A night of acoustic and classical music in Eugene supports Hurricane Helene recovery in Western North Carolina, specifically in the Asheville area.
Hurricane Helene slammed into the southeastern United States in September, destroying buildings, causing billions of dollars in damage, injuring hundreds and killing more than 220 people, about half of whom were in North Carolina.
To help the recovery effort, on Jan. 10 Unity of the Valley Church hosts “Eugene to Helene: Fundraiser for Appalachian Hurricane Relief,” with all proceeds benefiting the nonprofit BeLoved Asheville, which is working to provide health care, food, water and other necessities to those affected by the storm.
Eugene acoustic singer-songwriter Laura Kemp will perform. In her 20s, she lived in North Carolina and named one of her songs, which she plans to perform at Unity of the Valley, “Hannah Branch” after a road near Celo, a community not far from Asheville.
“Little did I know when I wrote the song several years ago that the road the song was named for would be washed out as would the bridge to the community,” Kemp tells Eugene Weekly in an email.
North Carolina, Kemp adds, “is a place that deeply impacted me during some very formative years and always holds a place in my heart. Hopefully, we can make a small impact in the relief efforts.”
Eugene jazz and pop singer-songwriter Halie Loren joins Kemp at the benefit. Known for covering jazz standards, Loren says this time she’ll perform acoustic originals along with her partner, Daniel Gallo.
“I have performed in many areas affected by Hurricane Helene,” Loren says, “and have loved my time spent in those beautiful places and being with the people I’ve come to call friends and colleagues there.”
Loren adds, “We, in this area, know the horrors of climate in the form of unprecedented natural disasters,” such as wildfires, “so even though we as Oregonians are literally across the continent from the hurricane’s path, we are in a position to understand and empathize deeply and to feel especially inspired to try and help however we can,” she says.
Along with Kemp and Loren, award-winning Kyrgyzstan-born classical pianist Andrei Andreev will also perform. Oregon-based bluegrass band Midnight45 and Danger Gently, a Central Oregon group playing traditional Appalachian music, led by Darin Gentry, originally from Western North Carolina, round out the bill.
Suzanne Adkins, from Bend, plays bass in Danger Gently, and she says while she doesn’t have a direct connection to North Carolina, she has friends in Asheville. She also has family in New Orleans who were affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, making disaster recovery a topic close to her heart.
The Eugene benefit is the third benefit of its kind organized in part by Adkins, Gentry and fellow Central Oregon musician Austin Quattlebaum, who also has strong ties to North Carolina. The first was in late November in Central Oregon, and the second on Jan. 4 at Silver Moon Brewing in Bend.
As well as music, the Eugene benefit will host a silent auction, with a massage chair and baked goods for sale in the lobby. “I am passionate about helping people impacted by these disasters,” Adkins says, “especially now that the media has moved on.”
Martin Anderson, music director and morning host at WNCW, a public radio station in Asheville, lived in Eugene in the ’90s and hosted programs on KLCC. He says Eugene and Asheville, home to the University of North Carolina at Asheville, are like sister cities: medium-sized university towns with strong regional identities that love and support music and the arts, so Eugene’s Helene benefit has special meaning.
“The national spotlight on our crisis may have left us,” Anderson says of the storm, “but local nonprofits, churches, governments and individuals continue to pitch in where they can.”
“It should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Eugene and Asheville that the former would pitch in to help folks in the latter,” he adds.