Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good to You?

Last week was our first outing on this great old jazz standard.  When we started it, Veezy said she wasn’t sure she was familiar with it. By the time we finished it, it sounded like she wrote it herself!
 

Greensleeves

 Christmas is a time of tradition and what says tradition better than an ancient melody that has been associated with the gentle Yuletide season for centuries?

Today

 Whenever Charlie’s cousin Kathy Castner comes for a visit from her Cincinnati home, they sing, and their musical connection goes back a long way. As a child, Kathy regularly visited relatives in Ashland. Whenever she did, her grandmother often assigned Charlie to sing her to sleep at her bedtime. One of the tune he brought to bear on the little girl’s eyelids was this New Christy Minstrels classic — “Today (While the Blossoms Still Cling to the Vine)” — and they’re still singing all these decades later. Here, from Kathy’s visit with the Family Flood last week, is the latest rendition, with sweet solos by Dan, Veezy and Sam and with Randy joining Kathy and Charlie on the harmonies.

If You Lose Your Money

 Christmas songs abound right now, but how about a tune for the downtrodden holiday shopper, the weary wielder of a maxed-out debit card? Well, your friends in The Flood can’t pick up the tab, but we can at least give you a blues to suit your mood, brought to you from a recent gig. After a day of rushing around spending money you don’t have buying things people don’t want, just take our advice: If you lose your money, please don’t lose your mind! For more on the song, see our free newsletter:

https://1937flood.substack.com/p/if-you-lose-your-money

Jug Band Music

 Every configuration of The Flood — from the present all the way back to 1976 in our foggy ruins of time  — has done its own variation of this happy bit of hokum. And each version, in its way, has been a loving tribute to our heroes in the original Memphis Jug Band of the 1930s. This latest rendition, recorded at a recent gig, offers wonderful solos and fills by everyone in the band. Shoot, even the grins and the winks seem to come through in this track.

Honeysuckle Rose

 You can learn about how versatile a band is by listening to its handling of instrumentals. Without the poetics of the lyrics or the theatrics of the singer, it’s up to the soloists to bring drama to the song. To hear what we mean, listen to this four-minute track from a recent Flood show. Vanessa Coffman opens the action with her tasteful statement of Fats Waller’s melody, “Honeysuckle Rose.” Then about a minute in, she begins to weave and spin brilliant new threads on that old familiar frame with her tenor sax, beautiful work that then inspires her bandmate, guitarist Danny Cox, when he follows with some gorgeous strings of his own. Yes, Veezy and Danny bring the honey to this rose.

When You Say Nothing at All

 Danny and Randy brought us this song just a couple of weeks ago and in no time it became a rehearsal night favorite. Here’s our latest take on the tune, with Randy doing the honors on the vocals and everybody taking a turn on the solos.

Birthing New Music

 We have a different kind of podcast this week. Recently, the band has been working on some original compositions. This particular melody is one I started writing with back in the late 1970s, but you know what? Even after 40 years, the thing still doesn’t even have a name. Figures, I guess, for a song that’s about … well, procrastination. Anyway, this week’s podcast invites you to eavesdrop as The Flood starts to craft an arrangement for this quirky little tune.

 

The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore

 The weekly Flood rehearsal has always been an eclectic affair. A typical night will travel from old jazz standards of the 1930s and ‘40s with their flurry of quirky chords to little-known jug band tunes and blues. Maybe we’ll stop along the way to sample a few Flood originals that are still busy being born. And often, after all that musical wandering, we’ll end up back at some simpler folk song of our youth. Last week, for instance, the last tune of the evening was this haunting Perry County, Ky., composition that the great Jean Ritchie built on just two well-considered chords.

Dink's Song / Loch Lomond

 This song has been floating around the Floodisphere for many years, but it didn’t really take flight until Vanessa came along to blend it with a soulful Old World aire, and then Randy stepped up to take the lead on the vocals. Here, with pensive soloing by Dan and Sam, is our merging of the thoroughly American “Dink’s Song” with Scotland’s lovely “Loch Lomond.”

