Don't Get Around Much Any More

It's always a sweeter evening when The Chick Singer's on hand. We'd not seen our Michelle Walker for a month or more. She's been busy with personal, non-musical business. But last night she rolled into town and cranked Wednesday night up a couple of notches. You know, there are tunes we never play except when Michelle is in the room, like this great old Duke Ellington number.

Ready for the Times to Get Better

Our old buddy Paul Martin doesn't join us on our Wednesday night jam sessions nearly often enough, but when he does, he makes memories. Recently Paul came with his mandolin and sat in for the entire evening, producing smiles all around the room. Here he and his old bandmate Randy Hamilton team up on the 1978 tune, "Ready for the Times to Get Better." The song was originally recorded by country crooner Crystal Gayle, but it's perhaps better known in the folkie world for the Doc Watson version of a few years back.

Sittin' on Top of the World

Pamela, The Flood's manager, occasionally reminds us that the weekly jam session is social as well as musical, a gathering of friends, regular listeners as well as players. We thought of that again as we listened to this track, which seems to capture the feeling of this particular evening. The end of a long, hot summer. Folks coming in happy … happy to be out of the heat, happy to see old friends again, happy to settle into this old Mississippi Sheiks tune that's as comfortable as a soft hat and cool breeze…

What's in The Soup This Week?

What we love about the Wednesday night jam sessions is that each one's different, depending on who's in the mix. It's like a good soup made from whatever ingredients just happen to be in the kitchen at the time. Some Wednesdays are all about blues, others are country or folk. Last night was a swinging evening, with the main ingredients being Doug Chaffin on bass, Joe Dobbs on fiddle, Jim Rumbaugh on harmonica, Randy Brown on guitar, and the rest of us just reaching out and holding on for the ride…

Randy Brown and Joe Dobbs Jam Like the Old Days

Randy Brown is a jazz guitar player who regularly sits in with us and just classes up the joint! And whenever he starts playing great handfuls of what our Doug Chaffin calls "those Louisville chords," it's fun to watch the jaws drop around the room. Randy has known Joe Dobbs almost as long as The Flood has, with shared musical memories reaching back to the late 1970s. Last night, we got the two of them jamming on a few fiddle-and-guitar duets. These days, the Wednesday night jam sessions have become all the richer now that Randy has become a regular.