Stolen mandolin recovered

Chris Harris with his recently reacquired mandolinThose of us who work in and around the music business recognize instrument thieves as among the most degenerate scum prowling the earth. We share the frustration and anger that accompanies the story of a professional musician finding their instrument stolen, and can likewise experience the elation when it is recovered and returned to its owner.

Here’s a happy ending to a story we reported just after IBMA. Chris Harris, mandolinist with Junior Sisk and Rambler’s Choice, realized that someone had taken his Steffey model mandolin from the Renaissance Hotel in the wee hours of the morning following the IBMA Awards Show.

Brance posted information about the stolen instrument on October 6, and yesterday we received news that the mandolin had been identified by a Nashville music store, and will soon be back in Chris’ hands.

Here’s a note we received yesterday from Clay Rigdon:

“I am the store manager of Sam Ash Music in Nashville, TN. I came in contact with an item that was stolen from an individual at the recent IBMA convention. I wanted you to know that, because of a blog that was posted on your site, we were able to start the process of getting it back into the hands of it’s rightful owner.”

Great news all around, and hats off to Clay and Sam Ash Nashville for the due diligence. If you are a Nashville-based musician, please make a point to thank Clay for his work in returning Chris’ mandolin.

Sam Ash Nashville
1647 Gallatin Pike North
Madison, TN 37115-2151
615-860-7475
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comment #54911 By jenhitt on 10.14.08 10:58 am

Reason number 8,596 why the Bluegrass Blog is awesome!

[...] The Bluegrass Blog » Stolen mandolin recovered: bluegrass music news Blog This: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]

comment #55075 By Jon Eric on 11.11.08 12:20 pm

I absolutely LOVE hearing good news like this!
Any instrument that has a good home deserves to be in the hands of it’s player. Way to go to Sam Ash (Nashville) and to the Bluegrass Blog for bringing Chris Harris’ Mandolin back home!

Banjoistically yours,

Jon Eric

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