 

The Nearness of You

 This tune really hasn’t made The Flood set list yet — we’ve only just started working with it — but it sure seems like it wants to settle down with us. Here listen to everybody listening to everybody else. For instance, midway through, check out how Veezy’s solo establishes a lovely mood which Danny then beautifully echos when he takes his turn. Yeah, it’s not a regular Floodified number yet, but, hey, stay tuned.

Dusty Boxcar Wall

 While Charlie has given his new banjo a nickname — it’s “Buzz Kill” to us in the Flood— the instrument actually does have its moments, especially when then tune on the table turns out to be of the old folksong variation. Here — as Danny, Randy, Sam and Charlie have a go at this classic Eric Andersen tune from the 1960s — the banjo brings a nice little trot.

Moondance

 When we first started fiddling with this tune, it didn’t seem to gel for us. But that was back before our brother Randy Hamilton returned to the fold after being gone for a couple of years. And lately, when we’ve discovered that it was one of Randy’s all-time favorite songs, we just turned the vocals over to him and suddenly “Moondance” has started finding its footing in The Flood. Here’s the latest rendition, with solos by the whole crew, Danny, Sam and Veezy.

Don't Know Why

 Regular listeners love all those scintillating sax solos by Vanessa Coffman, and with good reason! For more than two years now, this talented 22-year-old has been rocking our repertoire. But member of the her Flood family know Veezy also is a fine singer, as demonstrated in this song that she has brought us earlier this year. Listen as Danny Cox leads us on beautifully framing this lovely vocal.

 

On the Sunny Side of the Street

 Our 2022 take of this old favorite was the very first tune we played on a happy summer evening at the Bowen House just  few weeks ago. Veezy Coffman was just back from a month’s vacation with her family, and can’t you just hear how everyone in the room was so happy to be with her again?

Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone

 For us, a perfect warmup song to get ready for an evening of music is one whose chords are familiar enough that we don’t have to think about them too hard, but also give us enough stretching out room so that we can just sit back and enjoy each other’s company. This happy tune from Grandpa’s day checks all the boxes.

Georgie Buck

 Our old friend and band mate Dave Peyton is much on our mind today, because this is the second anniversary of his death. 

We pay him tribute with a new take on an Aunt Jennie Wilson song that he brought us, gee, decades ago, a version that features Randy’s harmony vocals, and solos by Sam and by our newest Floodsters, Danny and Veezy, along with my first outing on banjo. 

Yeah, everything old is new again and, while the lyrics might say that “Georgie Buck is dead,” darned if his song doesn’t seem more alive than ever.

Makin' Whoopee

 Honestly, we don’t know how a band that’s been around for nearly half a century — one that has a special love for novelty and good-time tunes of the 1920s and ‘30s — could have ever missed this one, but the fact is it’s only recently that The Flood has been playing around with this classic from the Roarin’ Twenties. Guess it just took our newest members — Veezy Coffman and Danny Cox — to open our ears to it. And we’re sure glad they did.

(When She Wants Good Lovin') My Baby Comes to Me

 This one has really deep roots. About 20 years after The Coasters released this song in 1957, The Flood started fiddling with it one fun summer night. After that, though, it went to sleep again for, oh, a half century or so. Then last winter, Randy started singing harmony with Charlie on the chorus and suddenly the song was back, evolving into a fine vehicle for cool solos by Danny, Veezy and Sam.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 Back in the days when we would ride on — and occasionally even got to perform on — the good ol’ Delta Queen steamboat, it often meant a reunion with a dear friend, the boat’s band leader, the legendary New Orleans cornetist Connie Jones.

 
We learned “Memphis in June” from Connie. On his album, it was an instrumental, but whenever we’d ask for it on board the boat, Connie would sing it.

