This Band KNOWS: Music the Best Medicine

One day a week, Dr. Jessica Carlson gets to trade in her surgical scrubs for rhinestone-studded leggings and spike heels.

No, she’s not going to a fancy party or the hottest nightclub – she’s going to rock.

Carlson, a fourth-year resident in surgery, is the lead singer of Gradient, a rock ’n’ roll cover band made up of rockin’ docs from Bassett Hospital. “Music is the best medicine,” said Robbie Graham, bassist and addiction and recovery specialist.

The band formed in 2013 when respiratory therapist and guitarist Kevin Harrington heard Bassett was trying to put together a “one-off” band for a company event.

“And we’ve been rocking out ever since,” said Graham.

Harrington started by recruited Jay Szwejbka, an X-ray technician and fellow guitarist. “I’ve known Kevin since we were nine,” said Szwejbka. “We’re not allowed to do anything without the other!”

And Carlson brought a little bit of glam to the line-up. A former beauty queen, she was Miss Oregon in 1995 and competed in Miss USA while completing her M.D. at Oregon Health & Science University. “I’ve sung the National Anthem for the Baltimore Orioles, sung with friends’ bands, but I’ve always wanted to be in a rock band of my own,” she said.

Matt Brown, a nurse in the critical care unit, plays drums, and Emily DeSantis, a physiatrist, also sings with the band. “She even sings while she works!” said Harrington.

Toby Wilcox, a cardiothoracic surgeon, plays keyboards – and gave the band its name. “We wanted a band name with a medical connotation, and a gradient is a measurement, but it means something different in every one of our fields,” he said. “In my field, it’s used to describe the narrowing of a valve, but it has multiple meanings.”

Gradient – minus DeSantis – played four songs for the Hometown Fourth of July Battle of the Bands on Saturday, July 5, in Oneonta’s Neahwa Park: “Separate Ways” by Journey, “Decode” by Paramore, “Paris” by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, and – their personal favorite (and a crowd-pleaser) – Guns N’ Roses, “Sweet Child O’Mine.”

“It turns out a lot of people in the medical field are very musical,” said Harrington. “It’s very math and science oriented; the same people who are drawn to playing music are also drawn to studying medicine.”

“We all have stressful jobs,” added Carlson. “I work 80 hours a week, so to be able to go and rock out, that’s my creative outlet.”

But unlike other rock bands, Gradient won’t be torn apart by drug abuse and heavy partying. “These guys are good, upstanding citizens,” says Graham. “They’re the cleanest band around!”

And although they didn’t place in the Battle of the Bands, they plan to keep rocking wherever they can. “We want to play at your party, your bar, your open-heart surgery!” joked Harrington.