New Tunes for Doug Chaffin

We open this week’s podcast with Doug Chaffin’s version of his friend J.P. Fraley’s tune, “Steptown,” a new favorite of ours! “Flood Lite” is what we call it whenever we play as the trimmed-down, half-pint trio version of the band. This week we had people away with illness, work and vacations, so Doug, Randy and Charlie decided to have a Flood Lite practice session. And since Doug and Randy both live in Ashland, it made more sense for the one of Charlie to drive there than for the two of them to drive over here to Huntington, so we met in Doug’s living room last night, and maybe it was the change of venue, but forawhatever reason, the rehearsal brought out a lot of new tunes. For instance, after “Steptown” is another one Doug has brought to the mix lately, an old party tune that he calls “Shady Side of Town.” Of course, no Flood evening is complete until Doug reaches for that sweet little Paul Reed Smith electric guitar he brought to the band in 2016. Doug switches to guitar for his rendition of “Waltz Around the World,” then we go out on his rocking “Lady Be Good.”

Together on the Sunny Side of the Street

We say it all the time — The Flood is family, and like most families, we miss each other when we’re apart. Summer 2018 has taken us in different directions, but last night we had everybody back at the table, and we bet you can just hear our joy in first tune of the evening, our warmup number for the weekly rehearsal, a Flood favorite, “Sunny Side of the Street.” Hit it, folks!

"The Last Hillbilly Singer"

Visitors are always welcome at our weekly gatherings, and no one is ever MORE welcome than our good buddy, singer-songwriter Rob McNurlin. We started jamming with Rob at least 20 years ago at happy places like Nancy McClellan’s living room and the parties hosted by Sheldon Road. And we’re pleased that Rob still likes coming around whenever he’s home from Nashville or from various gigs that take him on the road. And it’s a particularly special evening when Rob’s got a new song to share, as he did last night. His latest composition, which actually we first heard during his set at a Route 60 Saturday Night show earlier this year, is called, “The Last Hillbilly Singer.” Check this out!

Shoutout to Shirley, "My Blue Heaven"

Earlier this summer, my wife, Pamela, had surgery. It all went well, but it required a period of recuperation, and we decided to use some of that extended downtime creatively. Pamela, who also is the manager of The Flood, for a long time has shot home videos of friends and visitors who have sat in and jammed with the band over the years, so we decided to pull all that work together into a feature film called Flood & Friends. The finished product is now available for watching on YouTube, and we’re pleased at how folks have enjoyed the film’s celebration of the music and the dozens of stellar visiting musicians performing in the videos. But we’re also pleasantly surprised at some of the movie’s unintended consequences. For instance, as our old buddy Tom Pressman recently commented, the film also celebrates the regulars who come, not to play, but to listen at the weekly Flood gatherings, and prominent in the videos is the sparkling face of Shirley Broh Davis. Shirley — whom fiddler Joe Dobbs used to call our oldest groupie — was brought to her first jam session with her husband Norman in 2009, invited by another dear friend, Flood regular Rose Riter, and from that winter’s evening on, the Davises became regulars. So all through the movie, you’ll see Shirley listening, laughing, singing along and applauding from her favorite blue chair smack dap in the middle things. We lost Shirley a few years ago — she died at 96 — but honestly, she’s still with us, especially whenever we do one of her favorite songs. Many times at the end of an evening of music, we’d say, “So, Shirley, whaddaya want to hear?” and more often than not, her request was for this one from the Great American Songbook. So, these days, whenever we do “My Blue Heaven,” as we did at a recent rehearsal, it comes with a sweet shoutout to Shirley. By the way, a quick note about the film" If you’ve not seen Flood & Friends yet, to you can view it online for free. Just go to our website — 1937flood.com — click the option call “Our Videos” in the left hand panel and then scroll to the bottom of the resulting page. Right there it is. Enjoy!

Amelia's Waltz

If you see him, don’t tell him — it’s liable to give him “the big head” — but the truth is we listen to everything that Doug Chaffin tells us. When it comes to music, Doug’s instincts are usually right on the money. For instance, whenever we’re playing a show, if Doug leans over and whispers, “Hey, maybe we oughta do this song next,” Charlie always revises the set list on the fly, because Doug seems to have a sixth sense about what people would like to hear. So, when Doug recently told us we ought to learn “Amelia’s Waltz,” we perked up and paid attention. Now, the piece you’ll hear sounds like an old tune, but it actually was written in 1981 by the late New Hampshire composer Bob McQuillen, who named the song in honor of a friend’s young daughter. It’s one of those lovely melody that sounds like it ought to be the soundtrack of a big, lush movie. What follows is our first take on the tune, with Doug leading the way, of course, with his fiddle.