Flood damage and Nashville musicians

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 10 May 2010 10:45 am

That picture of Leuzinger's '52 Goldtop made me ill...I have recorded him with that guitar and that's a big loss...

Joe Alterio · Post by **Joe Alterio** » 10 May 2010 6:04 pm

John Macy wrote:That picture of Leuzinger's '52 Goldtop made me ill...

Just saw it myself...that is horrible. Reading the caption "the rare guitar is worth $100,000" and thinking it should now read "the rare guitar was worth $100,000"...heartbreaking.

Or this sentence..."A 1931 Dobro disintegrated when he lifted it out of a water-filled case".....

Pete Finney · Post by **Pete Finney** » 10 May 2010 7:03 pm

This to me is the most chilling sentence in the article; there's no way to tell just how accurate it is and it may be a little bit of an exaggeration but probably not by much:

"'Three-quarters of all Nashville's working musicians have gear at Soundcheck', estimated Everett Lybolt, general manager for Sound Image, a Soundcheck competitor that was not affected by the flood".

It's a lot of the not-so-well-known guys who will suffer as much as anybody, and I'm guessing we may start hearing of some tours canceling because so much production and back-line stuff was lost...

Don McClellan · Post by **Don McClellan** » 11 May 2010 12:00 am

T. C. Furlong,
That's very interesting that you work with the insurance adjuster who handled the World Trade Center buildings insurance after 9/11. That means he must know Larry Silverstein very well. Here's a very interesting YouTube video about Mr. Silverstein's insurance case concerning 9/11 (since you mentioned it).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLK0c-pgJBQ

I feel terrible for all the struggling musicians out there who lost their most precious property. What next? Don

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 11 May 2010 2:28 am

When I saw that goldtop Les Paul, I immediately noticed it had been modified with a stop tailpiece. So, who evaluated it as being "worth" $100,000? Was it even an original finish? What was the chain of ownership?

This is what any competent insurance adjuster will ask, and musicians aren't going to be helping their claims if every thing they lost is "priceless", "heirloom" etc. It's been estimated that there are about ten times as many "1958 Les Pauls" for sale as were ever even manufactured, so maintaining a chain of provenance is the only way any claim could ever be respected by an insurance company. And, probably not even then.

I wouldn't be surprised if one counter-intuitive result of this flood will be a big drop in the value of vintage instruments, as people come to realize the real replacement value of bits of boards and wires, and that the market has been overinflated and chock-full of counterfeits for many years now.

John Floyd · Post by **John Floyd** » 11 May 2010 4:14 am

Dave
True Words and One of my pet peeves is the misuse of the word vintage in instruments. Old Doesn't really mean Vintage. If you have an old instrument, It doesn't necessarily mean you have a Vintage one.

This term is mostly used by someone who is selling.

From Wikipedia

Vintage, in wine-making, is the process of picking grapes and creating the finished product. A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certain wines, it can denote quality, as in Port wine, where Port houses make and declare vintage Port in their best years. From this tradition, a common, though incorrect, usage applies the term to any wine that is perceived to be particularly old or of a particularly high quality.

Pete Finney · Post by **Pete Finney** » 11 May 2010 5:05 am

More really heartbreaking stuff, this isn't anywhere near over yet...

More horror stories about some undeniably valuable and irreplaceable instruments:

http://tinyurl.com/2bue38c

Anybody who had a chance to see the Musicians' Hall of Fame before it was forced to close a few months ago will remember that it also had a great section on Pete Drake with one of his steels and the "talkbox". I assume they were also there at Soundcheck...

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 11 May 2010 5:28 am

First off, if you knew Chris Leuzinger, you would know he is a fantastic musician as well as being very meticulous about his guitar collection. It's a newspaper article, and who knows if he made that quote or it is something the author picked up second hand. Also, Chris has played on over 120 million records sold, and probably used that guitar on many of those, and that can also add value to the right collector. I really doubt Chris would be throwing out unfounded numbers on his own...

Pete Finney · Post by **Pete Finney** » 11 May 2010 6:59 am

Here's a few parts from the article linked to in the post above about the Musician's Hall of Fame. It's well worth reading the whole thing but I wanted to make sure as many people as possible saw this:

"But in May, the rains came and Soundcheck flooded, and Chambers couldn’t gather his jewels until they had been underwater for days. And now Pete Townshend’s guitar from The Who’s Quadrophenia tour, Jimi Hendrix’s 1966 Fender, the drums Kenny Buttrey used on Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold,” the bass Lightning Chance used for Hank Williams’ final recording sessions and hundreds of other fine things are irrevocably altered, their futures uncertain.

