Sheri Oneal
Becky Lynn Street
A lot has happened over the past few weeks and I want to catch you all up to where ReTune Nashville is today. Sorry for the long post below but it is worth a read and be sure to watch the video and look at the pics of the gear we have included!
On Tuesday June 8th I met with Rich Eckhardt (guitarist for Toby Keith) and picked up an electric and an acoustic guitar donation. Rich was kind enough to also allow me to shoot some video for ReTune to use as promotion. If you have not seen it please watch it below! Last week Toby’s bassist, Chuck Goff donated a bass as well! Thank you Chuck and Rich for your donations!
Pat & David Hutcherson of Foggy Bottom Canoe Rental donated 27 violins (a few images below), 1 sax and 1 dulcimer. They lost their home and much of their life was washed away that weekend in May. They are still living out of a tent until they can rebuild. My understanding is that Pat is a violin instructor and lost most of her business during the flood. If you plan to do something fun on the water this summer be sure to rent a canoe or kayak from them on the Harpeth and help them to get back on their feet.
Michael Bennett is a great asset to ReTune Nashville, he has taken on the job of cleaning and decontaminating the gear as we receive it. It is a difficult job and we are so happy to have him on our team. He picked up a Mandolin donation from Donna Long this week to add to our collection.
Monique Larroux was able to get some pedals and a keyboard donation from Brady Seals, formally of Little Texas. Thank you Brady!
On Friday June 25 I made a visit to Joe Glaser’s instrument repair company, his expertise has been said to be the best around. After visiting his facility he certainly has the volume of work to support the claim. He was nice enough to walk me through each room, pointing out the flood damaged gear he was currently working on (some are shown below) by such names as Keb Mo, Vince Gill, John Fogerty and so many others. He graciously donated 8 guitars (more images below) that were not worth fixing from prominent artist who had these items stored at Soundcheck. I was blown away by what he shared with me and so grateful to have the opportunity to meet this talented man in person! Joe mentioned that he may have another 20 items next week so keep your fingers crossed everyone. Thank you so much Joe!
We also received an electric guitar and a mandolin from Todd Cecil last week, he was deeply affected by the flood and has been recovering over the past month. The electric Todd gave us was his very first guitar and held so much meaning to him as a musician. We wish Todd all the best with his recovery and thank you for the donations!
We also want to thank Travis and Julie Watson for donatng a piece of the Ford Theater, we think this will make a great base for a piece of sculpture! Check out their Ford Theater Project on their web site for more info...thank you both for the donation!
And finally I want to thank McQuiddy Printing and Advocate Marketing and Print for each printing a batch of four color business cards for ReTune Nashville at no cost. We are so very grateful to you both!
We have collected over 60 instruments in the past few weeks and the donations keep coming in! We are now ready to move on to our 2nd stage and engage the visual artist! We will be releasing the donations we have received to various visual artist to begin their creations. We will continue taking in donations so if you are or know a visual artist who wants to participate go to the ReTune site and fill out an artist application.
As we move to the next stage we will need all the help we can for gaining sponsorship, media coverage and planning our events and auction. We have a lot of people who have applied as volunteers on our web site. If you think you can help please let us know, we do not have a lot of experience in these areas and are looking for people who want to help who have knowledge they are willing to share. Help us to make ReTune Nashville’s mission a success and keep spreading the word!!!
