[Acoustic guitar playing] ♪ Man: Welcome to the "Knott Downtown Radio Hour."

I'm your host Doug Naselroad, and once again, we're bringing our favorite people back to the "Knott Downtown Radio Hour," like this group of alumni we've assembled here tonight.

Despite numerous individual adversities, we've come back home to our little woodshop on the creek.

♪ Making musical instruments is mystical.

It's magical.

You take a chunk of wood, put your work into it.

You put your life, your spirit into making this thing just so, and at the end of it, when you've got this instrument finished and you have the chance to play it, there's all this joy that comes pouring out of it.

How could that not be transformative?

♪ Hill: I'm on the road to Hindman, Kentucky, to meet with Doug Naselroad.

A few years ago, he started the Appalachian School of Luthiery, along with a rehabilitation program for people in recovery from addiction, showing a pathway for people to find value in their life, to find a place in this world through the process of making stringed instruments.

Hey.

Naselroad: Hey, guy.

Hill: How's everything?

Naselroad: It's good.

How are you doing?

Hill: Good, man, glad to be here.

Naselroad: You're finding your way around Hindman?

Hill: You know what I mean?

Just working my way up the street and working it back down.

Naselroad: That couldn't have taken too long.

Hill: You see?

Ha ha ha!

♪ What is everyone doing here?

Naselroad: Jesse here is voicing a mandolin top.

I'm really proud of my guys, and if I had 100 of these finished and ready to ship, they could all go out tomorrow, you know.

I mean, we've got plenty of people that want them.