The Steel Guitar Forum

This story isn't going away anytime soon and another thread (now locked by bOb) was going places that didn't seem very helpful so I'm starting a new one. There's going to be more and more information come out as we clean up that's going to affect thousands of people in the music business here including many, many working steel players (I'm pretty sure there are still more of that vanishing breed here than any city in the world. )

Here's some National news coverage of "Soundcheck":

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financia ... HC27O0.htm

I think this article may even underestimate how bad it is. Hundreds of musician's individual gear; touring and studio, famous and unknown, other touring equipment for scores of bands, and companies that supply the support services for many acts, including the ones didn't have their own gear damaged there. I'd guess this is going to have a huge ripple effect on all Nashville related music work for months if not years, and it's not going to be good. Most working musician's livelihoods are precarious enough already these days without a huge hit like this...

Any more information from Nashvillians on the forum would be cool, your own situations, or other news as it comes out...

Pete, thanks for the update. I had no idea things were so bad. When you say it's a precarious livlihood, I appreciate what that means. Godspeed.

This is certainly a devastating situation.

One thing I haven't seen any info on is any insurance aspect of this, whats covered, what isn't.

I would guess that Soundcheck's rental terms exclude flood damage.

Any discussion of federal help as in Katrina, ie loans, grants, etc to help businesses recover?

Did the Opry House carry any insurance on the contents of the House that involved musician losses?

This is a major disaster. I know when I was there in the early 70's practically all the road pickers were just "surviving" and to lose their equipment is devistating. Even if there was insurance it can't replace the many vintage instruments that are probably ruined.

We haven't heard from Paul Franklin and his equipment. I know he has a drayage company that transports his equipment to whatever session he has. Hopefully, were they store his equipment isn't an issue.

Bobbe Seymour reported he came out OK at his store which is a miracle considering he's in the "low" area where he's at.

I've heard totally conflicting things on Soundcheck's insurance, I've been told that they didn't insure the contents of the lockers at all, that people were on their own as far as what insurance each might have on their own gear. I've also heard the opposite, that things are covered. If anybody here has a definitive answer that'd be great.

Of course most homeowners insurance excludes flooding, as is the case with most folks here. We've been declared a Federal disaster area so there is some access to grants and loans (and can we please not bring government or politics into this thread beyond just stating the facts of what's available?!?).

I fired off an email to my long time friend, George Owens, Road Manager for Vince Gill and His Reply to me was

Thanks for asking. We were fortunate in the fact that we hadn't unloaded the truck from the last run, so all our regularly used gear was still on high ground. We are going today and tomorrow to assess the damages and clean up at Soundcheck, where we store the gear. Vince did lose some valued gear, but we won't know until we get in there and see what all has happened. It shouldn't affect our touring, since we are not scheduled for a real run until sometime in June. Other than that, we are all high and dry. Not as high as we used to get, but high as well.
Let you know what the outcome is when we find out.
Love from here,
G.O.

So all of its not all bad, could be worse, I guess

Here's two stories out of presumabably hundreds:

One artist I work with was off the road and all the touring gear like monitor and house consoles, ear monitor systems and amps and guitar "work" boxes are all at Soundcheck. One of our sound engineers has probably lost a lot of his personal sound gear there as well. I don't believe many of the band members had their stuff in that locker this time, though at times in the past I've had a lot of gear in that locker myself. I'm very lucky!

Another artist I work with was on the road so most daily tour gear and instruments are safe. There was a lot of production stuff we were going to use later in the year though; staging, wireless systems etc that were underwater at Soundcheck for days...

As G.O.s email above says (Hey George!) people are just getting in to assess that damage, and the next few days will be full of more details...

Pete
This is bad news at best. Some of this hits the people who can afford it the least, The Pickers.

I had helped save some of the Opryland Equipment in thge 1975 flood and offered my help to G.O.
We were able to save all of the Fender Amps and Several Fender Rhodes piano's, but it would have probably been cheaper to buy new piano's.

Some things can be recovered, Cabinets and other things made of wood will have to be replaced,

Speakers are usually trashed, but sometimes can be reconed. I hope Woody Wooddell is still around and in business

A Thing as simple as a Stove in the kitchen are invaluable, just bake Electronics at 200 degrees slowly and dry them out after they have been cleaned and plastic items or anything that will melt are removed.

Common Sense Prevails here, Don't attempt to power anything up until it has been cleaned and Thoroughly dried out by The Slow baking thing.

I'm an old Man now and If I were younger, I'd be on the road to Nashville to help out G.O. and my other friends still there.
John

I talked to Ed Adkins the other day, and he got water in his basement, and he's on a hill. He only lost a new floor he just put down.
Hang in there Pete. I know most of the folks in Nashville are strong and resilient.
I guess since there's no one to blame the media doesn't see this as a big story.
But we know and we're thinking of you guys.

I had equipment scattered around in two clubs, a van and at home. Luckily none of it was damaged, so I was one of the lucky ones.