Here from a recent rehearsal is our take on the tune,  conjuring up memories of sunny days up in The Delta Queen’s Texas Lounge, seeing Connie, eyes closed and grinning as he purred those sweet Paul Francis Webster lyrics. Here then, in memory of Connie Jones, is Hoagy’s sweet love song to summer.

Memphis in June

 This isn’t one of Hoagy Carmichael’s better known tunes, but it could easily become your favorite, especially this time of year. “Memphis in June” is a sweet love song to summer that is “peacefully dandy.”

Up a Lazy River

 Our buddy Doug Chaffin wasn’t feeling too swell earlier this week when Randy Hamilton, Danny Cox and Charlie Bowen landed on his doorstep. However, we brought with us a secret medicine just guaranteed to make him feel better. It’s Charlie’s new guitar, a sweet 2016 D’Angelico Excel — a hollow-body arch top jazz box, which we immediately put into Doug’s experienced hands. Well, after he’d strummed a chord or two, we could hear Doug already smiling behind his face mask. Listen to him just swinging in the living room on this great old jazz standard.

Midnight Special

 Nineteen years ago, when we went into the studio to record our third album engineered by the late, great George Walker, “Midnight Special” was the first number we laid down. After that, though, for some reason  the tune just sort of drifted out of the collective consciousness. That is, until lately. Our old buddy, Floodster Emeritus Paul Martin, has dropped into the jam sessions recently and it’s got us revisiting some of the good old folkier corners of our repertoire. Here’s a moment from a week or so ago.

Lulu's Back in Town

 We’ll be returning to one of our all-time favorite local venues next week, playing for the good folks up the hill at Woodlands Retirement Community. It’s a wonderful venue where we’ve played regularly for the past 20 years or more. And this time, our old buddy, Floodster Emeritus Paul Martin, is back to sit in with us. Here’s one of the tunes we’re dusting off for the evening, you know, just in case Lulu is in the audience.

Am I Blue?

 Over the years, many of renditions of this song have presented the tune slowly and deliberately, but that’s not our style. Anyone who knows us knows The Flood is not really dirge-friendly. In fact, years ago, our beloved co-founder Dave Peyton said that if The Flood had a spirit animal, it probably would be Leon Redbone. So, our take on “Am I Blue?” is how we imagine Brother Redbone would do it.

Dinah

 Can you ever hear someone smiling? Maybe. On this track, as we’re sitting around with one of the great Louis Armstrong’s favorite songs, “Dinah,” we bet you can hearing the grins going around the room as you listen to all the musical bantering, like Veezy playfully comping behind the vocals, and Danny’s happy passing chords under the solos. Joy has many expressions — and some of them just might be hummable.

Jamming with Josh Woods

 We were already having a righteous good time at Doug Chaffin’s house earlier this week when suddenly in walked a young guitar player who would ratchet things up to a whole new level of coolness. Now, Josh Woods is old friend of our newest Floodster, Danny Cox, but it turns out his roots go even deeper than that. That’s because we learned that Doug Chaffin used to regularly jam with Josh’s dad, John Woods. Needless to say, there were lots of stories between the tunes, but let’s focus on the tunes. Here are Danny and Josh trading choruses on some classic blues, including our rendition of Ray Charles’s “Hard Times.”

That's All Right, Mama

 It was a grand and goofy night at the Bowen house last night, full of stories and wisecracks and ambling down wondrous strange new musical pathways, turning up numbers like, well, this granddaddy of all things rock ’n’ roll that just came running out to greet us about mid-evening.

Alberta, Let Your Hair Hang Low

A fresh set of ears — especially if they’re as attuned as Veezy Coffman’s — can hear something new in something old. Just listen to all the new opportunities that Veezy’s tenor sax finds in this dusty old folk melody. And then listen to how that inspires Dan Cox and Sam St. Clair to new exploration in their own solos.

