Ain't Misbehavin'

Sometimes at a rehearsal, while we’re thinking about the next song to practice, another old tune will wander into the mix like a happy runaway child. Now, we’ve been playing around with Fats Wallers’ “Ain’t Misbehavin’” for, oh, we-don’t-know-how-long, and sometimes we’ll go a year or more without playing it. The interesting thing is that when the song does pop up again, the arrangement has evolved, as if it’s been humming along in the background all that time, just waiting for its chance to step up again. For last night’s version of the song, Michelle suddenly introduced sweet harmony that seems to have been inspired some great old big-band saxophone section!

One Red Rose

It’s interesting how sometimes a song can sleep in your psyche for years, virtually forgotten, and then suddenly something brings it back into your memory, maybe something you see or something someone says or maybe even just a dream. It was several decades ago that our old bandmate, the late Roger Samples, got so enamored of a beautiful little John Prine tune called “One Red Rose.” Well, this was in the early 1980s, just as Rog was ending his time with The Flood, the band he’d helped form nearly a decade earlier. He and the family would soon be moving from West Virginia to the green hills of Mount Sterling, Ky., so we never really worked out a full arrangement of the tune, and honestly we’d forgotten about the song, or thought we had. And then a few weeks ago, Charlie says he woke up grinning from a sound sleep because literally in a dream he’d heard Roger singing that song again, just as a clear as a bell. We’ve been doing lately at rehearsals, and now whenever we play it, it’s like a little three-minute reunion with our old friend.

Preparing for Route 60 Saturday Night!

As we gear up for this weekend’s big launch of the new Route 60 Saturday Night! concert series, we had a very special rehearsal last night, working on what The Flood will contribute as the show’s house band. On hand for the evening was Randy Yohe, who will co-host the monthly 90-minute music variety shows with our Michelle Lewis. You know, we are always amazed at how veteran broadcasters like Randy and Michelle are so comfortable ad libbing in front of a mike. Just listen as the two of them practice their patter for how we are likely this start the show this Saturday night. Remember, it’s this Saturday night at Route 60 Music Co., 60 Peyton St., in Barboursville. The fun starts at 7 p.m. It’s a $5 admission charge and all proceeds go to the Facing Hunger Foodbank of Huntington. Good times for a good cause!

Misty, Indeed

As our friend and rehearsal night regular Rose Riter noted last night, sometimes it feels like the music calls for a little smoke in the air to add a certain misty element to the room. Well, we gave up the nasty cigarette habit years ago, but we did appreciate the sentiment, especially when Doug kicked off this particular tune for Michelle’s lovely vocals. Misty, indeed.