“You don’t pick up the phone and go, ‘I’d like to order another of the Tommy Tedesco guitar that he played on the M*A*S*H theme,’ or, ‘I’d like another of the bass that Joe Osborne used on “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and all The Mamas & The Papas records: The one signed on the back by Karen Carpenter and Neil Young and Paul Simon,’”

“These instruments are the holy grails of the musicians,” said Country Music Hall of Famer Harold Bradley. “If they disappear, we’ll lost a tremendous amount of our history.”

In some moments, Chambers is as buoyed by the salvaging of a golf club that Chet Atkins used as a walking stick as he is dismayed at some of his lost guitars. And then he looks over at the sitar used by California session man Mike Deasy, with wood that must have popped like firecrackers, audible even underwater. He grows emotional each time he shifts attention to two basses once played by Nashville great Lightning Chance — the one he played on the Grand Ole Opry stage and the one that held the low end for Patsy Cline’s “Walking After Midnight” and thousands of other songs — wincing at the yawning wounds in the wood.

Even the instruments that can be restored are now different, and lesser. Instruments are to be weathered by hand, not by water, and fixing water damage is usually like sanding and refinishing antique furniture. You wind up with something perhaps usable but less authentic. And it’ll be impossible to tell what is salvageable for months. Much of it looks worse each day, even as it slowly dries.

The binding from Charlie McCoy’s bass crumbled and stuck like glass in Chambers hand as he picked it up and mentioned its role in Bob Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay.” The drums Gene Chrisman used on “Son Of A Preacher Man” are a wreck, as are the bass guitars Garry W. Tallent used on Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run” and “Born in the U.S.A.” Water pressure violently ripped the bridges from the bodies of Glen Campbell’s Ovation and Jerry Reed’s Fender."

Russ Tkac · Post by **Russ Tkac** » 11 May 2010 7:23 am

I feel sorry for all the losses. But I am reminded of the quote attributed to Chet Atkins. When Chet was trying a guitar at a guitar playing convention ... someone made the comment, "Boy, that guitar sounds great!" Chet stopped playing and commented, "How's it sound now?"

While the loss of instruments is great and have great value it is the players that make them special.

Pete, your Sierra is a special instrument because it's you that plays it. The music will live and overcome this because of the players.

Pete Finney · Post by **Pete Finney** » 11 May 2010 9:41 am

So far it seems that about half of the Nashville steel players that have been mentioned on this thread have lost at least some gear and/or personal stuff, but that nobody's reported losing all (or even most) of their instruments...

That's some kind of good news I guess...

Brian Herder · Post by **Brian Herder** » 11 May 2010 10:09 am

Joe Osborn's Jazz Bass... oof.

Stu Schulman · Post by **Stu Schulman** » 11 May 2010 10:19 am

Pete,This Soundcheck Place is it at street level?just curious.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 11 May 2010 10:56 am

Stu Schulman wrote:Pete,This Soundcheck Place is it at street level?just curious.

Looks like a good place to store your 1954 bass boat.
Not so sure about your 1954 bass.
.

Stu Schulman · Post by **Stu Schulman** » 11 May 2010 11:13 am

Ernest,Thanks I didn't realize how close to the river it was.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 11 May 2010 12:02 pm

Right next to a river that is known to flood was probably not a smart idea. I've been in a couple rain falls in Nashville, and can see how the town could flood so bad. The rain drops I have seen are huge (almost knock you out) and it comes down fast and often with little warning. In 89 (end of July/early August, no less), I was at OpryLand, clear skies, beautiful day. within a very short time (maybe a half hour), torrential down pour and everyone scrambling for shelter. Biggest drops of rain I have ever seen anywhere in my life.

My sympathies go to all affected by this disaster.

Scott Shewbridge · Post by **Scott Shewbridge** » 11 May 2010 1:25 pm

I’ve tried to wait awhile before posting anything about this, because I feel such sorrow in my heart for all of the loses that Nashville musicians have suffered in the recent floods. I hope enough time has passed that I can share some of my observations without adding to that suffering. In the process I hope to pass on some information that may help fellow steelers learn from and avoid a similar tragedy.

