Members of The Grand Ambassadors musical group perform for an audience at the Everleigh 55+ apartments in Central Park. Front Porch photo by Christie Gosch

Many members of the band called the Grand Ambassadors moved to Denver to be closer to their grandchildren, but they’re not playing for the kids.

The Grand Ambassadors range in age from 61 to 84. They’re a group of music lovers, playing songs like “Yesterday” and “The Older I Get” with lyrics that have more meaning to them now.

The group formed a few years ago. “We started as just a bunch of people who wanted to get together and play some music and have fun—some younger older people,” guitar player Eddie Schwartz said with a laugh.

They graduated to play at different locations, including free performances at Balfour Central Park, an assisted living center, and the Memory Cafe at a Denver Public Library branch. On a Friday afternoon in October, they played at Everleigh Central Park, a 55+ community where several band members live.

“We practice once a week, and we play a little bit of everything,” Schwartz said as he showed off the day’s performance set list on his iPad, while other band members tuned their instruments and conferred about lyrics and vocal leads.

They all contribute ideas for songs, learn them, and decide collectively what to put on the set list. The ultimate authority lies with Chrissie Heilmans, one of the co-founders of the band who lends her talents to vocals and guitar.

She talked about the start of the club as part of the Grands, a group of northeast Denver grandparents who meet in Central Park to talk and socialize. They have a variety of side clubs, but Heilmans said, “They didn’t have one for music.” The challenge was to start one. 

Now the Grand Ambassadors has 12 members, sometimes a few more. Some of the members have music experience, like Phil Schmidt, the oldest member of the group and the longest-playing musician. He’s been playing since he was 6 years old. He proudly clutched his accordion and proclaimed, “This is my instrument and always has been.”

Others in the group haven’t been playing for as long, but they donned hats as they sang and played guitar, drums, and piano through a series of songs from the ’60s and ’70s for the Friday afternoon crowd. The attentive audience sang along.

One of the members recently suggested adding music from Bob Dylan and Neil Young, “rebel-type music,” which Heilmans said is “apropos” for right now.

Just a week after the performance inside, a subset of the Grand Ambassadors brought the music outside for the “No Kings” protest on the sidewalk along Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Schmidt was there with his accordion, and Heilmans sang as protesters gathered to listen, asking for more songs. The music was pierced at times by the honking horns of drivers passing by.