Doug Naselroad: Building Instruments to Recover from Floods and Addiction in Appalachia

Doug Naselroad says, “Recovery from a substance abuse disorder is not that different than recovery from a catastrophic disaster. It's a work that you're going to be doing for the rest of your life.” That understanding energizes Doug’s work helping people recover from addiction by teaching them to build stringed instruments. Doug lives in the small town of Hindman, Kentucky, which on July 28, 2022 was all but destroyed after severe rains caused the Troublesome Creek to rise into a thousand year flood. We heard Doug in a news interview as he stood in four feet of water trying to save 100-year-old instruments from rushing downriver, and it resonated that in the midst of utter disaster, people were working to recover instruments of song, of story, of Appalachian history, all the while holding on to hope. 

Learn more about Doug Naselroad and the Culture of Recovery at troublesomecreekguitars.com.

This is the last episode of Season 2, but we’ll be back again next fall with more HOPE. In the meantime, connect with Kate Tucker on instagram.com/katetuckermusic and follow, rate, and review the show, it makes a BIG difference. 

Hosted and produced by Kate Tucker, Hope Is My Middle Name is a podcast by Consensus Digital Media in collaboration with Reasonable Volume.