Musicians get a bang out of pots, pans
Kitchen Klutter keeps toes tappin'
By Kit Miniclier
Denver Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 09, 2002 - LAS ANIMAS
As she watched her mom, grandma and aunt play in the Kitchen Klutter Band the other day, Jennifer Sigwart smiled.
"It is kind of silly, but they have a good time," said Sigwart, 17, who grew up watching band rehearsals in the Arkansas Valley of southeastern Colorado.
The group, whose "musical instruments" include a kitchen sink, washtub, garbage can, toilet plunger, vacuum cleaner tube, stump fiddle, rolling pin, water glasses, cake pan, wooden bowl, lids, and just about anything else they can find, agrees with Sigwart.
Using kitchen clutter as its source, the Kitchen Klutter Band follows the tradition of other "skiffle" musicians. The term refers to informal, good-time music with home-improvised instruments including the washtub and tea-chest bass as well as the kazoo, of which the band has several.
Although the novel instruments startle newcomers, it is the band's rhythm, gleeful enthusiasm and unabashed humor that captivate audiences.
"Our advice to you is to get out of that kitchen and rattle those pots and pans," says Fontella Gardner before directing the band in a lively rendition of "Shake Rattle and Roll" during a rehearsal at the senior center in La Junta.
"Our goal is to make people happy. We try to do what will appeal to each of our audiences," added Gardner, who helped put the band together 49 years ago to give the women a chance to get out of their kitchens, have some fun, and later to make music for their husbands.
The current members, who have been with the band an average of 28 years, play for birthdays, anniversaries and Mother's Day celebrations and often visit churches and nursing homes up and down the valley.
They've also performed for the State Hospital Auxiliary, farm-city banquets, organizations of cattlewomen and cattlemen, corn growers and for television in Pueblo.
"When we feel tired and mean, we get together to practice and go home stress-relieved," said Forrestine O'Dell, who helped organize the band in 1953.
"I do the most boring job of all," volunteered O'Dell, who plays the piano, the only conventional instrument in the group, and sets the tone and pace.
"We don't go anywhere without our piano player," says Duana Bourne, whose instruments are eight glasses and assorted spoons.
"If the audience likes us, we have a ball," she added.
Although Gardner wishes the group could find a wealthy benefactor so they could all visit Australia, her daughter Donna Dodson says the group usually settles for dinner if it is playing a banquet and sometimes receives gas money.
Much of the repertoire goes back to the band's birth nearly half a century ago.
It includes such toe-tapping, hum-along tunes as "Tennessee Wig Walk," "Ain't She Sweet," "Bye Bye Blues," "Wabash Cannonball," "Put Another Nickel In" and "Yes Sir, That's My Baby."
Always upbeat, they also do "You Are My Sunshine," "This Land Is Your Land" and "God Bless America."
Dressed identically in down-home red "broom stick skirts," many of the musicians have their own unique "kitchen article" hats, which vary according to their moods.
They also wear earrings depicting miniature salt and pepper shakers, cream cans, tea infusers, mason jar rings and other kitchen items.
Alta Mosby, a 22-year veteran who makes music with a rolling pin, toilet plunger and wooden bowl, says not everyone appreciates their efforts.
The musicians have heard dogs in neighboring backyards begin to howl during rehearsals, Mosby said.
Nor does everyone recognize the value of their "instruments."
Once, when a band member stored her items at a senior citizens' center overnight, they were included in the center's garage sale the next day.
She rescued them in the nick of time.
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