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Recovery in the News
For this rock band, playing heals the hurt of addiction
Talia Buford
The Providence Journal
December 26, 2006
PROVIDENCE — Even with the steely gray door closed tightly, the rhythms and beats escape onto the street outside.
Inside, the reverberations of six amplifiers, three guitars, a set of drums and a wooden flute can be felt in the chairs pushed against the side wall. Instrument cases lie strewn on tabletops and chairs. A conga drum plastered with such stickers as “You don’t need drugs to dance,” sits near the door. A dry-erase board listing types of abuse — mental, physical, sexual — belies the room’s other purpose as a domestic-violence therapy room.
This is the studio of the CODAC All-Star band, a motley crew of staff members, patients and supporters of CODAC Behavioral Healthcare, a substance-abuse recovery center in Providence. The group plays regular engagements at substance-abuse facilities across the state as a way of giving back, said James Gillen, outreach coordinator at CODAC and flute player for the band.
The idea for the band sprouted a few years ago, Gillen said, with a patient who kept eyeing a guitar Gillen kept in his office. At Gillen’s urging, the patient began to play — something he hadn’t done since he began using drugs.
“I let him take it home,” Gillen said. “Then, other clients started showing up. Our boss came in and sang.”
After that, Gillen said he bought some basic equipment and solicited some donations. The group grew from there, he said.
Right now, the All-Star roster has about 10 regulars, though the number of musicians who come to practices fluctuates. During a recent Monday afternoon jam session, seven people show up. That’s more than enough.
Men take up their guitars and basses. One sits behind a set of drums. Two women sit in a corner, waiting to chime in as backup. Gillen stands before the microphone, takes a deep breath, and blows through a three-pronged wooden pipe. The flute’s mellow whistle begins to dance beneath the bass line.
There is no talent requirement to join the group.
“It’s more important people get involved,” said Gillen, a West Warwick resident. “We want people, even the rhythmically challenged, to have fun in recovery.”
Today is Paul St. Jean’s first practice. A patient at CODAC, St. Jean said he’d been invited to come many times before, but only now decided to show up. He brought the Fender Stratocaster guitar he’s been playing for the last 30 years. Throughout the session, he falls in easily with the band’s rhythms. Midway through the jam session, he said he liked what he heard.
“Oh yeah, I’ll join,” he said, cradling his guitar.
The patients at CODAC Behavioral Services, a substance-abuse treatment facility that offers methadone treatments, come from all walks of life, said Dr. Steven Peligian, medical director and addiction specialist.
“We have kids in college, kids in high school, millionaires, housewives, professionals and pharmacists,” he said. “There is no stereotypical patient.”
Methadone treatment is sometimes seen as controversial, Peligian said. A patient receives daily doses of methadone, a synthetic agent similar to opiates, such as heroin, but lacks any euphoric effects. According to the Centers for Disease Control, treatment can stretch from one year to a series of years depending on how the patient responds.
Creative outlets, such as music, provide another aspect to a patient’s recovery, he said.
“Medicine alone doesn’t treat the disease,” Peligian said. “It’s a behavioral change. Music helps their behavior. Gets them on a level playing field and it brings people together and puts value back in their lives.”
Groups such as the All-Stars help the treatment shed the stigma that has been attached to it for so long, Gillen said.
“We use it as a tool, especially in places where methadone treatment isn’t prevalent,” he said. “It’s not just music. It helps us show the positive face of patients.”
By virtue of its members, however, that face continually changes, Gillen said.
“People come and go,” Gillen said. “Sometimes the CEO [of CODAC] plays guitar. It’ll be the patients and the president. We’re all musicians, we’re just . The idea, in spirit, is that it’s more important for people . hanging out. . to get involved. We want people, even the rhythmically challenged, to show that people can have fun in recovery.”
And for some, the All-Stars provide an extension of recovery.
“Music is a barrier breaker,” band member Pete McClanahan said. “Age, color, sex, it doesn’t matter. It’s great for the people of the community — everyone gets it.”
McClanahan, a bass player, was a member of the rock group Warrior Soul, which released a number of albums and toured around the world in the 1990s. While living the rock-star lifestyle, McClanahan said he was introduced to heroin.
“It was like an occupational hazard,” McClanahan said, a red bass guitar strapped across his shoulder. “I used to live in New York and it’s practically falling out of people’s pockets there. I got sucked into it.”
He’s been clean for two years, he said, and has been playing with the All-Stars throughout that time.
“Music is a good way to get stuff out,” he said. “It’s like therapy.”
Band member Dave Jackson, of Warwick, echoed that feeling.
“I had a couple people busting on me all of the last few days,” Jackson said to his bandmates after they finished playing a song. “I came here, played one song and I feel better.”
A song list featuring classics sits atop an amplifier. Jackson calls out songs one by one until a title strikes the group’s fancy.
“‘Dock of the Bay,’ ‘How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You,’ ‘ California Dreaming,’ ” Jackson says, before the group settles on “16 Tons.”
Errant twangs and twings ring in the air as the group tries to find the song’s melody.
“Bun dun bah, dun dun, dun dun dun dun,” Gillen shouts out, nodding his head as the group begins to catch the beat. He crouches over the microphone and begins singing the lyrics.
“You load 16 tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt,” Gillen shouts raspily, tapping his cowboy-booted foot to the beat. Around him, the band members look down at their instruments, intent on the chords and beats to come.
Outside, the throbbing rhythms spill onto the street, flavoring the afternoon air.
Copyright 2007, Published by The Providence Journal Co., 75 Fountain St., Providence, RI 02902.