It seems fitting that members of the Portland band The Ghost of Paul Revere call their music “holler folk.” Last week, the band hollered for help – after their trailer full of gear was stolen from a Colorado hotel parking lot – and their fans and friends answered.
A fundraising campaign set up to recoup the cost of the lost equipment has raised more than $28,000 in two days, according to the band’s page at gofundme.com.
The theft occurred sometime between about 8:30 p.m. Thursday and 11 a.m. Friday in the back parking lot of a Double Tree by Hilton hotel in Aurora, Colorado, according to a post on the band’s Instagram account. The four members of the band had just driven some 2,000 miles from Maine, towing the trailer behind a van, to begin a monthlong tour of Western states. The 5-by-7-foot box trailer was filled with instruments, including a drum set, as well as merchandise the band sells on tour. The theft was reported to police.
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The band played an outdoor show for the opening of Carnaval ME on Portland’s Eastern Promenade on Feb. 18 before heading out on tour.
“Without these things, we are left without the tools to provide for ourselves and our families and do what makes us happiest in life, play music,” the band members wrote on GoFundMe on Saturday.
Within 24 hours, the band had reached its $20,000 goal, and by Monday afternoon, the total was at more than $28,800.
“Thank you to each and every one of you who reached out and/or shared our story on social media,” the band wrote on its Facebook page after donations began pouring in. “Your continued support means the world to us.”
The band is well-known in Maine and frequently tours the country. In 2019, Gov. Janet Mills signed legislation declaring the band’s song “The Ballad of the 20th Maine” the official state ballad. The song, written by band member Griffin Sherry, is about the 20th Maine Regiment’s crucial role in winning the Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War.
The band was scheduled to play in Colorado over the weekend and then play in Idaho, Washington and Oregon this coming week.
No one from the band could be immediately reached to say whether new instruments have been purchased or whether any shows had to be canceled.
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