Smoky Mountain J.A.M. students perform at the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center in Townsend, Tennessee last fall, led by affiliate director Sarah Pirkle (center, with fiddle). Photo courtesy of Junior Appalachian Musicians
From Appalachia to Arizona (and back)
A Bluegrass Adventure
This is a story about how a two groups of young people learning to play bluegrass music connected across 2,003 miles to share 13 banjos, 4 mandolins, 6 guitars, and 20 fiddles.
In September 2024, immediately after the IBMA Business Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, the world was just beginning to hear about the effects of Hurricane Helene and start the long process of recovery. Families in the path of Helene lost their musical instruments, along with their homes and possessions. Groups like Michael Johnathan’s WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour and ReString Appalachia collected instruments to distribute to those who needed them.
A few months later IBMA Foundation executive director Nancy Cardwell and Anni Beach, director of the Jam Pak Blues 'N' Grass Neighborhood Band program in Chandler, Arizona, were talking about Anni’s surplus of donated bluegrass instruments.
“It’s amazing,” Beach said. “We didn’t have any instruments f
