LEVERETT — Devastating floods in Letcher County, Kentucky continue to impact the home communities of friends of a Leverett-based organization that has sought to bring understanding and healing across the political divide.
With the need for relief in eastern Kentucky paramount, the Hands Across the Hills group, formed following the divisive 2016 U.S. presidential election, is holding a benefit concert on Saturday.
Bands Across the Hills, as the concert is being called, will begin at 7 p.m. at Leverett Crafts & Arts, located at 13 Montague Road. Tickets are $10 at the door.
The event is being organized by Mark Gamble, a Leverett musician who hosted the Kentuckians during their exchange visit in October 2017, and made music from his home while they were in town, using his mandolin and guitar.
Sarah Pirtle, a children’s author and musician who has been a member of the organization, has an original composition about the Kentucky floods, titled “Bridge to Kentucky,” that she will perform at the event, Gamble said.
Pirtle will also be joined by Norma Jean Haynes, a traveling singer, educator and banjo player from Northampton, to perform a theme song written at the request of Hands Across the Hills founder Paula Green as a gift to the Kentuckians.
Other musicians on the bill include the Box Shop Trio, made up of Leverett singer-songwriters Gene Stamell, Walt Burnham and Mitch Mulholland; Gamble’s group, known as Beyond the RALM, where he is joined by Rachel Mann on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Asaph Murfin on pedal steel, dobro and harmonica, and Lisa Pack Kirschenbaum on harmony vocals and lead guitar; and Deep C Duo and freelance cellist Robert Rivera.
The money raised from the concert will be supplemented by donations for flood relief through a GoFundMe that is dedicated to two Letcher County organizations run by Hands Across the Hills members, who are on the front lines of flood relief at the Cowan Community Action Group and Hemphill Community Center.
The GoFundMe page is at gofund.me/eaa879ba.
Saturday’s event will also feature images of the flooding, and short videos from Kentuckians.
Hands Across the Hills was formed as a way to learn more about how former President Donald Trump, who won 14.4% of the 2016 vote in Leverett, could garner 80% of the vote in Letcher County.
In 2018, Leverett’s participants went to Kentucky for three days of discussions, presentations and tours of Letcher County. That followed the earlier visit by 11 Kentucky residents, several of whom are affiliated with a network that has been trying to rebuild that region’s largely coal-dependent economy.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.