Channeling 1958

Lately, we've got our Doug Chaffin returning to his roots. Doug's been making music in the Tri-State Area for more than 60 years, starting out in great young rock 'n' roll bands of the 1950s. Over last couple of decades, Doug has played all manner of instruments with The Flood -- from guitar and fiddle to upright bass and mandolin -- and just recently he bought a sweet little Paul Reed Smith guitar from our friend Glen Perkins over in Kentucky. Well, now, Doug wailing on that solid body electric lets us seriously channel 1958. Check this out.

Peaceful Easy Feeling

Glenn Frey was much on our minds last night as we sat down for our weekly rehearsal. Like everyone, we were stunned and saddened by the death of The Eagles' co-founder. In fact, one of Glenn Frey's first hit singles with The Eagles -- the Jack Tempchin composition, "Peaceful Easy Feeling" -- was among the first tunes The Flood ever tackled. Now, a year before The Flood came into being, Roger Samples and David Peyton had already worked up a sweet rendition of the song, which around that time was playing on the radio every 15 minutes or so. Then a year or so later, when Dave and Rog came together with Joe Dobbs and Charlie Bowen to form The Flood, "Peaceful Easy Feeling" was naturally a regular on the set list. Well, neither Rog nor Dave nor Joe was in the room last night, but Randy and Sam and Doug and Charlie dusted off that fine old song, thinking of them, and especially of Mr. Frey, whose music was so much a part of our growing up.

Abilene

The weather kept us from getting together for a practice session last night. That's always disappointing, but here at the podcast, that does afford us an opportunity to check the files for a number from an earlier session. Like this one -- a wistful old tune that somehow seems just right for these long winter nights.

Calling Summertime

After a springlike December -- here in The Valley, it was in the 70s on Christmas Day -- winter this week seriously reasserted itself, and the plunge in temperatures was ever on our minds at the rehearsal last night. There was grumbling about scraping car windows and changing furnace filters. So it's no wonder that in the middle of things, we found ourselves reaching out to the Brothers Gershwin for a little summertime respite.