The severely ill can be soothe with music

Matt Duke sings and plays the guitar for Kathryn Sletten, 70, a cancer patient at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, as part of the WXPN Musicians On Call program. (Laura Weiss/Philadelphia Inquirer/MCT)

Musicians help sing the blues away of those suffering severely from illness.

THE singer-songwriter Matt Duke stood at the end of Sandra Morello’s bed in the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, United States, strumming his acoustic guitar and belting out one of his own tunes, Needle and Thread.