The Last Thing on My Mind

At the start of a rehearsal, we’re usually thinking about getting our fingers limbered up for the night’s picking, but voices need to be warmed up too. When we can, we try to remember to start with a few tunes that will also get our vocal cords in gear. Here Michelle, Randy and Charlie lean into a wonderful half-century-old number by beloved folk song composer Tom Paxton. It’s a beautiful old lament that Tom himself, now at 81, is still singing out there in shows all across America. Here’s The Flood treatment of Paxton’s “The Last Thing on My Mind.”

The Birth of the Blues

In New York in a single year — 1925 — Tin Pan Alley composer Ray Henderson wrote three — count ‘em THREE — classics in the great American songbook: “Bye Bye Blackbird,” “Has Anybody Seen My Girl?” (“Five foot two, eyes of blues…”) and “I’m Sitting on Top of the World.” And then in the next year, maybe just to show he hadn’t shot his wad, Ray wrote this one, “The Birth of the Blues.” Now, The Flood started playing this song, gosh, probably 20 years ago — well, yeah, we put it on our second CD way back in 2002 with Joe Dobbs and Chuck Romine and Dave Peyton — but we hadn’t play it in about a decade. In fact, our newer Floodsters — Paul Martin and Randy Hamilton— had never even heard it, until Charlie started picking it one night at the recent rehearsal, and Doug jumped in with his sweet little Paul Reed Smith guitar, and then Paul Martin pick it up for a couple of solos, and suddenly Ray Henderson’s tune was up and rarin’ to go again.

Cheyenne

After all these years, Doug Chaffin continues to amaze us. Whether playing fiddle or guitar, mandolin or upright bass, Doug has had a distinctive voice in the band for 20 years now. And with great regularity, he continues bring new tunes to us. For instance, at last night's rehearsal, Doug introduced us to his rendition of a great old fiddle tune that was made famous back in the '50s by Bill Monroe and Bobby Hicks. Here's Doug's take on a lively little number called “Cheyenne.”

Coal Tattoo

We have some ambitious plans for the new year, including several recording projects. Among our plans when we get back into the studio is to record a collections of songs from and about our home state. And of course there could be no worthwhile assemblage of West Virginia tunes without a song or two by one of our heroes, Boone County’s own Billy Edd Wheeler. For the new album, here’s one we worked on at last night’s rehearsal, and it seemed like we were all on our toes — with solid harmonies by Michelle and Randy and great solos by Paul, Sam and Doug — it’s Billy Edd’s classic from 1963, “Coal Tattoo.”

Margaret's Waltz

Back in the 1950s, Margaret Grant was well known in the country dance circles in the southwest of England. It was in her honor that Pat Shaw composed the classic "Margaret's Waltz,” the tune beautifully recorded by the celtic greats, The Boys of the Lough. Well, in our part of the world, the song has been played at the end more New Year’s Eve parties than we can count. But it's also is a lovely way to start a new year. Here’s how we like to play the song nowaday. We start out with Doug's fiddle, then we hand it over to Paul and his mandolin while Doug switches to guitar to bring it home. Here then is our 2019 rendition of “Margaret's Waltz.” Happy New Year, y'all!