Wednesday, July 29, 2015

We're at Trinity Episcopal This Friday at 7 p.m.!

We're excited about the show we'll do in downtown Huntington this Friday night at Trinity Episcopal Church. We play from 7 'til 8:30, and the program will feature new tunes as well as some old favorites. Here's one of the new ones we're working up, a beautiful piece called "Seven Bridges Road," featuring the vocals of our Paul Martin, Michelle Lewis and Randy Hamilton. Meanwhile, back on the other side of the musical spectrum, we do plan to also have a little history lesson, uh, Flood stye, all about George Washington and his ukulele…Remember we start at 7 at Trinity Episcopal, 520 11th Street in downtown Huntington. Admission is free and everyone is welcome.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

You Gonna Quit Me Blues

We're always looking for easy, happy little tunes that we can warm up on, songs that we can also also use for a soundcheck before a show. The best ones are those that let everybody just stretch out. We can pass it all around, and everybody gets a solo or two. Here's a perfect example. Now, this great old Blind Blake tune from the 1920s had almost gotten away from us. We used to play it a lot 10 years ago or so, but we hadn't it a quite a while. In fact, it occurred to us that our newer members -- Randy Hamilton and Paul Martin -- hadn't even heard it. Well, we fixed that -- right here.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Gettin' Churched

So, The Flood is currently preparing for a big show at the end of this month in downtown Huntington at Trinity Episcopal Church. Now, we don't get invited to play at such beautiful venues just every day, so we've been working on some special material. At last night's rehearsal, Randy Hamilton had just finished running through his gorgeous rendition of "Wayfarin' Stranger," which reminded Dave Peyton of joke about the passing through the pearly gates, which then inspired us to a tune that sorta matched the mood. Well, here -- take a listen for yourself!

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

The Lovers' Waltz

Every once in a while, you run across a melody that's just waiting for someone to make movie around it. It cries out to be a memorable soundtrack. We feel that way about this one. As soon as Doug Chaffin starting playing "The Lovers' Waltz," the beautiful composition Jay Ungar and Molly Mason wrote more than 30 years, we knew we had to add it The Flood repertoire. Now, we've just started learning this one, but part of the goal of these podcasts is to let you hear arrangements as they develop over time. So here it is: "The Lovers' Waltz, Take 1."

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

The L & N Don't Stop Here Anymore

Not long after the late Appalachian singer/songwriter Jean Ritchie wrote "The L & N Don't Stop Here Anymore," she performed it at a solo concert at Ashland Community College in Ashland, Ky., in the fall of 1966, and some of us were fortunate enough to be sitting in the front row. We still remember her introducing it by saying, "It's nice to play this tune for people who don't need to be told what the L & N is or why we care that it won't stop here anymore." We revisited the tune at the end of last night's rehearsal.