France Blues (Hey, Lawdy Mama, Mama, Hey, Lawdy, Papa, Papa)

 If you hang out with The Flood much, it seems like everything we do is carefully planned …. right…. but actually, accident and happenstance are a couple of our good friends. For instance, earlier this week we got together to plan for our show tonight at Sal’s Speakeasy. Now, as you’ll hear in this track, between songs Charlie starts singing a bit of this old 1920s hokum song. Immediately, Randy jumps in with some cool harmony. Then Sam brightens it up with his harmonica and Danny puts a bow on the whole thing with a cookie’ guitar part and just like that the tune has inserted itself into the set list.

Corrina, Corrina

 Before we played this song at a recent rehearsal, we had a bit of conversation about all the more raucous renditions of “Corrina, Corrina” of our youth (and mom and dad’s youth…. of grandma’s youth…) But then when we kicked off the song, we all just naturally dropped into that bluesy, moody groove that Bob Dylan established for it 60 years ago. This is our first take on the tune, but it feels like it’s campaigning to be a regular in our repertoire.

Down by the Salley Gardens

 The Flood started doing this song about 1979, right after Roger Samples and Charlie Bowen learned it from a beloved album, Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy, released in 1976.Rog always said he thought the melody was buried in the very genes of Irish people, adding, “Every time we do that song, I feel like the ghosts of my ancestors come into the room!” "Salley Gardens"has been in The Flood’s repertoire ever since, even tucked away among the tunes the band recorded on its first album two decades ago.  This current version — with solos by Dan Cox and Sam St. Clair — was recorded in a recent jam session just to be our gift today. Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

Windy and Warm

 When the brilliant Dan Cox joined The Flood Fold last year, one of the first tunes he and his buddy, veteran Floodster Randy Hamilton, brought to the mix was “Windy and Warm.” While most of this take is all about Danny’s pitch-perfect picking, it also features Randy and Dan vocalizing at one point, a moment that you can hear being happily applauded by Charlie.

Solid Gone

 The Flood has been doing versions of this great old song from its earliest days nearly a half century ago. Literally. It was the first song that the late Dave Peyton and Charlie Bowen tried at a New Year’s Eve party in 1973 where the band was born. The tune has come back in every iteration of The Flood and it has never sounded better than this latest version, with Danny Cox and Sam St. Clair double-dipping on the solos and Randy Hamilton singing all that rock-solid harmony. Here’s “Solid Gone.”