Daytime, I am a civil engineer, working mostly on levees and dams. I am a native Californian and much of my work has been in our Central Valley, an area of frequent severe flooding, earning it the nickname “the Inland Sea.” In my career, I have gone from one flood to another, always learning hard lessons, often the same ones over and over again. The decades long cycles of loss and then lost memories seem never ending, too often because there is more quick money in forgetting than in learning.

I went to Nashville for the first time last April for a conference on – Dams and Levees. During the day, I gave and watched Powerpoint slide presentations. At night, I stayed out far too late, listening to some of the greatest music on the planet. A new love affair “keeping me up nights,” so to speak. It was with the pain of a lost new love that I first saw, on this forum, the picture of water covering the stage at the Grand Ole Opry. I have gone through several of the stages of grieving, including denial and anger, as I helplessly watch the collision of my work and my love – flooding and music.

When I learned what was happening at the Opry, one of the first things I did was go to the FEMA hazards website to see what I could learn. It was, as I feared. The Opry appears to be located in the Cumberland River flood plain, protected by a so-called 100-year levee. I have read online that it was overtopped.

(Green dots are mapped locations of “100-year levees.” Solid light blue is the area that will be filled by a 500-year flood presumably if and when the 100-year levees fail or are overtopped. Source – FEMA website.)

I then did the same thing for Soundcheck. It was even worse. Soundcheck appears to be located in an AE flood zone with an estimated 100-year flood depth of around 5 feet (base flood elevation ~415’, ground elevation ~410’). From pictures and descriptions I’ve seen so far, that sounds like what happened.

(Black dashed lines show the estimated 100-year flood depth. USGS topographic map estimated elevation on Cowan Court – 410’. Dashed area mapped as an AE flood zone. Source – FEMA and USGS websites.)

Both locations tragically experienced essentially what was expected and yet before this happened, people seemed to act like everything was ok. Why?

In 1968, when Congress passed the Federal Flood Insurance Act, to establish actuarial-based rates, the new program had to adopt a standard for when people needed to purchase flood insurance on Federally-backed home mortgages. The 100-year level was chosen. It was a mortgage insurance necessity, not a public safety decision.

A place with a 100-year flood risk means that every year, there is a 1% chance that the area will flood (i.e., 1 divided by 100). If you live in an area with greater than that level of risk and you want to have a Federally-backed mortgage, the program requires you to purchase insurance at a reasonable price based on the estimated flood risk. The flood insurance program also places restrictions on what kind of future development can occur in those higher risk areas.

To me, these are pretty scary odds. Over the course of a 30-year mortgage, if you live within an area with only 100-year protection, there is a 26% chance that you will have a flood. It is like playing Russian Roulette with a four-chamber revolver. You are more likely to have a flood than a fire.

Levees are often used to give an area “100-year” protection status, but they can be a very mixed blessing. They are most effective limiting smaller floods and are often better suited to agricultural areas. However, when a bigger flood hits, they often hit harder, because flood depths are now substantial.

And those bigger floods will hit (remember that four-chamber revolver, if you live somewhere for 90 years, you’ll pull the trigger three times in your lifetime).

Many in my profession are of the opinion that there are only two kinds of levees: Those that have failed and those that will. Just give them time. Yet, despite these concerns, because of their relatively low cost, levees have become one of the most common ways for an area to avoid flood insurance purchasing requirements and building restrictions. By using a levee to get an area out of a FEMA flood zone, urban development is encouraged, almost guaranteeing that at some point, larger and often uninsured losses will occur.

So back to my question, why did this tragedy occur? I believe that both Soundcheck and the Grand Ole Opry loses are the result of a false sense of security about areas within or protected against 100-year floods. I believe we need to be less complacent about taking so much risk. Here are the lessons I take from these case histories:

I can’t afford to lose my home, so I don’t live in a flood zone or behind a levee. If I did live behind a levee, even if I wasn’t required to purchase flood insurance, I still would.

When I got that insurance, I would ask the flood insurance people about the expected flood depth and I would prepare for it. In parts of California, such as the Natomas Basin located just north of downtown Sacramento, the 100-year flood depth is estimated to be 22 feet. Arco Arena, home of the Sacramento Kings will be nearly up to its third story roof in water. In New Orleans people got on their roofs or maybe swam through warm Gulf waters to safety. In Natomas, there will be no single story roofs to climb on and, because our floods come from snowmelt, the water will be cold. Swimmers will likely die from hypothermia.

(Sacramento's Arco Arena and adjacent multi-story buildings inundated by a simulated 100-year flood. Source-California Department of Water Resources website.)

