Busy Weekend!

The Flood has a busy weekend ahead, with back-to-back gigs. Friday night we're pleased to be invited to play at the pre-party at Heritage Station for the big 5th annual Huntington Music and Arts Festival. We start our 45-minute set at 7 p.m. Come downtown and party with us. And then on Saturday we're thrilled to be part of a celebration for one of our heroes. Former U.S. Congressman Ken Hechler is 100 years old this year, Huntington is turning out to honor this legendary legislator, and The Flood gets to provide the music for what promises to be a memorable afternoon. Joining us for the day is our old buddy, Floodster Emeritus Chuck Romine, on tenor banjo. Chuck and Ken go back a long way: Chuck was a student in Mr. Hechler's first class at Marshall University back in the 1950s. At last night's rehearsal, we begin making our selections for the shows, and we found Br'er Romine in fine form indeed. Check this out!

Bringing It Back Home with Paul Martin

We're set to play at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena this Friday night at the reception for the Ohio River Festival of Books -- "ORFOB," to its friends.  We're little short-handed on soloists for this gig, though, so our good buddy, the incomparable Paul Martin, is sitting in with us on mandolin and guitar. Now, The Flood's had lots of folks sit in over the years, but few fit in as well as Paul. He's not so much a guest artist as he is a long lost Flood brother. Whenever he sits down to play, it's like he's been with us all along and is just coming back home. Check out Paul's work on this tune that we're polishing for Friday night's show.

Way Downtown (Again)

It's funny how songs come in and out of our lives. Even before The Flood was formed 40 years ago, Dave Peyton and Charlie Bowen would get together on weekends to pick and sing, just the two of them, and among the tunes they would play was this one, "Way Downtown," which they probably learned from an old Doc Watson recording. After the band came together in the mid-'70s -- as Rog Samples, Joe Dobbs, Bill Hoke and Stewart Schneider joined us -- "Way Downtown" was a regular. Then the song just seemed to drift away for a couple of decades. But lately, it's come back, and the latest incarnation of The Flood likes how it fits, like a comfortable old shoe. So much so, in fact, that the song's likely to be on the set list for shows on our schedule this fall. Here's a take on the tune from last night's rehearsal.

Randy and Doug Trade Places

We've got a couple of interesting gigs coming up this fall, including one that requires us to switch up our instrumentation a little bit. We'll have more to say about these upcoming shows in the weeks ahead, but for now, know that Doug Chaffin, who usually plays guitar and mandolin for us these days, is moving back to the upright bass for a little while, and Randy Hamilton -- who usually plays his acoustic-electic bass for us -- is moving to lead guitar. Last night was our first practice session with this arrangement and it was fun to listen to Doug and Randy exploring these new lines. Take a listen to this run-through on the old standard, "Careless Love," from the very end of the evening.