea—now East Village Coffee Lounge—in Monterey, having collected enough courage to get up and sing a “funky fishing song” she’d
written. She bolstered her bravado by bringing a few musician friends to sing with her — Mike Eckstrom, Rick Chelew and Darrin Michell. Their performance was met with a standing ovation and an invitation to return and do a concert.
Carter got the gig and the guy. She and Michell have been together ever since.
“After we formed our band, ‘Andrea’s Fault’ with Rick Chelew, it still took me a few years to stop quivering, and relax on stage,” she said. “Once I realized I just wanted to stand in front of
folks and play my heart out, I began to enjoy performing for people.”
For 25 years, Andrea’s Fault has been a fixture on the local performance circuit, playing concerts and corporate events, festivals and fundraisers, at wineries and weddings, and at several senior residences, among them The Park Lane, Canterbury Woods, and Sunrise Villa Salinas, where they were scheduled to play through the end of the year until the pandemic hit.
“I get a kick out of looking over the records of our performances over the years,” said Carter. “Then I consider the concerts we had booked for this year — we had 21 gigs scheduled in February — and now we have just one performance a week.”
Still, Carter loves performing at senior facilities — speaking with staff, getting to know residents and their musical preferences and personalities. Although it feels very sterile to be separated by a glass wall, she realizes that’s the point and is glad she and Michell still have the opportunity to engage her audience sheltering in place.
“Our residents look forward to having Andrea’s Fault come out to perform,” said Lejah Felder, scheduling coordinator for Visionary Assisted Living. “They are very kind to their audience, and they play music that cheers them up, music they can remember, so they sing along with them. We’re grateful Andrea and Darrin are willing to stand outside and give our residents a concert. They love it.”
Carmelite Lisa Chappell plans on returning every Monday to hear the outdoor concert, from a safe and social distance.