If I lived in a deep flood-prone area, I would develop a family emergency action / evacuation plan. When flooding is possible, my family would be prepared to leave and would, especially if directed by flood control officials. Often there is less time than expected and there may have to be some tough decisions about what is taken and what is left behind.

I encourage everyone to visit the FEMA website. You can type in the address of any location in the US and find out about the estimated flood hazard and estimated flood depths. If you have any concerns, there are local, state and FEMA folks that can help you interpret the maps and help make decisions about insurance. The “professional” mapping website is located at:

https://hazards.fema.gov/femaportal/wps/portal

Nashville – my heart goes out to you and I hope for a fast recovery. Though instruments are treasured, musicians are loved and I look forward to hearing your songs again soon.

Bruce Bouton · Post by **Bruce Bouton** » 11 May 2010 2:33 pm

Chris never valued his guitar at a hundred thousand dollars. That was a bystanders quote that was trying to get on the news. I was standing right there. I will tell you that Chris had tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear destroyed. So did Brent Mason and Brent Rowan, plus many other musicians youv'e never heard of. At soundcheck alone there were many millions of dollars worth of equipment lost. The reason you don't hear more people crying about it is because the Nashville musicians stick together as a community. Everyone at Soundcheck had major losses.
AFM LOcal 257 has started a relief fund. We are getting quite a few donations.
There is no sugar coating this, it was a major hit.

Twayn Williams · Post by **Twayn Williams** » 12 May 2010 10:27 am

Scott Shewbridge wrote:Daytime, I am a civil engineer, working mostly on levees and dams.

Thanks for the information. Everyone who lives near a river needs to know this stuff.

Daniel McKee · Post by **Daniel McKee** » 12 May 2010 5:34 pm

this flood really did some damage it will probalbly slow nashville down for awhile but i hope soon everything can be back as it was.Does anyone know if the lightning chance bass was a total loss.Also does anyone know if any instruments were lost that were in the grand ole opry museum i heard they may have gotten some of it out before the water came in.

Bruce Bouton · Post by **Bruce Bouton** » 13 May 2010 3:45 am

UPDATE Nashville Flood Relief Donations

Dear Colleagues,
The PayPal Donation link at the Local 257, Nashville website is now live!
As we reported to you, our great musician friends in Nashville have suffered devastating losses due to massive flooding. Millions of dollars of instruments, cases, electronics and other musical equipment have been destroyed or damaged as a result. Schermerhorn Symphony Center (home of the Nashville Symphony), the Grand Ole Opry, and Soundcheck Nashville, a cartage company that stores instruments for more than a thousand clients, have all suffered serious damage. Although media coverage has been surprisingly sparse, this seems to have been the greatest single loss of musical instruments and equipment in history.

We have been receiving updates about the situation from Bruce Bouton, RMA Nashville, Laura Ross, ICSOM Secretary (a member of the Nashville Symphony), and Local 257 President Dave Pomeroy.
The Nashville Local, Local 257, has been reaching out to its members with information, and serving as an effective communications hub for their musical community. They have established a Nashville Musicians Flood Relief Fund to help musicians there. Please consider donating whatever you can to help our friends and colleagues in Nashville.
You can donate online through the Loca 257 website at http://nashvillemusicians.org/?pg=donate
Or, you can send a check or money order to:
Nashville Musicians Flood Relief Fund
AFM Local 257,
11 Music Circle N.
Nashville TN 37203.
We encourage all of you to join RMA in making a contribution to the Flood Relief account. Any amount would be most appreciated and will be a great help to our fellow musicians in Music City USA.
Unsu

Scott Shewbridge · Post by **Scott Shewbridge** » 13 May 2010 7:57 am

A bit confusing, but the Paypal site seems to work. Best wishes to all.

Tommy Minniear · Post by **Tommy Minniear** » 13 May 2010 8:30 am

Scott Shewbridge:
I would like to thank you for your post regarding the flooding and what happened. The information you supplied really put things in a better perspective.
Thanks,
Tommy Minniear

Damir Besic · Post by **Damir Besic** » 13 May 2010 11:38 am

my new Versa with 6000 miles ...
Db

Pete Finney · Post by **Pete Finney** » 14 May 2010 4:40 am

Here's an update on the Opry House from Peter Cooper in today's Tennessean:

http://tinyurl.com/3afyn4o

I hate to think what Tommy White's beautiful blue Sho-pro must have looked liked after seeing the picture of the piano...