Official Website of Barisal Guns

Wow.  As many of you know we’ve had a whirlwind start to the new  year.  It started off almost as bad as it gets, on New Year’s Day with the news that the building that was home to our (and many others) rehearsal space was on fire.   At the time, Ashley and I were in New Orleans with our families and Ben and Liam were vacationing in Europe.   As Ashley and I rushed up to Baton Rouge, we frantically tried to get in touch with the brothers thousands of miles away.  When we got there, we could only watch as thousands of gallons of water rained down on the space we had spent the last four years.   We weren’t sure what would come of it, but it did not look good.

Needless to say, after days of uncertainty, it became apparent that most everything we had was a total loss.  We were, however, able to dig a few charred instruments out of the rubble with the help of Mr. Bill, Ben and Liam’s dad.  Never did I think that I would be so happy to see waterlogged, burnt, and barely recognizable guitars.   There is a good chance that one or two might see the stage again in some form (after extensive restoration of course).

As bad as the fire was, something truly amazing started to happen in its wake.  Because so many artists and bands had been affected by this tragedy, it gave the arts community in Baton Rouge something to rally around.  A wide variety of artists, non-profit organizations, businesses, and members of the community all wanted to know how they could help those musicians affected.  Now in the weeks since the fire, this effort has become organized into From the Flames, a diverse yet united group of community interests that are working together to achieve more than any could do individually.   FTF is organizing a number of projects to benefit these artists, including

• a donation fund set up through the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge
• a benefit CD featuring the music of affected artists
• a website
• a festival-style benefit event

Barisal Guns urges everyone to follow From the Flames for the lastest news on the benefit effort.

http://www.fromtheflames.net

http://twitter.com/fromtheflames

http://facebook.com/preserveourmusic

This entry was posted on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 1:49 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.