Deep River Blues

Throughout the winter and spring, our newest band mate, Danny Cox, has been having one-on-one weekly jam session with his old buddy, bassist Randy Hamilton, and sometimes they bring tunes they’ve work out to the regular weekly Flood rehearsal so the rest of us to get in on the fun. Now, over the the years, we’ve tried to work out a Flood arrangement of “Deep River Blues,” but it never really took, until recently when Randy and Danny brought in what they wrought. And as you can hear on this track, we’re all pretty excited about it.

 

Bye Bye Blues

 Doug Chaffin has played a lot of instruments in his two decades with The Flood — bass, fiddle, mandolin — and put a guitar in his hands and it is likely this will be the first tune to bob to the surface. At a recent jam session at the Chaffin house, Veezy Coffman had just arrived and unpacked her horn when Doug launched into “Bye Bye Blues” just to celebrate the moment.

Moonglow

 When The Flood first started doing this song more than 20 years ago, it was an instrumental for us with fiddler Joe Dobbs playing the lead. However, when Michelle started singing with us, she claimed “Moonglow” as she own, making her recording debut with it as “Michelle Walker” on our third album in 2003. And now that Michelle has moved on to start an exciting new chapter in her life as Mrs. Rich Hoge, “Moonglow” for The Flood has returned to its roots. Here, from a recent rehearsal, is a sweet instrumental rendition with Veezy Coffman, Danny Cox and Sam St. Clair finding new expression in this 90-year-old number.

Hey! Baby

 We spent last night’s rehearsal polishing up the set list we’ll play at a very special event this weekend. We’ll be part of the wedding celebration near Cincinnati when Floodster Emeritus Michelle Lewis marries her beloved Rich Hoge. We’re invited to perform during the dinner tomorrow evening, and we can’t wait. We intend to open the set with this wonderful old happy anthem to love from the 1960s.

Georgia On My Mind

 Most of what we played in Ashland last week was rather rollicking when we gathered to jam with our tribal elder, Doug Chaffin. However, whenever you get this bunch together, you can’t count on just one type of music. Here is the most mellow moment of the evening, with Veezy, Doug and Danny listening to each other on a whole ‘nother level.

Yellow Dog Blues

 Doctor Flood made a house call earlier this week. Our tribal elder, Doug Chaffin, has had a rough 2022 so far. Despite being double-vaxxed and boosted, Doug fought a rugged few rounds with Covid over the winter and he’s still recovering, so the Family Flood rode into Ashland last Tuesday night to visit him and Donna. The mission was to perk up their spirits, and, hey, we think the magic worked. Now, Doug has always liked this old W.C. Handy tune ever since we started doing it about a year ago, so it was only fitting to make it the centerpiece of our jam at the Chaffin house. Listen to Doug, Veezy and Danny just rocking the solos.

New Orleans

 We could do Hoagy Carmichael tunes all night long — and, well, sometimes we pretty much do. Here, from last night’s Floodifying, is our latest take on a lesser known Carmichael work, Hoagy’s cool 1932 composition called simply “New Orleans.”

 

All of Me

 This song has been rattling around in the Floodisphere for a long time. Originally for us it was an instrumental. It became a Michelle Lewis special when the Chick Singer was still with the band. Then, when Michelle moved on, it looked like the tune might retire. But last night darned if it didn’t poke its head in the door and become of a fun vehicle for for Veezy and Sam in the solo space, and now… well, it appears “All of Me” is ready for another rebirth.

Hard Times

 Last night we just barely had a quorum — about half the band had other obligations — but, as we always say around here, whenever two or three gather in its name, it is The Flood. And, as this will testify, Danny and Randy brought more than enough juice to power up the solos!

Come All Ye Fair and Tender Maidens

Earlier this week, when Veezy and Danny created their own thoughtful impressions of this old Appalachian tune, they were also communing with the spirit of a Floodster they never met. It was more than 40 years ago that the late Roger Samples sat down in the Bowens’ kitchen one hot summer’s night and strung together the chords that would become The Flood’s unique take on this tune. Wouldn’t Rog be smiling right about now, just knowing his ideas lives on?
 

