When the Cumberland River in Nashville rose over its banks after a weekend of thunderstorms, the nation’s music industry took a pretty hard hit – including a musician who hails from Newhall.

Hart High alum John Hobbs is a studio musician and band leader for country artist Vince Gill. He’s been on the road with Gill for the last 10 years, and both writes songs and produces records for other artists, most recently Leanne Rimes.

Hobbs is also one of a thousand musicians who store equipment at Sound Check Nashville, a 160,000 square-foot, single-story warehouse that sits right next to the Cumberland.

The contents of the warehouse – including many one-of-a-kind priceless instruments – have been under eight feet of water since Sunday.

“Lots of very famous people keep their instruments there,” Hobbs said. “Keith Urban keeps all his guitars and amplifiers and all of his staging, audio and lighting equipment for his tour there, ditto Brad Paisley. Because I’m primarily a studio musician, I store various keyboards, synthesizer gear and amplifiers and audio processing gear there.”

Hobbs said he knows he’s lost a good portion of his equipment, including a vintage 1955 Hammond B3/Leslie and a Fender Rhodes keyboard.

“It’s not that it’s hard to replace equipment per se, but far and above insurance considerations, it’s hard to find these particular items.”

Now that the waters have receded somewhat, Hobbs said that the warehouse will open tomorrow morning for clients to come in and assess the damage.

“Vince (Gill) had several hundred rare, pre-World War II vintage Martin and Gibson guitars stored in his locker. A little bit of moisture can harm one of those instruments and while they are in ostensibly hard-shell cases that are sealed when you close them, being under eight feet of water that’s got oil and sewage and other industrial chemicals in it from what’s down by the river can’t be good.”

He added that companies are standing by to take the equipment to various locations in an attempt to dry them out and salvage what they can, but there are no guarantees.

“I feel confident in saying there are a lot fewer rare guitars and keyboards in the world than there were last week,” he said.

“On the brighter side, I will say that the sense of community among musicians is showing itself,” Hobbs continued. “I got a call yesterday from a competitor of Sound Check that is on higher ground, and they said if I needed any of their equipment, some of their keyboard clients have offered anything from them if I have to work somewhere and I don’t have the proper gear.”

He credited social networks for contributing to the camaraderie.

“Facebook has been a real boon, people have been reaching out with offers, ‘I have this guitar,’ or ‘I have this Hammond organ if you need to use it.’ People do step up in times of trouble and try to help their neighbors.”

“I know that people say that instruments, ultimately, compared to your house and your life, are just things, but they are precious things that you gather along the way as a musician.”

As part of the area’s recovery, Hobbs is working on organizing a radio-thon to raise money for flood victims and getting some of his big-name friends involved.

“There are a couple thousand people in Red Cross shelters right now and a lot more people affected who are not in shelters. We’re going to do what we can to help them.”