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Colin Linden of Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, with his bandmates Stephen Fearing and Tom Wilson, holds the guitar at Mariposa Folk Festival.Supplied

After Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the superstar Canadian guitar maker Linda Manzer saw a photograph of a Ukrainian woman in a scarf, skirt and winter coat getting into a van with a rifle in her hands. Tears running down her face, the woman was headed for the fight.

“She was about my age, and she didn’t want to be doing this, but she was,” the 70-year-old luthier told The Globe and Mail this week. “It occurred to me that if I was over there, she would be me. So, I thought to myself, ‘I gotta do what I can do.’ ”

What Manzer did was build what she calls the Sunflower Guitar for Ukraine, a handmade acoustic model for the people of Ukraine, built to inspire people around the world to donate funds toward humanitarian aid for the besieged country.

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Linda Manzer and the guitar.Supplied

To raise awareness for the campaign, the instrument has been photographed in the hands of elite guitarists including Bill Frisell and Bruce Cockburn, along with singer-songwriter Graham Nash and may others. Ultimately headed for Ukraine, the guitar is currently on an impromptu itinerary that thus far has taken it to big towns (Boston, New York, Montreal) and small ones (Almonte, Ont., and Mystic, Conn.) as well. At the Sunflower Guitar for Ukraine website, the instrument’s journey can be monitored, with hearts on a map representing the stops along the way.

Gordon Lightfoot held the guitar at the Mariposa Folk Festival. Country star Brad Paisley played it expertly at his house in Nashville. “It’s nice,” Paisley said about the six string, in a video posted on YouTube.

Arlo Guthrie, whose iconic father Woody Guthrie famously scrawled “This machine kills fascists” on his own guitar, signed the Sunflower’s guitar case. “Arlo was a complete accident,” Manzer said. “I’m not even sure how that happened.”

Soon, Manzer will take the guitar to Chicago. At some point, it heads to Los Angeles. This thing is the Olympic Torch of guitars.

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Brad Paisley signs the case.Supplied

“Handing it around from person to person, so that everybody puts a little bit of their vibe into the guitar,” said Manzer. “The idea is that it will go from the musical community’s hands to the people of Ukraine, who will get a sense that people care. We’re hoping it turns into monetary support.”

So far, the flattop model, which would normally sell for $25,000, has been used to raise US$107,000. All money goes to the $1k Project for Ukraine and the Canada-Ukraine Foundation.

Manzer, who studied with master luthiers Jean Larrivée and Jimmy D’Aquisto, is an in-demand craftswoman. Her creations have been played by the likes of Lightfoot, Cockburn, Carlos Santana, Liona Boyd and Paul Simon. Among her most exotic creations are the 52-stringed Medusa (owned by Danish musician Henrik Andersen) and the surreal 42-string Pikasso (commissioned by American jazz virtuoso Pat Metheny).

In 2017, Manzer spearheaded the McMichael Canadian Art Collection’s Group of Seven Guitar Project, an exhibition of one-of-a-kind guitars representing each of the Group of Seven painters. Typically, she might spend a full year on an instrument. The Sunflower, made in the spirit of Ukraine’s national flower, took her just 29 days to complete.

“I felt an urgency to do this as fast as I could,” said Manzer. “I dropped everything and worked on it non-stop.”

The instrument’s top is made of German spruce, with Indian rosewood on the back and sides. Manzer used watercolour pencils for the sky and sunflower fields of a headstock design that also incorporates 23 mother of pearl pieces. “I’ve been saving them my whole life,” Manzer said.

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Bruce Cockburn plays the hand-made Sunflower Guitar for Ukraine.Supplied

Manzer uses people she trusts to get the guitar into the hands of assorted luminaries who have played it, been photographed with it, signed the blue-and-yellow guitar case or otherwise endorsed the project. The guitar tech and respected Nashville luthier Joe Glaser, for example, has the right connections in Music City.

“We don’t know who’s going to end up touching it or playing it,” Manzer said.

Despite the stars associated with the initiative, Manzer has been struck by the more random interactions with the guitar. There’s Bill, an Amtrak porter who took an interest in the instrument. A busker in New York’s Central Park played John Lennon’s Imagine on it. In New Jersey, a family from Ukraine who were deboarding a ferry noticed the vivid case. The two children, who couldn’t speak English but knew their home country’s national colours, posed for a photo.

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Bill Frisell and the guitar.Supplied

“It’s been magical and more inspiring than I could have ever imagined,” Manzer said.

The original plan was to deliver the Sunflower to Ukraine by Christmas. However, because of the unexpected success of the project thus far, the guitar’s fundraising trip will likely extend into the new year. Arranging the formal presentation of the instrument abroad is complicated – after all, there’s a war on.

It’s Manzer’s hope that the guitar will ultimately land in an institute where Ukrainian musicians will have access to it. That said, after the Sunflower is out of her hands, so is the decision of where it ends up.

“It’s a gift to Ukraine, so they can do whatever they want with it once they get it,” Manzer said. “The guitar is important, but, really, it’s more about what it represents. Music is the universal language, and this is a symbol of peace.”

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