In time of great loss, musical instruments comforted KY flood and tornado victims

The night of the historic Eastern Kentucky floods in July, Letcher County teacher Polly Fleming woke up her teenage daughter Bellamie and told her to grab the essentials.

Bellamie, a seventh grader, grabbed her musical instruments.

She has always loved music, playing the clarinet, saxophone, french horn and trumpet, but after losing her Letcher County home in the flood this past summer, Bellamie stopped playing music for a time.

One of her dreams came true, however, when she was among the mountain musicians who received more than 600 new and refurbished musical instruments from the WoodSongs Flood Relief Effort project for the flood victims across eastern Kentucky. WoodSongs is a volunteer run radio and TV broadcast.

“After we lost our house, I just kind of quit playing for a couple of months,” Bellamie said. “I find a lot of joy and happiness in music so when I was able to get this instrument, it made me very happy and it made me very hopeful.”

Free instruments for tornado victims were also distributed in March in Mayfield, Dawson Springs and Owensboro.

The ‘dream instrument’

Bellamie, a member of the Letcher Central High School band, and her mother arrived early the day the instruments were distributed in October. They helped to unload the 20-foot box truck loaded with guitars, banjos, mandolins, fiddles and band instruments, waiting patiently for over an hour to make their instrument request.

Since the flood, Bellamie has began showing interest in stringed instruments, Fleming said. She has access to all sorts of instruments but the one she really wanted was an upright bass or as the family calls them, a doghouse bass.

Fleming said she could not afford to purchase one.

When the WoodSongs group came to Knott Central High School to give instruments to flood victims, Bellamie and her mother along with several others got out of their cars and helped unload the truck.

Folksinger Michael Johnathon, founder of WoodSongs, asked her what type of instrument they would like to get.

“I told him the dream instrument would be an upright bass,” Fleming said.

A few moments later, a woman pulled up and began unloading instruments from the back of her car. There it was: an upright bass wrapped up in a moving blanket.

Fleming told Bellamie not to get excited, that it may be reserved for someone.

“We stood and waited as they gave out guitars, banjos, dulcimers, fiddles, drums, banjos. When they made it to Bellamie, Michael pointed to an upright base, turned toward her and told her it was hers,” Fleming said.

“Bellamie began trembling and crying which also made me cry, too. I thought this was only a dream instrument, but here it is.”

They discovered the instrument was a Wurlitzer 1934 worth more than $5,000, she said.

For Bellamie, who said, “I play everything” from classical to modern day pop hits to 80’s rock, the donation made her day.

“It’s made her week, her month and her year, I believe,” Fleming said.

Fleming said she and her husband were so focused on recovering from the flood and getting a new home that they didn’t realize Bellamie went from playing music every day to not playing at all.

The instrument donation “has helped bring our child back to life,” said Fleming.

History of the bass

On December 26, the Flemings talked with Linda Stith of Versailles, who donated the bass fiddle that she inherited from her late father Raymond Atcher.

He was part of the Atcher Family Band that performed in the 1930s and had many fans in Eastern Kentucky, Stith told the Herald-Leader.

The Atcher boys grew up in West Point, Kentucky, along the Ohio River.

In 1937, their home flooded and washed off its foundation down the river. “After much hard work it was reconstructed,” Stith said.

Afterward, her father and uncles would play at that house as the family gathered around.

“I can think of no better way to honor my father and his musical family than to donate it to this wonderful cause,” Stith said.

Stith said she took the bass fiddle to Currier’s Music World in Richmond without knowing who in Eastern Kentucky would receive it.

“My father would be so happy that a young lady with an interest in and talent in music would be playing his bass fiddle,” she said.

Cathy Currier, owner of Currier’s Music World in Richmond, said she helped repair donated instruments so they could go to new homes.

“I think its very important to keep the music going especially when there are big disasters like this,” Currier said.

Tornado aftermath

Titus Flowers, a junior at Graves County High School, did not lose his home but many people in his community of Mayfield did. Titus spent hours helping them, and received a double bass through the WoodSongs effort.

“I work as a the client service director at the local pregnancy resource center. In the days following the tornado we set aside all our regular operations and opened up as a distribution center,” said his mother, Rebekah Flowers.

She said Titus helped unload and organize 15 trucks full of items to distribute and volunteered at a shelter in Wingo.

“For the next four months, he would spend long hours helping move items, load vehicles, and aid in clean up and recovery. I cannot put into words what receiving the double bass meant to him, but will never forget the joy that I heard in his voice as he called me and said ‘Mom, bring your car, they gave me an full sized double bass,’” she said.

Johnathon said that love is the greatest transaction of the arts — it drives everything his group does, everything they create and everything they feel.

“This was a time to put our politics, opinions and divisions aside and be loving neighbors to those in real, actual need. Let’s not underestimate the comfort music and art can bring to families and neighbors in a time of great loss,” Johnathon said.

“When you build something out of love like that you want to return it to the community,” he said. “Everybody came through and it was a beautiful experience.”