Guitars ripped off as folksinger snoozes in van
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Stealing guitars from a struggling folksinger - how low can you go?
Texas songstress Jana Hunter, here on tour with fellow experimental folksinger Ray Raposa, played Friday night at Solar Culture, a downtown art gallery and live performance venue, after which a thief or thieves nearly ended their tour.
Some $5,000 worth of music equipment and guitars were stolen from their van as Raposa slept inside the vehicle, Hunter said.
Hunter said she slept at the home of a woman she met at the performance who offered her sofa to the singer. Hunter said Raposa slept in their rented van, parked near the home, to guard the equipment, but slept through the theft.
She said a front door on the van was broken, preventing it door from being locked.
Now Hunter and Raposa are struggling to borrow equipment or come up with the money to buy replacement equipment.
"It's just sad," Steve Eye, owner of Solar Culture, 31E. Toole Ave., said of the theft.
He said Hunter and Raposa, of the group the Castanets, played to an audience of 20 Friday night.
Tickets were $7 per person and Hunter said she often does not make enough money through her singing to even pay tour expenses.
For that reason she did not have insurance on the van, she estimates the repair bill at $2,000, and she did not have theft insurance on the stolen equipment and guitars.
Eye said that in more than 2,000 shows he has put on at Solar Culture over the past 20 years, "never has anything of the band's been ripped off.
"You hear all about it in bigger cities," Eye said.
Eye said Hunter's music, she also writes songs, "is a form of folk music, sort of mutated folk music, strange and beautiful, there are beautiful elements to it."
"I don't know if it has given me a bad feeling about Tucson," Hunter said of the theft, it's given me a bad feeling in general."
Hunter said she is preparing to continue her tour. She was slated to sing Monday in Denton and Dallas, Texas.
Hunter reported the theft to police, but there was no word available Monday as to whether there were suspects in the theft, said Sgt. Decio Hopffer, a police spokesman.
Meanwhile, Hunter is not optimistic any of the guitars or equipment will be recovered.
"I'm not really keeping my hopes up about that," she said.
She asked that anyone knowing anything about the theft or the whereabouts of the property e-mail her at jana.hunter@gmail.com.
Hopffer said anyone with such information can call police at 911 or the county attorney's anonymous tipster line at 88-CRIME.
Hunter said the stolen equipment and guitars included included:
● A Fender classical guitar.
● A late 1960's, blue, Fender music master guitar.
● A Boss rc-20 loopstation.
● A Boss reverb/delay pedal.
● An original Digitech whammy pedal.
● An original B.K. Butler tubedriver overdrive pedal.
● A Line 6 delay pedal.
● A Boss tuner pedal.
● A briefcase containing Jana Hunter CDs, T-shirts and stickers and a sticker on the case saying, "Houston deserves to be a better place to live."
- Read All Comments » 4 TOTAL COMMENTS
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Allen R. (?)
Jun 25, 2007 @ 8:38pmThey need to look for the guitars in that warehouse that the city is paying to refurbish. -
Jack C. (JAY D)
Jun 25, 2007 @ 8:18pmDo you think DRUGS could have been involved -
Logical T. (J.S.)
Jun 25, 2007 @ 7:33pmThis shows people just trust Tucsonans as being good people too much... - Post a Comment »