Backwater Blues

 After a long rehearsal, with lots of new material to work on, it’s always good to end up back on familiar ground, which for us usually means the blues. And more often than not, the blues means a shoutout to The Flood’s household deity, Miss Bessie Smith. Here’s a tune that Smith recorded almost a century ago. It’s since been recorded by everybody from Lead Belly, Josh White and B.B. King to Bob Dylan, Dinah Washington and Count Basie. Here’s The Flood’s 2021 rendering of the song, with a couple of solos by everybody in the room last night, Doug, Veezy and the two Pauls.

Black Coffee

 A very happy moment for us in is whenever a new member of the band is comfortable enough to start suggesting new tunes for us to try. That happened a couple of weeks ago when our newest Floodster, Vanessa Coffman, dropped Charlie an email saying, “Hey, just a though. Are you familiar with an old song called ‘Black Coffee”? I’m doing some music stuff here right now, and I thought I’d see if you wanted to give it a shot, too.” Well, yes, and yes, and oh my! Last night’s rehearsal was our first ride on this old Sonny Burke composition that the great Sarah Vaughn charted with in 1949. Ah, and just listen here as Doug Chaffin’s guitar and Veezy’s sax share some musical thoughts … well, over coffee, as it were…

Blues for Toy Stores and Records Stores

 Some songs don’t have names, just stories and moods. Here’s an example. Between the tunes at a recent rehearsal, we started reminiscing about some of the things we missed from our childhood. Well, listening to all that from the sidelines, our tribal elder, Doug Chaffin, started improvising an appropriately nostalgic blues lick from his own rock ’n’ roll roots. Take a listen and, as this track begins, you can hear our Mistah C, Paul Callicoat, wrapping up the conversation just before jumping in with his bass. Well, if this merry little ride — which features Doug trading musical ideas with Veezy Coffman — ever comes around again, we’ll just have to call it “Blues for Toy Stores and Records Stores…”

Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I)

 Sixty years ago this October, Ray Charles released his last album for Atlantic Records called “The Genius Sings the Blues,” The album compiled a dozen tunes Brother Ray had recorded over an eight-year period at the Atlantic studios, showcasing piano blues, jazz and southern R&B. A standout cut on that remarkable  album was the second tune on side 1 — “Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I),” a tune that’s since been covered by everybody from David Clayton-Thomas to Eric Clapton. And last night, it was the first tune we tackled at the first rehearsal of the new year.