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Concert at Nashua club benefits hearing impaired

NASHUA – There’s an old chestnut that says if you listen to too much rock ’n’ roll, it’s likely to damage your hearing.

It’s a little ironic, therefore, that an upcoming show at the Boston Billiard Club will achieve exactly the opposite – helping those with hearing disorders lead happy and fulfilling lives.

All this will happen at the Nashua club at 8 p.m. Friday, May 11, as the Dreams Heard Foundation presents a benefit concert featuring The Ron Noyes Band and Paranoid Social Club.

“This is a really big deal for us,” said Kevin Reinbold, president and founder of Dreams Heard. “I had been to a couple of shows by the Paranoid Social Club and was impressed. The Ron Noyes Band is a big player, as well, having won the Boston Music Awards prize for Best Rock Act last year.”

The Ron Noyes Band, hailing from Concord, fuses roots rock and descriptive instrumentation with evocative lyrics. The band’s CD, “Something Else,” was listed at No. 8 in Jam Magazine’s list of the top 100 albums to come out of New England in the last decade.

The band members are guitarist Jarrod Taylor, bassist Chuck Tufankjian and drummer Mike Moran.

The group has also gained significant international airplay, landing them on the European Americana Charts.

The Paranoid Social Club is an offshoot of the Rustic Overtones, featuring Dave Gutter and John Rood.

The Portland, Maine, band is inspired by punk, soul and psychedelic rock, and has been featured on several television soundtracks.

“I’ve done a couple of fundraisers before – things at the VFW and such, featuring wedding bands,” Reinbold said. “But this is the first time I’ve had to deal with agents – it’s a whole new experience.”

This has been a personal mission for Reinbold, as his son Cameron was diagnosed as being partially deaf in his right ear when he was 3.

Reinbold immediately discovered there was a significant hole in the insurance safety net when it comes to hearing-impaired children.

“We didn’t realize that our health insurance wouldn’t pay for his hearing aid, as they didn’t consider it medically necessary,” Reinbold said. “I did a little research and discovered there are only 15 states in the nation where insurance companies are obliged to pay for cochlear implants or hearing aids – and unfortunately, New Hampshire isn’t one of them.”

Reinbold had to come up with $2,000 to pay for the hearing aid.

There’s an upside: Cameron is now a feisty 9-year-old and an avid hockey player.

He was recently invited to attend a deaf-only hockey camp in Illinois, hosted by the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association.

Reinbold’s association with the other parents at the association alerted him to the fact that Cameron’s situation is far from unusual.

“When we were out there, I started talking to other parents and I found there is an epidemic of insurance companies not helping people in our situation,” he said. “That’s what led me to start the Dreams Heard Foundation about a year ago. It’s meant to alert people who care enough to help parents in a similar situation to my own find the financial assistance they need.”

As new as the foundation is, Reinbold has high hopes for it – and perceives the upcoming show as the impetus for getting things off the ground.

“I’m hoping this will come to be the spur that we need,” he said. “As a result of this, we will be able to give hearing-impaired children what they need to lead a fulfilling life.”