Moonshine in Those West Virginia Hills

Flood buddy Rose Marie Riter, a regular at our Wednesday night jam sessions, heads up our ministry of laughter and general tomfoolery. Miz Rose brought her brother and niece to last night's jam session and, at one point in the evening she requested this … oh, so beautiful old Roy Harvey ballad, called, "We've Got Moonshine in Those West Virginia Hills." Brother Dave Peyton was on hand and happy to do the honors.

Floodiz Navidad

It was Christmas Eve-eve-eve, and several dozen people were in the room to party with The Flood at our weekly jam session, when we turned it over to Dave Ball -- to us, he's known as "Bub" -- for a seasonal chuckle: a twisted Christmas parody from the great Bob Rivers. Later in the evening, The Flood's good buddy, Mike Smith, dropped in to favor us with a beautiful a cappella rendition of one of our all-time favorite carols of the season. Happy holidays, everybody!

You Got Me Runnin'

One of the fun things about our weekly jam sessions is that there are often surprises. For instance, for years The Flood has used this simple little Jimmy Reed piece from 1959 as a warm-up tune, without thinking much about it. However, recently, Michelle Walker came up with an interesting harmony part for the vocals and suddenly it's like a new brand new tune for us.

Ashokan Farewell

New Yorker Jay Ungar wrote "Ashokan Farewell" in 1982 and for nearly a decade, the sweet waltz, written in the style of a Scottish lament, was known mainly only to Jay's fellow fiddlers. But then in 1990s, filmmaker Ken Burns used it as the title theme of his Civil War series on PBS and suddenly the tune was an international hit. The song's always been a late-night favorite at the Flood jam sessions, especially when, like last night, Doug Chaffin moves over to guitar to partner with Joe Dobbs' beautiful fiddle.