"Just a Closer Walk with Thee"

 Recently Danny Cox read in our newsletter, “Flood Watch,” how the band played “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” at a friend’s memorial service 20 years ago, and he said, “Hey, why don’t we do that song anymore?” Well, why indeed? So lately we’ve been we’ve dusting it off and just listen to the soulful, sassy spin that the guys are putting on this great old jazz standard! Here’s a take from last week’s rehearsal.

"One Too Many Mornings"

 Charlie started doing this song back in college to have something to sing and play to the jam sessions in the dorms. So it was one of the songs he brought along in that summer and fall 50 years ago when Dave, Roger and he started The Flood. And this lonely, lovely Dylan tune is still welcome at Flood gatherings, as it was last week.

"Hey Baby"

 The Flood time machine touched down in 1961 last week to toy with a tune from our youth.

"Somebody's Been Using That Thing"

If there's such a thing as a "standard" in jug band music, this tune is certainly one of them. Our heroes, the Hokum Boys, recorded it back in 1935, and we've always loved it, but The Flood didn't get around to doing it until back in 2009 when Joe Dobbs recommended it. That was right after he’d received a recording of it by old buddy, Ed Light, and his DC-area band with one great name: The All New Genetically Altered Jug Band. We've been Floodifying it ever since.

"Way Downtown"

 It's funny how songs come in and out of our lives. A half century ago when The Flood was thinking about being born, Dave Peyton and Charlie Bowen would get together on weekends to pick and sing, just the two of them, and among the tunes they’d play was “Way Downtown," which they learned from an old Doc Watson record. The song has drifted in and out over the years, and whenever it rambles back in, it’s just as comfortable as an old shoe. Here's a take from a recent rehearsal, with Randy Hamilton leading the harmony on the choruses and solos by Dan Cox, Sam St. Clair, Jack Nuckols and Paul Martin.