Lots of stuff lost BUT no musical equipment. The only gear I had in our flooded basement were in SBK cases and, to my amazement, once the water receded and I toweled them off, everything inside was fine. Amazing. I can't imagine how much music equipment has been lost around this town, though. It's staggering and I feel terribly lucky to have not lost mine.

Pete, as you may know, when a lurking snow storm is hovering about the DC area, local grocer shelves are emptied of what is considered necessities. Only because, we have been warned. I don't live in your area so I don't know what kind of warnings were issued, if any. I am not a meteorologists, but I suspect as your storm was in progress, there must have been some indication that lots of rain would fall and allow you folks ample time to save your stuff? Yes, I am dumb, educate me....

there must have been some indication that lots of rain would fall and allow you folks ample time to save your stuff?

I can't speak for anybody but me: If I hadn't been 800 miles away trying to make a living playing I would have moved everything upstairs as the storm progressed. But I was and by the time I got there it was too late... My fault I guess?

You sure seem to be implying that anybody that lost possessions, musical or otherwise, has only themselves to blame. I've got some folks I'll happily introduce you to if you believe that strongly enough to say it to their face. If you're just second-guessing all of us from the safety of your computer hundreds of miles away I don't see how it's helpful to anybody...

The weather forecast called for heavy rains, and they probably said something about possible flooding in low-lying areas; they usually do. They didn't say downtown Nashville would be under several feet of water, and by the time we realized how bad it was, it was a little too late, what with roads being closed and cars floating away and power outages. Get it?

Hi Gary. Unfortunately it wasn't nearly as simple as that for a variety of reasons including: Waaaaaaay more rain fell - and fell faster - than was ever predicted, unlike where you are systems aren't set up for huge amounts of water like you get from snow melt-off (the local stormwater systems got overwhelmed rapidly), lots of musicians and crews were out of town as usual and were helpless to do anything, many roads closed quickly and even folks in-town were stranded and couldn't save equipment if they wanted to, floodwaters hit many homes so fast that folks who would have prepared still had no warning.

The list goes on and on...

Hey Pete,
I normally keep my GFI dbl. keyless @ the Opry house, so I don't have to fly a guitar back and forth. As luck would have it Ginger and I went to Nashville the end of February, and picked it up so I could play it at the Dallas Show.
We are so sorry for all of the loss....It is so sad. cya....Ronnie

You sure seem to be implying that anybody that lost possessions, musical or otherwise, has only themselves to blame

Pete, my implications are under no circumstances, ill willed, and to asses blame is counterproductive, at least to where I am coming from. At that is, to understand a little when it comes to pending natural disasters. I am not passing judgment or second guessing anything.

A sad update:

There's a museum out at the Opry House,"The Grand Ole Opry Museum," that a friend is a curator of. It has apparently had most of its collection of priceless country music memorabilia and history pretty much ruined. This is not "The Country Music Hall of Fame" downtown, which as noted has had damage to the building but thankfully not to the huge collection or exhibits. It's not the Ryman Auditorium either, though they supply and curate the exhibits there. This museum had the priceless Roy Acuff instrument collection among other things, some of the staff were able to save guitars owned by Jimmie Rodgers, Carl Smith and some others by putting them in an attic there before being forced to evacuate...

A tragic loss, but also some really dedicated people to be thankful for!

I'm sorry to hear many of you have have lost equipment in this event. The real tragedy is the loss of life there in Tenn, as well as south central Ky, Miss and Ala.

I'm about 2 1/2 hrs. from Nashville. I am free to come any day of the week. I'd be happy to drive down if I can help any individual steel players who need it.

I can shovel mud, or whatever labor is needed to help you clean up. Just let me know.

I probably have some extra gear too.

Post-Katrina, the Tipitina's Foundation solicited instruments for New Orleans musicians who had lost everything in the way of musical gear. This program either gave the instruments to musicians directly and/or sold the instruments to raise funds.

Has anyone heard of a similar program or organization in Nashville?

(I have a very decent recent Martin 000-15 that I'd consider sending to an established, approved and reputable cause along these lines. I'm not thinking of the Vince Gills or Brad Paisleys as much as the pickers I may never hear of, because I fear there may be hundreds or thousands suddenly with nothing to play but all the blues in the world to sing.)

On the bright side:

Soundcheck is by far the biggest storage and rehearsal place for music stuff here, but there's another pretty big one, SIR, that does a lot of the studio players "cartage" and stores their gear. It was apparently pretty much unharmed.

5/7/10 New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/arts/ ... ry.html?hp

What little i have seen on the news is only something about Nashville being the music captial. I doubt the news media knows much about the GOO. I know most locals don't.OR they used to not know about the GOO. My niece and her hubby live in Nashville,(Hendersonville) and both lost thier work places but not thier home.
I can't add anything that hasn't already been said.Tracy

Some of Jerry McPherson's guitars drying out after coming out of Soundcheck....