Annual Cunningham Guitar Raffle benefits Handmade Music School mission
The wood used for the top of this year's featured guitar is old-growth red spruce from a Hurricane Helene salvaged, blowdown tree from the high country of Grayson County. This tree was over 200 years old.
Staff Report
The Handmade Music School at The Floyd Country Store and Southwest Virginia luthier Jackson Cunningham announced last week the fourth annual Cunningham Guitar Raffle.
The Raffle offers a chance to win one of Cunningham’s beautiful custom-made guitars to benefit programming at Floyd's Handmade Music School.
Raffle tickets are $25 (available for purchase through Friday, Nov. 14) and the winning ticket will be selected and announced at the Friday Night Jamboree (in-person and live stream) that evening.
The goal of the fundraiser is to raise funds in support of the Share The Music Scholarship Fund and programming at The Handmade Music School while raising awareness of Jackson Cunningham’s craftsmanship.
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The Handmade Music School operates as a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to cultivating and strengthening community through experiences in music, dance, and art rooted in Appalachian traditions.
After three successful raffles, which have generated over $35,000 for The Handmade Music School, Jackson Cunningham and Dylan Locke at The Handmade Music School have decided to continue the effort.
“The Floyd Country Store has always provided a gathering place for music and so many opportunities in the community,” said Cunningham. “Southwest Virginia has been my home for many years and folks have been very supportive, generous, and giving to me. This is a chance for me to try and return some of that generosity.”
As in years past, the guitar featured in the 2025 raffle has a heavy influence of regional timbers harvested and sourced from around the high country of Southwest Virginia.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene’s destruction in September 2024, salvage efforts around the region allowed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity:
The wood used for the top of this year's featured guitar is old-growth red spruce from a Hurricane Helene salvaged, blowdown tree from the high country of Grayson County. This tree was over 200 years old, salvaged and processed by Cunningham Handmade Instruments, it has been air dried over the last year.
With its 25.34 scale length, and jumbo slope-shoulder body, this guitar has a robust and powerful tone with plenty of midrange and note separation suitable for flatpicking. It also has a sweet low and full tonal register that would support a singer’s voice. The clarity of the highs add to the note articulation of this guitar and will make it stand out in a stringband ensemble setting.
“Red spruce from Whitetop Mountain, has a long storied history with instrument building in SWVA, and it’s an honor to have the privilege to work with it,” said Cunningham.
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Floyd Country Store owner and Handmade Music School founder Dylan Locke is blown away by the instrument and hopes to increase awareness of Cunningham’s beautiful craftsmanship through the fundraiser.
“Once again, everything about the 2025 Raffle guitar is impressive,” said Locke. “The precision of Jackson’s craftsmanship is amazing. The inlays, the frets, the pick-guard, the sunburst are flawless. And it has a beautiful tone and feel. This guitar represents our community here in Southwest Virginia; the story of the Hurricane Helene blowdown red spruce and all of the other materials for this guitar being handed down the same way the music is passed along. A handmade instrument for handmade music… and both have a deep connection to our community and our past.”
Plus, once again, The Harptone Case Company has provided the raffle with a custom, five-ply hardshell, case from their Redline reissue series that is as protective as it is beautiful. Harptone is located in the heart of Virginia and made in the USA.
Purchase raffle tickets and learn more about the rules online at www.handmademusicschool.org.