She's Singing Show Tunes Again After Bout Of Hopelessness

Abbe Buck had every reason in the world to give up.

From her childhood living in a dysfunctional home to her adulthood confined to a medical bed with a morphine drip attached to her arm, the 55-year-old Frederickburg resident was feeling down and out. Buck had scoliosis, spondylosis and stenosis. Three discs in her back had to be replaced and 16 months ago she had major surgery for a broken back.

“It became gradually worse by the time I was 53 to the point I couldn’t walk,” she said during an interview this week. “I was extremely depressed and very, very down. I couldn’t walk anymore."

The former New York City big-band singer was feeling hopeless. That was until she started singing and humming show tunes again. The power of music healed her.

As unorthodox as it may seem, music therapy has been around for centuries. The therapy uses music to help the person reach goals and rebuild confidence. For Buck, not only did she want to walk again, but she wanted to get back on stage doing what she loves most. Her musical career started when she was a teenager in Chicago taking voice lessons. She sang with big-band artists in New York City and Buck said the world-renowned artist Rosemary Clooney convinced her to finish her first compact disc more than 20 years ago.

On Monday, Buck returned to the stage for her first solo performance since her surgery. She sang cabaret at an open mic at the .

“It felt really good,” Buck said about the performance. “People liked it. I was just having fun. I just wanted to have a good time and that’s why it is a healing process to me. I do it more for the healing process rather than to grab the audience.”

Before she realized the power of music, Buck was at an all-time low. While she was at the hospital, she started singing in the hallways. After her surgery, she used her walker to get around and nurses overheard her humming and singing. 

“Everytime I walked I started humming and I suddenly began to remember the work I did in New York and I started thinking that ‘this is not hopeless. If I do anything else, I am going to sign again,’” she said.

The nurses overheard her tunes and brought in a certified music therapist. Buck, who is married and has a son attending Mary Washington University, was healing faster than anyone expected and the pain was disappearing.

“Music hits the part of the brain that takes away pain,” she said. “It was amazing.” 

Possibly the most-recent famous success story with music therapy is with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head while at a constituent meeting at an Arizona grocery store last January. Buck said Giffords’ inspires her.

Buck is so passionate about music therapy that she is taking courses at UMW to become a registered therapist.

“I want to get into nursing homes with it. I do want to show that it can actually help somebody walk again and that there is hope for all kinds of people who don’t think they can move on again,” she said. “This is what I really want to do. That’s the whole beauty of it. If I can reach one person who feels like their life has ended, and make them laugh or feel like it is going to get better, that is going to make all the difference to me.”

To learn more about Buck's career and life, visit her website.