Being a House Band

One of the many things we love about being the house band each month at the new Route 60 Saturday Night musical variety shows is that the gig invites us to think in new ways about the songs we choose for the evening. To put it plainly, we don’t want anything we play as the house band to compete with or to distract from the material being performed that that month’s guest artists. For instance, if a scheduled guest is planning to play jazzy pieces, we want to come back some something different, maybe some simple folk songs. On the other hand, if the guest star is offering a set of sweet ballads, we might follow him or her with a couple of raucous jug band tunes. At last weekend’s show, the challenge for The Flood was to make a smooth transition between the two guest star sets, from the wonderful, full-throated blues stylings of the up and coming Emily Kinner to the down-home country sounds of the legendary Rob McNurlin. Our choice? Well, as Joe Dobbs used to tell us, when in doubt, check in with Benny Goodman. So, here — in a track from the show — is the song we played, Billy Hill’s composition, “The Glory of Love,” introduced by Benny Goodman’s orchestra in 1936.

Educatin'

We’re all eager for this weekend as we settle in again as the house band for another great Route 60 Saturday Night show. This month’s guests are two wonderful singer-songwriters — a newcomer to our stage, Emily Kinner, and a regular crowd favorite, Rob McNurlin. We’ll also have some thoughts from our resident storyteller, Dave Peyton, and Michelle Lewis will share the emcee mike with our guest co-host Paul Callicoat. Meanwhile, what is The Flood’s role in all this? Oh, it’s up to us to provide the educational content for the evening, like, well, this little history lecture we’re preparing. Join us this Saturday night, April 21. Admission is $5, and this month all proceeds go the help the good work at Branches Domestic Violence Shelter. The 90-minute show starts at 7 p.m. at Route 60 Music Co., 60 Peyton Street in Barboursville.

The Green Rolling Hills of West Virginia

The Flood has had a long-time long-distance infatuation with the Utah Phillips song “The Green Rolling Hills of West Virginia” for — oh, goodness, for 40 years we’ve loved that song! Well, ever since we first heard Bill Hoke, Susan Lewis and David Holbrook sing it in their Kentucky Foothill Ramblers days at parties back in the mid-1970s. But we in The Flood never really liked how we did the song until recent years, when Michelle and Randy brought the vocal chops to the band that could handle it. Now at last the song is a regular for us. Check out this rendition from a recent rehearsal, especially the great solos by Doug and Paul and by our visitor for the evening, Jim Rumbaugh, sitting in on harmonica.

Lost Song Insurance

There are many advantages to having weekly rehearsals, but one of the less obvious ones — even to us — is that regular practice sessions provide a kind of insurance against lost songs. What usually happens is that between the tunes on the schedule for rehearsing, someone starts noodling with a bit of melody. “What is that?” someone else will say. “Why, that sounds like …. Oh yeah! Remember…” and away we go. A case in point is the beautiful Eddy Arnold tune, “You Don’t Know Me.” When Michelle brought it to us five years ago, it became an instant hit with the band, making it onto the next CD we were set to record. But then, for some reason, the song just slipped away — until a couple of weeks ago when a bit of fortuitous fiddling between songs brought it back to our collective memory. Here’s Michelle’s take on the tune from last night’s rehearsal. Oh, and by the way, that’s the great Jim Rumbaugh on harmonica; Jim’s sitting in with us for a gig this weekend because our regular hamonicat, Sam St. Clair, is on vacation this week.