Junkyard Jazz performs at the American Legion. From left to right are Larry White, Mark Hulse, Clyde Bysom and Don Nelson.

If Lawrence has a fountain of youth, it springs every Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the American Legion.

Week after week, about a hundred people unwind to the sound of the Junkyard Jazz Band, a group of mature musicians who credit their love of the arts for their good health.

“It’s what keeps me alive, I think,” 89-year-old Clyde Bysom says. “My music, my therapy.”

The band got its start in the early ’80s at the Elks Club with a banjo, an accordion and a trombone.

“We started on a Thursday night out there and played every Thursday night except Christmas and New Year’s Eve,” says John Weatherwax, a former Lawrence mayor and founding member of the Junkyard Jazz Band.

“We’ve probably had 50 or 60 musicians play with us over the years,” Weatherwax says. “Kansas City and Topeka musicians come up here and play with us because they say, ‘We know there’s going to be a jam session every Thursday night.'”

When the Elks Club went defunct, the band found a new audience in July 1995 at the American Legion, 3408 W. Sixth St., where they still draw a regular crowd. Chuck Benedict and Irene Davies meet on the dance floor every week.

“I couldn’t find anywhere to dance in Lawrence until I heard about this place,” Davies says. “Their crazy music. I love it.”