Last week the media was just starting to report that several prominent country musicians, such as Brad Paisley and Keith Urban, expected to lose instruments and most of their touring equipment to the Nashville flood. The damage was done when the rising Cumberland River invaded Soundcheck Nashville, a storage and rehearsal space that at least 600 musicians rely on. This week reports of the actual, as opposed to the anticipated, damage started to come in.

In the end, musicians had to wait three days for flood waters to recede before they could attempt to enter their storage units at Soundcheck. When they did go in, they had to don rubber boots and gloves and wade through puddles. According to The Tennessean, salvagers found around 1,000 guitars, 2,000 amplifiers, and hundreds of drum sets that were damaged or destroyed. [More]

Some of the worst of the Nashville flooding this week has hit Soundcheck Nashville, a storage and rehearsal space relied upon by many prominent country musicians. Some musicians, including Brad Paisley and Keith Urban, have lost most of their touring equipment and many of their guitars.

"I sent a Tweet the other day that basically told people that when they come to the show just know that what you're seeing has been fully tested under water," Paisley commented jokingly to an Associated Press interviewer on Wednesday. His H2O tour is scheduled to begin in two weeks in Virginia Beach, Virginia. "You're talking about total cred. This is the H2O tour. This isn't posers acting like we know about it. We've done it, buddy." Almost all of Paisley's touring equipment was underwater, although one exception was the 1952 Fender Telecaster, painted in a paisley pattern, which is his trademark. But Paisley is determined to start his tour on time. "My guitar tech is spending like a broker on the stock exchange floor," he said. [More]

Tennessee's historic floods last weekend are hitting poor Tennesseans the hardest. Many lost nearly everything they own when the Cumberland River came rushing through their homes. Now that the waters are starting to recede, flood victims are salvaging whatever they can. But they need a place to put the things they salvage now that their homes have been destroyed -- or at least rendered unliveable.

In response, self storage facilities all over the state of Tennessee are offering a month of free storage to flood victims. Most self storage facilities also offer free storage to tornado victims whenever there is a need. Some companies, such as Extra Space, always offer a month of free storage to first time renters. [More]