Rag Mama

It was more than 40 years ago that The Flood first started stirring wild and crazy jug band tunes into its eclectic brew, beginning with a manic version of “Rag Mama,” a song that we learned from the 1960s recordings of the great Jim Kweskin. Well, then, somewhere along the line, a few decades later, we further fortified the number by seasoning it in a bit of the Pipkins’ classic “Gimme Dat Ding.” And obviously our version of “Rag Mama” just continues to evolve. For instance, check Sam’s capper at the tail-end of the tune in this from last night’s rehearsal.

The Glory of Love

Well, it’s not for nothing that we’ve come to be called “West Virginia’s most eclectic string band.” In addition to the folk songs and the fiddle tunes, the jug band numbers and the blues, The Flood has an abiding love for those standards that come from the pages of the great American songbook. One of the ways you know a song has become a “standard” is this: it is so finely constructed melodically and lyrically that it can be performed in many different styles and moods and still maintain its uniqueness. A case in point is Billy Hill’s classic “The Glory of Love.” Now, many folks may have heard it first in their parents’ jazz collection, especially if they were Benny Goodman fans, because Benny took the tune all the way to the top of the charts in 1936. But a later generation also knew “Glory of Love” 30 years later as a cover tune by Otis Redding on his great “Dock of the Bay” album in 1967, or the version that folksinger Tom Rush did the next year on his “Circle Game” album. Then 20 years after that, Bette Midler was singing it in her movie, “Beaches.”  Well, here’s The Flood’s take on the tune from a recent rehearsal.

Dead Cat on the Line

Last night, as we were preparing the tunes we’ll share this weekend in our duties as the house band for the monthly Route 60 Saturday Night show, we got to thinking about other Saturday nights we’ve known. You know, we love to tell how Grandma had a lot of Sunday morning songs that she’d learned in church, but that Grandpa had some Saturday night songs that he’d learned some place else, like maybe in that juke joint down on the river … oh, you know the kind of loud, smoky room where a couple of good ol’ boys are strumming guitars or maybe a big ol’ friendly girl is pounding a barrelhouse piano. Here’s a tune from that Saturday night tradition, one we learned from the 1930s recordings of the original Hokum Boys. Remember, it’s Route 60 Saturday Night, THIS Saturday Night at Route 60 Music Co., 60 Peyton Street in Barboursville. Our guest artists are singer/songwriters Joe Lambiotte and Ally Fletcher. Admission is $5, and this month all proceeds go to Golden Girls Group Home of Ceredo, WV. Come on for a good time for a good cause!

Walkin' After Midnight

We in The Flood have always been huge fans of filmmaker Ken Burns, and we absolutely loved his latest PBS series on country music. Now, while The Flood itself has never claimed to play country music, we were thrilled that the breadth of Ken Burns’ series extended to cover some of our all-time musical heroes, from Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family to Charlie Poole, Uncle Dave Macon, Johnny Cash and, of course, our perennial sweetheart, Patsy Cline. For long time, we’ve had a Patsy Cline anthem in our repertoire, ever since Michelle Lewis recommended we give it a shot more than a dozen years ago. Here, from a rehearsal just last month, is our latest take on “Walkin’ After Midnight.”

Amelia's Waltz

The new CD we’re hoping to bring out before the end of the year will be our first all-instrumental album. (We’re thinking we’ll call it “Speechless.” Yeah, we do get a charge out of ourselves…) Anyway, one of the formative ideas of this new project is to explore the extraordinary narrative power of some of these beautiful melodies. They’re like little three-minute movies in which you are free to make up your own imaginative story. Here’s a case in point: a few years ago, Doug started noodling around with this gorgeous Bob McQuillen composition, and we all just fell in love with it. Well, here, from a recent rehearsal, are Doug and Paul trading leads on McQuillen’s evocative “Amelia’s Waltz.” See what movie you make in your mind with this one!