by Brett Morris and Nancy Cardwell
A year ago last September, the bluegrass music community (and the world) was just beginning to think about how to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Helene. Many folks had lost musical instruments in the flood, along with the rest of their belongings. Groups like Michael Johnathan’s WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour started collecting donated instruments to distribute in the Appalachian region of Helene’s path.
A few months later IBMA Foundation executive director Nancy Cardwell and Anni Beach of the Jam Pak Blues ‘N’ Grass Neighborhood Band program in Chandler, Arizona were in conversation about Jam Pak having a surplus of donated bluegrass instruments. Folks have come out of the woodwork to donate instruments to the 30-year-old neighborhood bluegrass program. Banjos and fiddles show up at Anni’s house, and they arrive at festivals in the Southwest where the Jam Pak band performs. They had just received a project grant from the IBMA Foundation to learn how to maintain and repair their instruments—with the goal of sharing some of the extras with others interested in learning to play bluegrass.
Several JAM (Junior Appalachian Musicians) affiliates were also funded with IBMA Foundation project grants in early 2025, suggesting new homes for the good quality, refurbished instruments among the communities struck by Helene. Cardwell spoke to IBMA Foundation board member Sam Blumenthal, who was connected to Junior Appalachian Musicians, Inc. through his involvement with the Earl Scruggs Music Festival, where more than 150 children and their families, representing more than 30 JAM programs, come together every Labor Day to celebrate and learn bluegrass music. Sam and Anni began talking to Brett Morris in southwest Virginia, executive director at JAM, the parent organization for more than 60 affiliates. We all continued to talk at IBMA’s World of Bluegrass week September 16-20, in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The cost of shipping 43 bluegrass instruments (13 banjos, 4 mandolins, 6 guitars, and 20 fiddles) seemed prohibitive. Why not just drive out there and bring some instruments back? An anonymous donor stepped up to rent a van and provide for travel expenses, and the “not so crazy after all” cross-country trip happened in mid-October, 2025, with Brett Morris at the steering wheel. Amazingly, all 43 instruments fit into the van, and they’re now being cataloged at the JAM office, in preparation for adoption by JAM affiliate students across Appalachia.
Here’s a slide show from the Jam Pak group https://www.youtube.com/shorts/aLb8iwhaPuc, and a recounting of the adventure by Brett Morris follows. (Stay tuned for an additional, in-depth article to appear in the January issue of Bluegrass Unlimited.)
From (Ms.) Brett Morris––
I’m delighted to report that the journey from Appalachia to Arizona (and back) has been completed. There may have been some rough roads and hours that crawled by; there may have been a few bewildering moments in the middle of the night when I had no idea what time it was or where we were on the map.
“You’re doing what?” people asked. My eleven-year-old son said, “What do you want to do that for?” He’s right; it didn’t seem efficient. However, my nine-year-old-daughter, who is a budding mandolin player, wanted all the details and memories of a trip she wished she could have joined. When I showed photos and videos of the children on the other end of the country, though, I saw something else click in both of them.
I questioned myself on how could I, someone who holds such a heavy sense of place, someone who will never leave my home of Southwest Virginia, someone who desires security in every way, take off traveling without a plan? This question mirrors what many of us from deep Appalachia face. Do we pursue opportunities in the great beyond or do we stay home? Can there be a way we can do both? For me, music has always been the way I’ve seen the world and cherished my love of where I am from.
No matter the name of my restless spirit, my two best friends and I found ourselves exactly where God thought we were supposed to be—sitting in Anni Beach’s living room in Chandler, Arizona, surrounded by smiling faces and clanging instruments played by children of all ages and personalities. Anni handed me a banjo, and we all crowded around each other. Everyone was excited to experience my clawhammer playing, but I enjoyed listening to the hot licks of a teenage three-finger picker in front of me. The kids took turns calling songs. When a fiddle player shouted, “New River Train,” I shouted back, “Hey! Listen up! Y’ALL! Did you know that the New River train was a real thing? I live four miles from the New River, where the train once ran. And…the New River is the only river in the world besides the Nile that flows north.”
Their minds were blown. They didn’t know it was a real place. If I’d been more prepared, I could have told them how Henry Whitter recorded “New River Train” in 1923 as one of the first country music recordings in the world. Whitter was from Fries, Virginia (pronounced ‘Freeze’ in the winter and ‘Fries’ in the summer), where I used to teach school and where we just opened the first ever Grayson County JAM program this fall.
I loved the way the Jam Pak version of “New River Train” was beautifully accented by the bass player blowing a train whistle. Going forward, we intend on bestowing one of these donated instruments to the new JAM program in Fries, where we can follow its journey and have “New River Train” played on it a hundred more times, at least.
I sat beside a young man who had completed much of the repair work on the instruments set aside for Junior Appalachian Musicians. Across the way was a four-year-old “can-jo” player, working on her rhythm. There was a dulcimer, an autoharp, and banjos, fiddles, guitars, and mandolins respectfully following their leader, Mrs. Beach, as they all sang and played with gusto. We learned about their escapades traveling around the Southwest to perform and their meetings every week in Mrs. Beach’s living room that have been going on since the 1990s. Everyone there felt the vibrant community and family spirit that can’t be faked, can’t be made by AI, and can’t be destroyed.
There are music education programs all around the world. We all have common ground, and we shared missions of showing others our love for music and how it can change lives in so many different ways. What JamPak is doing is beyond that. While our JAM programs build community one tune at a time, we are still based mostly in public centers, arts councils, schools, and other existing entities part of the often-struggling infrastructures of Appalachian communities. The family feeling in Mrs. Beach’s home is something that will stay with every single person who experiences it forever. That energy is connection, it is love, it is exactly how music binds people together. I know that this special energy will stay with all of us, and it has re-invigorated my energy for the work I do. My mission will continue to extend this love as far as I can throughout the mountains of Appalachia.
My traveling party included two friends, Blanche Fletcher and Paula Rosenbaum, who have supported my work with JAM for more than a decade now. In the early days I remember how they both would help me fold letters and stuff envelopes in fundraising season. Last fall, Paula was displaced by Hurricane Helene, but before that she survived a massive brain aneurysm in 2017. She isn’t supposed to be alive. When she was in a coma, we would play music over a speaker and sometimes she would try to move her toes in time with the music. That’s how we knew her spirit was alive, even when medical science said it wasn’t. She isn’t allowed to fly, so this trip was extra special for her. Blanche leads our volunteer efforts to pick up and transport instruments to affiliates. It takes a village to make something go, and it takes teamwork to keep it solid.
The last thing I asked JamPak was if any of them knew anything about writing real letters and putting them in the mail. They did. Many of them were interested in being part of a pen pal program, so I’m looking forward to hearing about the friendships created from Appalachia to Arizona (and back). That is the power of music and love.
Thank you all for this opportunity. It will never be forgotten, and may the energy carry through these instruments for years to come.
To learn more, please check out these links:
www.jamkids.org
Jam Pak Blues ‘N’ Grass Neighborhood Band
Earl Scruggs Music Festival | Mill Spring, NC
http://bluegrassfoundation.org
Return to the November 2025 issue of The Cornerstone.
Recent Comments