Wright has bonded with band

By RAY COONEY
The Commercial Review
Jeff Wright started his battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2004.
Since then, he’s been diagnosed with three other types of cancer.
He continues to undergo treatment, which sometimes leaves him in severe pain.
But when he steps on stage with Savannah Jack, for a few minutes, all fears and feelings about his illnesses fade away as the notes drift off of his guitar.
“It’s crazy,” said Wright, 71, on Thursday at the Jay County Fair after joining the group to play 1958 Chuck Berry hit “Johnny B. Goode.”
“I mean, you know, I get a little …” he continued, needing a long pause to collect his emotions but unable to hold back a tear. “They have no idea what effect … they have on my life. I get a buzz all year off of it.”

On-stage set-up
Three years ago, the name Jeff Wright meant nothing to Savannah Jack.
He was just another face in a crowd to the group from Nashville, Tennessee. But when Don Gatlin, Jay Darby and Matt Thomas Schumacher arrived to play a Wednesday-night concert at the fair, a friend of Jeff’s asked the band members if they would be willing to get the then-68-year-old guitar player on stage with them.
So during the concert, Gatlin, the lead singer, climbed down from the stage and engaged in some banter with a fellow member of Wright’s car club, the Arch Bridge Kroozers. Then he turned to the crowd, saying he was tired and needed someone to take his place on stage for a song.

He chose an initially reluctant Jeff.
“I thought to myself, how many times in 40 years have I sat there thinking, ‘One time I would love to get up there and play with a Nashville band,’” he said, remembering the moment. “I thought, ‘Well, what are they gonna do, fire me?’”
So he walked up to the stage, strapped on a guitar and played the lead on Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Pride and Joy.”
“We got him up and he jammed and everybody just loved it,” said Schumacher. “It was great. We had a blast.”

Fighting the disease
Cancer was part of Jeff’s life long before he ever met his favorite band. But they were unaware of what he was going through when they brought him on stage that first time.
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was the first diagnosis. A few years later the Deerfield native who retired from Portland Forge after 45 years learned he had bladder cancer. Then came prostate cancer and a blood protein disorder.
Jeff has undergone treatments, including chemotherapy, that have led to him dropping nearly 50 pounds. Last summer, he was so weak that his boat never touched water and his classic car was left in the garage.
He revealed his illness to Savannah Jack in a letter he handed to Thomas after a performance. The fiddle player didn’t think much of it at the time.
Then he got home and read Jeff’s words.
“It was just this really amazing, heartfelt letter,” said Schumacher. “And we were just blown away.”
He grabbed his phone and called.
Jeff wasn’t sure what to expect when he saw the 615 area code pop up on his caller ID. But he picked up the phone.
When he asked who was calling, he at first didn’t recognize the name. Then Thomas, who at the time had a friend who was fighting cancer, explained.
“He said, ‘I just wanted to call and hear your voice and see if you was all right,’” said Jeff.
 “Our friendship just got deeper,” said Schumacher. “I call him all the time. We chat all the time on the phone now. We’ve become really good friends.”

Linked by music
In addition to working a full-time job, Claude Wright used to perform six nights a week in Muncie.
His sons, Jeff and Tim, followed him into music.
Though never a full-time professional musician, Jeff, who moved to Portland in 1966, has been involved with bands for decades. He joined Buckwheat in 1982, playing mostly in east central Indiana, and later Touch of Country, which had an expanded reach, putting on shows in Michigan, Tennessee and West Virginia. Del Rio came next, and now he’s part of a group, made up of members from his previous two, that plays under the combo name Touch of Rio.
He’s become like Savannah Jack’s honorary fourth member when the band is in the area, having joined Gatlin, Darby and Schumacher on stage again at the 2013 Jay County Fair and at Fort Recovery’s Van Trees Park in 2014.
He even played with the band at Heritage Days in Union City, despite being barely able to walk.
“I was so weak from chemotherapy that they had to almost pick me up and carry me on the stage,” Jeff said. “Don, he grabbed ahold of me and pulled me up.”
Throughout the year, he looks forward to those few minutes on stage with his buddies from Nashville.
“It feels amazing, it really does. We’re glad that it makes him feel good,” said Schumacher. “That’s what makes us feel good is the fact that it gives him some relief from the stuff he goes through on a daily basis … The idea that we can give him a little moment of relief means everything to us.”

A local star
It still stuns Jeff that a group that has recorded with Vince Gill, among other big names in the country music world, and toured the nation has taken an interest in his life.
He’s in awe of their talent — both the ability to play just about any request thrown at them and to entertain the crowd. Schumacher is known for his speedy fiddle playing, and Gatlin is constantly getting the crowd involved in the band’s performances.
“These guys are just terrific,” Jeff said. “And they’re just as good as people.”
Savannah Jack has made Jeff a bit of a local celebrity. He’s been recognized for his time on stage while walking along the street and paying bills at the hospital.
By the end of the evening Thursday, he found himself getting his picture taken with Jay County Fair Queen Andrea Bruggeman — at her request — and signing autographs for young fans.
Those moments, along with his time on stage, help keep Wright going, hoping he’ll get to do it all again in another year.
“They don’t know what effect they have on me,” he said. “I’m just so glad to have them back.”