FARMINGTON — Over the past couple years, Lori Grassette and William Hoyt have followed their passions for singing, playing music and sharing it with others.

They play at a variety of venues but nursing homes are their niche as they visit with residents, give them gifts and provide an animated show and tell as the couple play instruments ranging from spoons to the cajon, a drum box originally from Africa.

“Everyone’s been wounded so we help heal people with our music,” Grassette said prior to a performance on Friday at Edgewood Manor, a residential care facility in Farmington.  

“Bill helped me appreciate the ministry of performing in nursing homes,” she said. They both admitted they love it.

While Grassette grew up in Rumford and Hoyt in Temple, their families were friends but their childhood friendship cooled as each grew up and took different paths, Hoyt said.

When Grassette moved back to Maine from California a few years ago, Hoyt noticed her Facebook page and they became reacquainted and became a couple, he said.

A longtime dispatcher for Franklin County Sheriff’s Department, Hoyt began performing with Grassette, who had returned to playing after becoming a six-year cancer survivor.

“It was my catalyst for playing my music again after 25-plus years,” she said.

She’s been performing in nursing homes for the past four years after moving to California where her grandmother lives in one. She also started playing with bands and performing weekly playing spoons for the band, Flat Out Country. Sometimes she was hired just as a spoons player, she said.

Grassette learned to play guitar and read music at the age of 7. Her aunt, Lorraine Grassette, a musician herself, taught her niece to play spoons and encouraged her to follow her passion, she said. Her grandmother, Dorothy Doherty of Rumford, provided her with lots of support and became her greatest source of encouragement, she said.

A couple of memorable performances for Grassette came when she had the opportunity to play spoons with Grammy Award winner Terence Simien, a cajon/Zydeco musician, once in California and once in Maine, she said.

She’s also performed with spoons at Skye Theatre in Carthage, she added.

Moving around the audience Friday she rhythmically tapped the spoons and bones all over her body as she showed the different sounds produced.  

Along with guitar, she taught herself to play the mandolin and a few songs on the banjo, while Hoyt plays harmonica and the cajon, a drum box originally from Africa. He sits on the wooden box and uses brush sticks to produce a snare or bass sound.

A jew’s-harp and other instruments are also used as the couple sing gospel, bluegrass, patriotic music and their own original songs.

Hoyt also started young, teaching himself to play harmonica at about age 10, she said. Then, influenced by Steve Moore of Temple and his band, Fast Gym Shoes, he began to play drums and performed with cousins and friends in numerous bands.

During his childhood, he took vocal lessons and performed in choirs in Farmington and Temple. His mother, Lillian Hoyt, sang with him daily and provided his greatest source of encouragement.

He stopped performing to go into the Air Force but began playing again with Grassette in 2009. He also passed on his talents, encouraging his own sons to learn music, she said.

Now they share a touch of humor, stories, music and love of people during their performances that also include festivals, Relay for Life, birthday parties, the Mexico Farmers’ Market, Dixfield Open Market Day, and more.

They intend to perform July 29 for Pie on the Porch, a Farmington Summer Fest event held at Holman Parish House on Main Street, an Old South church-sponsored event, she said.

[email protected]