The House of Rising Sun (accent on "sun")

Our fever -- cabin fever, that is -- finally broke last night. Taking advantage of what we fear is an all-too-temporary thaw in this relentless winter, a quorum of Floodsters came together last night for a joyous little reunion.  A few hours together was just the antidote we needed for the wintertime blahs, and we celebrated by trying out some new songs and revisiting some old ones we've long neglected. Here's Michael Lewis trying on a classic folk song that's older than all of us.

About Using That Thing in the Right Key

It's way too cold and snowy 'round here right now to ask anyone to come out, even for music, so we canceled last night's rehearsal. Digging back through recent sessions, though, we've found a track that might warm you up bit. We love this old jug band tune, but we've had some incidents with it too. For instance, at a gig up in Wood County a few years ago, Charlie kicked the song off in G, which is, well, a few notches higher than we usually do it, and we damn-near hurt ourselves. If we ever start playing this song in your presence, kindly help us remember it should be in D, as it is on this track.

Chuck Romine Brings His New Guitar

An our old friend, Floodster Emeritus Chuck Romine, came in from the cold last night and sat in with us playing the newest addition to his musical family. It's a sweet and mellow little Martin tenor guitar that was just right for the folky tunes that were on our minds on that winter's evening. Listen to Chuck's solos on this one, "Abilene." Also, before he left for the night, Chuck favored us with tune he'd just learned, a George Burns' classic called "Old Bones." The band had never played the song before, so we poked along behind him until by the end we'd found a bit of a groove.