Sun City Cener home to retiree jam band performances

SUN CITY CENTER (FOX 13) - A group of 40 musicians, all over age 60, have filled Sun City Center with joyful noise every week for 25 years and the gatherings now have quite a following. 

The Front Porch Pickers hold a two-hour jam session every Wednesday afternoon. It began as friends gathering to play their favorite bluegrass, country and western tunes. 

"We are all pickin' .and grinin,' so-to-speak," the group's president, David Lickfeldt said.

James Kinnear started the group with four friends in 1999. They sat around a table playing music. Most members are self taught on their instruments.

"I started out with the fiddle I found out that I couldn't play that so I took up the banjo," explained group member Mike Erickson.

They're all retirees, but you wouldn't know by their sound and their spirit.

"It makes you feel good," musician Jan King said. "If you come here and you are kind of feeling tired, you're not tired when you leave."

They make a plan for the first 45 minutes of the program, then it's time to jam.  

"This is practically a jam session every time we come down here," 93-year-old Edward Watson said.

The Front Porch Pickers play every Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. in Sun City Center.