Local band working to recover after theft, vandalism

A local band would like to be playing the blues instead of feeling them, after the theft and vandalism of their musical equipment.

The Black River Blues Band has been feeling melancholy since June, when the members lost at least $8,000 worth of musical equipment and a trailer.

They have recently kicked off fundraising efforts they hope will help get them back in tune. Their goal is to raise $3,500.

Naylor students and staff have organized a fundraiser Friday to help with the effort, in addition to a GoFundMe page started this month by the band.

The trailer containing their equipment was stolen last summer from Jim Hager’s Poplar Bluff driveway. Along with Hager, the group is composed of Darin Stevens, Tom Chrisman and Geoff Lewis.

The trailer was located the next morning on Butler County Road 661. The trailer and the equipment had been burned.

An arrest has been made in the theft, but it still left band members without much of their equipment.

They received no insurance money. The trailer would have needed to be attached to either Hager’s home or his truck to quality for insurance, and financial help would have paid only for the trailer not the equipment.

Stolen was a full set of drums with a DW 3000 drum kick pedal, all valued at more than $4,000, an amp mixer in a rack, main and monitor speakers, $2,000 worth of cables in a crate, lighting, and cymbals with a stand. The trailer was valued at $2,000, but the band will not replace it, Hager said.

Left without any financial help, the quartet of musicians gathered enough equipment to entertain at a wedding reception the next night.

They’ve been singing the blues while trying to replace what they can afford.

The band cannot play without equipment, Hager said. They are ready and trying to get back into the swing of it.

Hager shared a comment from fellow band member Stevens, who compares the group to a phoenix raising out of the ashes.

The group has been together since 2011-2012, and they’ve preformed at many functions.

The band also has donated its time, services and equipment to serve charitable causes including Wappstock and Bonestock, Hager said.

One of the band’s favorite places to preform is at Naylor school functions. In response, the Naylor students and teachers are conducting a fundraiser to benefit the band Friday. They will pay a $1 to wear a hat, and the money will go to the band.

Hager said, the students “dig our music. We played at their track and field day. I am close to the school district.”

Stevens’s wife also teaches at Naylor.

At the insistence of friends, Jan. 16 the group started a GoFundMe account. Their goal is to raise $3,500, and they have received “$670 of our goal and feel very blessed,” Stevens said.

On the list of needs is sound equipment, as well as better disc jockey equipment. Hager has been using a small older unit he had.

“We are strapped,” said Hager, admitting some of the sentimental value of the equipment can never be replaced.

Hager’s wife, who he calls his rock, bought him drums for his first father’s day they were together. He named them Ethel. They were destroyed by the fire.

Stevens agrees with Hager saying “quite a bit was lost.” The band said it’s trying to buy less than what was lost.

Stevens said, the destruction of their equipment “really knocked us out. We had a little backup equipment.” Someone suggested the band ask for help, but the band members “have been really reluctant” to ask for help.

The band is planning a free concert for donors and the community after they replace their equipment.

While the fire may have wiped out their equipment, nothing has put out the flames in their hearts to play music and “get back on our feet and get together for a good time, that is what we have in mind,” Stevens said.

If you had rather not donate on the Black River Blues GoFundMe page, Stevens said, call 573-707-0293 and leave a message or send check to Black River Blues, 8 Fox Drive, Doniphan, MO. 63935.