God Bless the Child

 This tune’s still relatively new for us, but last night we found the groove. Just listen to Randy’s heartbeat of a bass line under Charlie’s vocals as we pass it off for sensuous soliloquies by Veezy, Danny and Sam, a flowing sweet and earnest conversation among friends.

Down in the Flood

 This tune, which only a few years older than our band, by all rights ought to be The Flood’s theme song. The fact is, though, we’ve been doing it only about a dozen years or so, which is — well, “yesterday,” in FloodSpeak — but since then, we have embraced it. And in this, our latest rendition, we’re loving how Danny Cox and Veezy Coffman are just owning it!

Carrickfergus

 St. Patrick’s Day has always been a special time in the Floodisphere, and when it falls on our regular gathering night, well, the rehearsal turns into a bit of a céilí. Last night we brought out a number of rollicking tunes from the old sod, but evening ended on a quieter note, with this meditative old melody.

Abilene

 Danny Cox’s years of close attention to guitar greats like Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed has perfectly prepared him for this solid old song. And like his heroes, Dan is an innovator, not an imitator. Just listen as Danny crafts four — count ‘em, four! — choruses to this song, bringing fresh ideas to each one of them.

Fly Me to the Moon

 We’ve been doing this song for a dozen years of so,  but it’s always new, depending on who’s on hand to handle the solos. Last night it was Veezy and Danny’s turn to find sweet new nuance in all those old familiar chords.

Cry Me a River

Now, we first started playing with this song about a year ago, but it’s been languishing for a while. It was just waiting for a blue and rainy evening like last night when Veezy, Danny, Randy and Charlie could revisit it. It sounds like it’s ready to be a regular in our repertoire now.

Black Coffee

 What a wonderful family the Coffmans are, a young household full of musicians and artists, students and teachers. We feel so fortunate to know them through the transformative music of their eldest. Each week 21-year-old Vaness Coffman’s playing takes our ears to brand new places. Now, when Veezy plays her solo jazz sets at venues around our area, she’ll often mentions that every member of her family has a favorite song, and if you’re lucky, she’ll play them for you sometime during that night. Well, high on our list from that collection is her mom’s favorite. Julianne Coffman teaches music in the Cabell County schools and her Veezy tune is this 1948 jazz standard by Sonny Burke. So here it is, from last night’s Flood gathering: “Black Coffee.”

I Got Mine

 The Flood learned its version of this tune from the great Jim Kweskin’s jug band and its 1966 album for Vanguard called “Relax Your Mind.” At last night’s Flood rehearsal, we were doing just that, thank you very much. Here we’ve got Randy Hamilton killing in on the harmonies and double dips of scintillating solos by Sam St. Clair and Danny Cox. As Jim Kweskin says, “I got mine — hope you got yours!”

Wayfaring Stranger

 If you were trying to make a graphic representation of a Flood rehearsal, your best model would probably be a crazy quilt. In the span of an hour or two, we go from rollicking jugband tunes and blues to re-imaged rock ’n’ roll classics of the ‘50s and ‘60s. And then suddenly: something completely different. Our Randy Hamilton has been doing “Wayfaring Stranger” for a while now, but it’s always changing, depending on what’s new in the room. This week that “new” was Randy’s old buddy Danny Cox — the two of them go back to high school days together! — who for the first brought his sweet, imaginative guitar work to the tune. Meanwhile, Veezy Coffman, who’s usually playing tenor, this time brought her big beautiful baritone sax to the session. Now, that bari can rock us to the very soles of feet, but here Veezy shows us that her horn always has a softer side. Just listen to how she weaves in and out of Randy’s haunting vocals and Danny’s enchanting chords.

