“Broken Feather” Supports the Myelin Repair Foundation with Music

Rick Bone and Deb Kelson are two musicians with multiple sclerosis (MS) who recently found the Myelin Repair Foundation on MySpace and on Facebook.

Rick was Dx’ed with Relapsing/Remitting MS in 1999 and Deb  was Dx’ed in 2004 with Primary Progressive MS. They met on MySpace in a MS support room about 4 and a half years ago.

Before they were diagnosed, Rick played in many bands during the late 70’s and early eighties and Deb was a background singer for local bands in the late 90’s up until 2005.

The Healing Power of Music

For Rick, MS left the left half of his body numb. Therefore, he cannot feel the strings. His motor skills and cognitive skills are greatly diminished. For Deb, her cognitive skills are also poor. When they play live they need sheet music and lyrics in front of them.

They started writing music about MS and other struggles in order to provide hope and understanding about all disabilities.  In addition, it helped them both deal with the pain and depression that MS causes.  Both saw music as a healing form of communication that ties people together. Music helped them by giving them something to focus on, freeing their souls and minds to wander to other places.  In addition, Rick uses guitar playing as a form of therapy to keep his fingers limber.

They chose the name “Broken Feather” for their band since Deb is Part Native American (Lakota Souix) and her Native American name is Dancing Feather. With MS she feels broken — thus, Broken Feather.

Musical Collaboration

Though Rick and Deb live 2700 miles apart, they are able to collaborate on music projects together. First, Rick  records the basic tracks in his little studio. He sends them over to Deb through email and she sings to them using a program on the computer. When she is done and emails that audio track Rick, he mixes it in with the music.

They recently played a show in October to bring awareness about the Myelin Repair Foundation in a community in NY State. Unfortunately, they don’t have any shows planned in the near future as Rick’s health suffered from too much travel. Check out the Broken Feather MySpace page and Broken Feather Facebook Fan Page to keep up with their work.

They are also selling CDs of their second album ($10) which is full of music of the bluesy rock variety reminiscent of Pink Floyd.  Their second CD is called “Together for Multiple Sclerosis” and is available on CD Baby, and their first CD was called “Voices.” Deb is also a photographic artist and has designed all 3 CD covers.

Contact Deb and Rick at brkfeather@aol.com for information on how to order directly from them. Purchase a CD and $3 from every CD goes to the Myelin Repair Foundation.

Rick and Deb decided to contribute a portion of their CD sales to the Myelin Repair Foundation after researching other charities to help. Rick says:

[The Myelin Repair Foundation's] research is important to us because it can help people understand all kinds of Central Nervous Diseases.  Other organizations have not impressed us in the past. So this year we decided that the MRF could do the most with any donation we could give them.

Thank you Rick and Deb for helping spread the message about what the Myelin Repair Foundation is accomplishing through music — you two truly rock our socks off!

Tags: broken feather, cds, deb kelson, facebook, fundraiser, music for ms, myspace, present, rick bone

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 8:48 am and is filed under Fundraising, Interviews, Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.