The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore

When we were growing up, the undisputed queen of Kentucky folk music was the extraordinary singer/songwriter Jean Ritchie. Memories of her cool-as-crystal-water voice singing a cappella on some mountain ballad still send shivers down our spines. Now Jean typically eschewed controversial topics, but in the mid-1960s, the plight of impoverished coal miners in his native Perry County moved her to write perhaps her best known song, one we’ve been playing for decades now. Here’s a recent rendition from one of our recent minimalist rehearsal with Doug Chaffin on lead guitar and Danny Gillum standing in on upright bass. The highlight of the track is Paul Martin’s haunting solos and fills, first on mandolin, then on acoustic guitar.

My Blue Heaven

The heat wave has really hampered our attempts to have outdoor / socially distanced breezeway jam sessions lately. Good golly, Miss Molly — it’s been hitting 90 before noon around this here this week! But here’s a tune from a few weeks ago when Veezy Coffman brought her tenor sax around to run through some tunes with Michelle and Charlie. You know, we continue to be amazed at what good ears young Miss Coffman has. She listens intently and when it’s her turn to take it, she usually brings something fresh to the mix. Check out this track. It’s starts with Michelle and Charlie strolling down a fairly familiar path, then Veezy joins in and finds brand new sights for us along the way.

Suffer to Sing the Blues

It was nearly 50 years ago now that the great David Bromberg brought out his first album — just about the same time that The Flood was thinking about being born — and the second cut on that LP was a little original composition of David’s called “Suffer to the Sing the Blues.” The lyrics and attitude of the tune just tickled all of us, and we regularly did it at the music parties and the few coffeehouse gigs we played in those days. Then the song just sort of drifted away from us for a while, but lately we’ve been bringing back. Here’s a take on the tune for one of the minimalist rehearsals we’ve been having lately in this weird time of COVID. Somehow the tune seems to have taken on a new relevance.

Pretty Polly

As we were finishing up the picking session at the Chaffin house last night, Doug’s wife, Donna, popped in from the next room to say she felt like she ought to call our families to warn them that we were all coming home in a murderous mood, judging from some of the tunes we’d been playing. Well, truth to tell, there is something about heavy summer night air that can sometimes darken the storytelling. It was several decades ago that The Flood put its own stamp on this harrowing little Appalachian murder mystery. We don’t do the song that much anymore — only on those sultry nights when with the blood is up and the moon is down.

Needed Times

Ah, memories. It was an autumn weekend night nearly 50 years ago now and Pamela and Charlie went to a theater in downtown Huntington — probably the Keith-Albee — is see a new Cicely Tyson/Paul Winfield work called “Sounder.” Wow, what a wonderful movie, and Charlie especially loved the bluesy musical score performed almost exclusively by Taj Mahal, who also played the character “Ike” in the film. Charlie loved it so much, in fact, that he started haunting Davidson Records Store down the street, just waiting to buy the soundtrack LP and learn some of the tunes. And, you know, while Taj Mahal’s music was memorable, for Charlie the real star of the soundtrack was the legendary blues master Lightnin’ Hopkins doing a gospel tune called “Needed Time.” Now in the winter of 1972-73, The Flood was just getting started, and as soon as Charlie shared “Needed Time” with the band’s fellow founders Dave Peyton and Roger Samples, the song quickly got played regularly at our fledgling jam sessions. Well, of course, these days Dave and Rog are both long gone from The Flood, but the tune remains. Oh, now — like back then — we do a much livelier, more raucous version of the song than Hopkins’ solemn, soulful original, but even in its transformation, the tune is still a tribute for a special time in our lives. Here from a rehearsal back in March — before the COVID-19 shutdown started keeping us apart — is a rocking rendition of “Needed Time.”