Sitting on Top of the World

 Ask our bass player Randy Hamilton to name his best friends on the planet and somewhere near the very top of that list will be Danny Cox. Now, we’ve been hearing ABOUT this marvelous guitar player for years now. But last night we final got to actually hear him, and oh my! From his Ironton, Ohio, home on a cold winter’s night, Danny tagged along with Randy to the weekly Flood gathering and immediately really warmed up the place. Just listen to him and Veezy Coffman share choruses on this great old Mississippi Sheiks standard, “Sittin’ on Top of the World.”

Lady Be Good

Nineteen Twenty-Four was a golden year for George Gershwin. After more than a decade on pounding the pavement of New York’s Tin Pan Alley peddling his tunes, Gershwin composed his first major work — “Rhapsody in Blue” — and then that same year he and his brother, Ira, scored their first major hit on Broadway. The musical comedy “Lady Be Good,” which would run for more than 300 performances, was a showcase for a string of Gershwin brother collaborations, like “Fascinating Rhythm” and, of course, that phenomenal title tune. Now, that song — the perennial 1920s party tune, “Lady Be Good” — is a rarity among jazz standards in the Great American Songbook. Not many improvisational vehicles survived the transition from the loose Dixieland style of the “Roaring Twenties” to the smooth swing sound of the 1930s and beyond. But as everyone from Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Tormé to Charlie Parker, Lester Young and Django Reinhardt would demonstrate, “Lady Be Good” has some serious legs. The Flood started doing the song 20 years ago — it’s features on our second album — and our love of the tune really began to blossom when Doug Chaffin switched from bass to guitar to take charge of the lead on the number. Then, good golly, it went into full flower more recently when Vanessa Coffman came along with her tenor sax. Here Doug and Veezy share choruses with Sam St. Clair on “Lady Be Good” at a recent rehearsal.

Trouble in Mind

 New Orleans jazz pioneer Richard M. Jones wrote “Trouble in Mind” about a century ago, and singer Bertha “Chippie” Hill made it a hit with a 1926 recording that had Jones himself on piano and a youngster by the name of Louis Armstrong on cornet. Since then, of course, the song’s been recorded by everyone from Big Bill Broonzy to Dinah Washington and Nina Simone. Music historians even call this tune the anthem of the classic blues genre, but actually its roots go even deeper. At least two different African American spirituals dating all the way back to the 1880s have similar themes in their lyrics. Now, The Flood has been doing “Trouble in Mind” for decades now; recently, Veezy Coffman gave it a whole new feel by bringing her big beautiful bari sax to bear on it. Hey, take a listen.

Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out

 We’ve always loved this great old song -- now just about a century old — but we’ll be the first to tell you that there are some very hinky thing about our beloved tune. For one thing, hands down, the best known rendition of it is one of the earliest, the Columbia Records release by the great blues singer Bessie Smith. However, technically, the song’s not a blues. Structurally, it’s much like a vaudeville number or even an old music hall piece than one of the classic 12-bar blues that came out of the Mississippi Delta. Not only that, while “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” became one of the signature tunes of the Great Depression, we’ve learned that it was written actually almost a decade before those trouble times. Here’s how The Flood’s team of crack music detectives has sorted it out. The song was written in 1923 by a piano player named Jimmy Cox, who was indeed pretty well established on the black vaudeville circuit that worked the American roads in the Roaring Twenties. And Bessie Smith, who was just getting her career going in those days, was known to travel that same circuit and might have even performed in Jimmy Cox’s shows. It’s possible, in fact, she learned the song from Jimmy himself. What we know for sure that that by time Bessie Smith went back into the recording studio in the spring of 1929, Columbia was beginning to notice the blues records weren’t selling as well as they had had been and the suits wanted different material. Bessie responded with the Jimmy Cox composition from her vaudeville days. And here’s the final piece of the puzzle. In those days, it took a quite a long time for a record to make its way around the country. By the time it had traveled from New York City to the West Coast, the stock markets had collapsed and the Depression was beginning to wreak havoc. Imagine the listeners being amazed at how prophetic Bessie Smith’s new record was in describing their misery that first Depression winter. Here’s our take on the tune from a recent Flood rehearsal.