The whir and bleep of machines and hushed health talk are sounds that typically drift from hospital rooms; the strumming of guitars and warmth of singing voices is a little less common.

That’s changing at the Alvin C. York VA Medical Center in Murfreesboro with Musicians On Call. This five-chapter organization was birthed over a decade ago in New York City and brings musicians to the bedsides of the bedridden.

Thanks to the willingness of many to support a vision and the catchiness of a good idea, the feel-good is now spreading to the fringes, which include Murfreesboro.

In 1999, founders Michael Solomon and Vivek Tiwary took musician Kenli Mattus to perform in a recreation area of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. After the gig, a nurse invited Mattus back to play privately for patients too ill to leave their beds and attend the concert.

The more intimate experience was a powerful one, for both artist and patient.

“It was just that one-on-one connection and the power that music has to heal,” says Katy Brown Epley, program director for the Nashville branch of MOC. “Once he saw that, he decided, ‘We have to do this.’”

Musicians On Call took some time to broaden its geographic horizons. The logical choice for a second office would be someplace musical, someplace with ample healthcare facilities. So, naturally, the Nashville branch opened in 2007 with absolutely nothing except some office space courtesy of Vanderbilt.

Nashville’s first Musicians On Call programs, or weekly musician visitations, were at Vanderbilt Adult Hospital.

As program director, Epley coordinates musicians with hospitals. The organization first meets with the hospital to determine if the service is a good fit and which patients would benefit most from a little musical visitation.

Musicians and volunteer guides who want to escort the artists sign up to play through the MOC website, specifying the hospital if they have a preference. Once the artists’ music is deemed appropriate for the hospital environment, musicians and guides learn the procedures and visit specific units, going door-to-door to patients’ rooms.

Since 2007, Nashville’s MOC has expanded to include 10 weekly programs. This means ten times each week, musicians and guides visit patients throughout Middle Tennessee.

“We’ve played for over 40,000 people in Middle Tennessee,” Epley says. “That includes patients, family members and staff members.”

Five Nashville area hospitals are linked with Musicians On Call, and recently, the organization has extended a hand to Nashville’s baby sister city.

The volunteer services department staff manages both the Nashville VA and the Murfreesboro VA. Already familiar with the staff and hospital regulations, the decision to reach patients in Murfreesboro was not a difficult one.

Of more than 100 volunteers in the Nashville area, between 10 and 20 musicians volunteer in Murfreesboro. Some are students at MTSU, while others, like Heather Jean Maywood, are just kicking around the area.

Maywood, 27, is a Wisconsin transplant who moved to Nashville in 2010 to be a singer/songwriter. She’s had the opportunity to perform for a variety of patients including those in hospice and surgery rehabilitation.

“I have seen the visible effects music has had on a patient,” she says. “One patient was non-verbal, but according to the nurse, had been crying all night. She asked me to sing him a lullaby. I sang a soft song for him, and he was able to stop crying and settle in for the night.”

Another patient, as it turned out, shares an interest with Maywood.

“He took out his guitar and jammed along to one of my original songs, playing lead, and sounded amazing.

“It was probably the most special experience I’ve had through Musicians On Call,” she adds.

Moreover, MOC seems to provide relief for others besides the patients, which hasn’t gone unnoticed by staff and volunteers. Seeing musicians ease the stress of ill individuals lifts some of the burden from the patients’ loved ones.

Maywood once witnessed a family slip into the hallway to have a discussion as she played for a patient. A seemingly simple thing, but the singer took pride in offering a distraction and comfort for patients and their families alike.

A visitation is a highly personal experience for all involved; musicians clearly get a break too.

“I think it can be easy to get caught up in trying to promote myself as a songwriter and artist and take gigs that are mostly for my personal gain,” Maywood says. “It’s great to volunteer with Musicians On Call and step away from the ‘music biz’ atmosphere, have an intimate experience and share my passion for music with others.”

Right now, the VA Medical Center is the sole Murfreesboro hospital involved with MOC, but that will possibly change in the future. The organization is hungry for help of the musical kind or otherwise. You don’t have to have decent pipes or tote an instrument to donate or volunteer as a guide.

The newest way to participate involves Rock A Patient’s World, a program begun in mid-September that allows a sponsor to donate $500 to a hospital room, which will then receive weekly visits for a year.

So do all patients say yes to a musical intermission in their day?

About 75 percent of them do, Epley estimates, depending on how they’re feeling that day. But those who say yes have no complaints.

“Whether they’re extremely sick or in a great mood, no matter what, they always say we’ve been the best part of their day,” Epley says. “We get that a lot—‘You guys really brightened my day,’ or ‘You were the best part of my day.’

“That’s probably the most common phrase you hear from a patient,” she adds. “If you think about it, most people coming in are giving them shots or tests or things related to their health. We’re providing entertainment, so it’s a very welcomed break in the monotony of the hospital environment.”

For more information on the organization, visit musiciansoncall.org.