With your help, our friends at WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour are organizing an instrument drive to collect and deliver over 1,000 free instruments to bluegrass and old-time musicians who have lost everything during Hurricane Helene. If you own a playable instrument in good condition that you would like to donate, contact radio@WoodSongs.com. More info at their website HERE.
Instruments donated through mid-January, 2025 at drop-off locations in Kentucky, New York, Ohio, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia, will be distributed free of charge at Warren Wilson College outside of Asheville, North Carolina, in late February or March. Please check the info at the link above for more details as they develop.
ReString Appalachia, organized by Nicholas Edward Williams at history podcast American Songcatcher, is doing similar good work to help the musicians affected by the hurricane. “Our mission is getting free quality instruments back in the hands of those throughout Appalachia who lost them due to Hurricane Helene,” Williams said. “The project is supported by over 200 musicians, instrument makers, nonprofits, venues, visual artists, actors, and media outlets so far, including IBMA and Folk Alliance International.”
More info is available at their website: https://americansongcatcher.com/restringappalachia/.
ReString Appalachia is distributing instruments as they are donated, and they report 35 already in the hands of musicians. “With the current entries alone,” Nicholas said, “we’ll be replenishing over 700 instruments into the new year. That number will no doubt grow to over 1,000. We know there are more people in southwest Virginia, east Tennessee, upstate South Carolina, and all over Georgia who haven’t applied yet, and getting the word out is crucial.”
WoodSongs Radio is a 501(c )(3) charitable organization, as is ReString Appalachia (through their fiscal sponsor, Music in Common).
We encourage you to consider donating instruments to both of these good causes, and also please share information from WoodSongs Radio and ReString Appalachia on your social media pages.
RETURN to the January 2025 issue of The Cornerstone.
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