Michael Jonathan is well-known to WUKY listeners. Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour airs on 91.3 every Saturday night. The grassroots music show is filmed in front of a live audience at the Lyric Theater right here in Lexington and broadcasts to hundreds of stations around the world.
When musician and host, Michael Johnathon, asked fans to step up and donate instruments to give to people hit by deadly flooding last September in North Carolina, they did not disappoint.
“36 drop-off points from Texas to Beacon, New York, Roanoke, Virginia, Cincinnati, across Kentucky, across Tennessee, West Virginia, even here in North Carolina, Winston Salem,” Johnathon said.
Truckloads bringing more than 1,400 instruments arrived at Warren Wilson College last Friday and Saturday. And inside the Holden Visual Arts Center, volunteers worked to sort, clean, and fix them.
“What we have in here are some of the violins and violas and about 30 cellos and about four score and seven years ago,” Johnathon laughed. “Trumpets and French horns and trombones and clarinets and flutes.”
Cathy Currier, from Richmond, came to help. She's a luthier, which means she's a pro at fixing string instruments.
“I want to say five or 600 string instruments that we're working on, checking, the playability, checking the strings, checking to make sure they stay in tune,” Currier said as she zipped new strings onto a guitar.
There were so many instruments, violins and violas spilled into the hall. Corey Moore, a junior at Warren Wilson, checked and tuned each one.
“Seeing just, like, hundreds of fiddles and guitars, it's just like, it gives me chills,” said Moore.
Students were trapped on campus when floodwater rose, but Morris said they were spared from any major damage. Knowing how lucky she was and a musician herself, she decided to forego spring break to help with the drive.
“Like, my guitar is more than my guitar,” she said. “It's like how I, you know, deal with hard things and to not have that emotional coping mechanism and, you know, relief is huge.”
While everyone worked away, in walked Tara Chandler and her five-year-old daughter, Ava, who was very clear about what she wanted.
“I am looking for a guitar,” Ava squealed.
A pink electric guitar to be exact.
Michael Jonathan brought out a box and set it down in front of Ava.
“And this, you tell me if you like this?” he asked.
“Yes. I like it,” she grinned.
They plugged the guitar in, Ava gave it a strum and strutted off with her bubble gum pink electric guitar and amp.
“Bye. We'll see her on Woodsongs! Very nice to meet you,” Johnathon shouted as she trotted away.
“Thank you!” she shouted back.
The team worked well into the night, stringing, tuning, fixing, and polishing.
On Sunday morning, hundreds showed up and waited hours in the parking lot for the giveaway to begin.
John Rogers and his girlfriend, Tracy Hitchcock, were two of them.
They're members of the Water Peppers band. They lost everything.
“We had flash flooding, about nine in the morning. Water came up to our toes, and about ninety seconds later, it was at our knees,” Rogers said.
The couple estimated that about $50,000 worth of band equipment was destroyed.
This instrument drive meant they could replace a few precious items.
“What'd you get?” I asked.
“Nice acoustic guitar. Now onto the electrics,” Rogers said.
He went and sat on the grass and began to play.
The line continued to move, and a day that began in silence was filled with music and gratitude.
“I'm going to cry,” one woman said.
Another cheered, “Yay. You got an instrument!”
A woman holding a dulcimer beamed and said, “It carries us through. Yeah. Yeah. It brings some sunshine through the storm.”
Michael Jonathan said that's what this event was all about.
“Once the emotional shock of these tragedies gets passed, they're left with the emotional remains of what they used to have,” he said. “And that's where music and art come in. That's where what that's where the soundtrack of America's front porch comes in.”
In all, more than 1,800 instruments were given out in less than an hour and a half.
Another instrument drive will be held to help the recent flood victims in western Kentucky. To Learn More CLICK HERE
