By Janice De Jesus, Staff writer

Appeared in Contra Costa Times, Martinez Record June 14, 2001

Once upon a time, there was a small group of musicians afraid to perform in public. So afraid were they that they dubbed themselves the "Fraidy Cats."
What they shared in common, besides being students of the same music teacher, was a genuine love of music.
Encouraged by their music teacher, they discovered that all they needed was playing music with others of the same experience level.
"We got started because we needed the experience of playing with other people," says founding member Mike Elliott. "The way you do that is by exposing your soul. By playing together, you realize you're not the only one who has those fears. Convinced by their teacher, they realized that playing with others was a necessary step in their musical development.
Gradually, more musicians joined the group, which originally formed in 1995, and then came their first big break : performing in public for the first time.
Elliott, who plays the guitar and sings, remembers the fear and excitement he and the other band members felt. They were one of the groups scheduled to perform at an open house at Rush Ranch in Solano County in April 1996.
After conquering the initial fear, the musicians were proud they made it through their first public performance.
"The excitement and adrenaline overcame the fear," says Elliott, a Martinez resident. "All it took was someone clapping, and so we fell in love with performing."
Soon, the Fraidy Cats became known as Spinning Wheel, and they weren't afraid anymore. And they've come a long way from the group that used to carry their instruments to open jam nights but never took the instruments out of the car because they were afraid to perform in public.
But one gig led to another and the band found itself performing American old-time tunes, bluegrass, and Irish traditional vocal and instrumental music at restaurants, community events, private parties and holiday festivals. They often perform at senior centers, as well as at retirement and convalescent homes.
The band members agree that their most memorable experience was the time they performed at a ward of Alzheimer's patients at a convalescent hospital in Martinez.
Banjo player Stuart Forman remembers when most of the patients, who were staring off into space, came alive when they heard the music.
"For a brief hour of their lives, something different was happening," says Forman, of Pleasant Hill.
"By the end of the hour, there were people who were singing along with us and clapping," says Pat Elliott, Mike's wife and a fiddler in the band.
"It was the first time we realized we could make a difference in people's lives," adds Mike Elliot.
Pat says there's a tremendous amount of interaction between the audiences and the band. The connection they have with the audience is different when the band performs at venues such as Romano's, a restaurant in Martinez, from its performances at convalescent homes.
"At Romano's, we can read the audiences and they sing along with us," she says. "When we have that interaction, there's an energy that we feed off of.
"But when we play at convalescent homes, we have to remind ourselves that our interaction is going to be totally different. That's the whole point is to draw those people out and to get them to respond to music."
Though the band charges a minimal fee for organizations with an activities budget, the money goes to purchase sound equipment.
But it's the love of music and performing to make people happy is generally why they do it.
"We like Romano's because it's a public venue, and we can invite our friends to come out and see us," says Mike Elliott. "But we like performing at retirement centers because we get a great response from seniors. They recognize the music and they're enthusiastic about it."
The old-fashioned string band consists of members who play bass, banjoes, guitars, mandolins and fiddles. Their repertoire includes train songs, mining songs and farmer songs.
"The music we play a lot of has origins in the British Isles," says Mike Elliott. "I like to tell the history of the songs, why they wrote it and where they got the motivation to write the songs. It's meaningful when you know the background : the historical significance of the songs."
What makes the 13-member band unique, Mike Elliott says, is "we never tell anyone, 'You can't play.' Anyone who plays a string instrument, everybody who wants to perform, performs.
"Most bands that play our kind of music have four to five people," he continues.
What adds to their uniqueness is that the 13 band members, who live all over the East Bay and Solano County, work in a wide range of careers. For instance, Mike Elliot is a bus driver, Forman's a doctor and Ramona Radach is a nurse at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in Martinez. And one longtime member works as a cookie salesman.
Radach, who's also working towards a doctorate in psychology, says playing with the band allows her to get away from the intellectual world of work and school.
"When I pick up my violin, it's somewhat of a physical experience because there's a mind-body connection that comes into play," she says. "It allows me to connect with myself and helps me to feel balanced as a person. It completely refreshes me because it's so different than what I do at work. I'm refreshed so I can go back to what I do."
"Our real purpose is we get to play music and have a lot of fun," adds Forman, who joined the band after Radach encouraged him. "It really helps me as a musician to play with other people."
Pat Elliott says she feels she and her husband are very fortunate to be sharing the same interests in common.
Still, the band dreams it will one day perform at the Bluegrass Festival at Grass Valley, which Mike Elliott describes as "the Carnegie Hall of bluegrass music on the West Coast."
"We'll never be as tight or as professional as a five-piece string band," says Mike Elliott, "but we don't care because the people we play for love us. And the reason we've stayed together is because we have people doing what they really want to do and they enjoy it."
"Music should not be a solitary endeavor," Forman says. "It should be shared with other people."
Powerful words from a one-time Fraidy Cat.

Janice De Jesus writes feature stories covering Central County. Reach her at 925-682-6440, ext. 14, or by e-mail at jdejesus@cctimes.com.