Celebrating National Kazoo Day!

Well, now, who knew that yesterday's anniversary of the 1937 flood (the natural disaster, not the band) would fall on National Kazoo Day? Well, hell, who knew there was a National Kazoo Day? Carter Taylor Seaton, that's who, a woman whose great sense and perception are actually perhaps illustrated by many better examples than this one. Nonetheless, this is the one she and her husband Richard brought to us at last night's rehearsal session. And when Carter and Richard pointed out this momentous intersection of events, we had to pause to reflect and then to offer up a couple of tunes to further feature The Flood's pre-eminent kazoo guru, Mister David Peyton.

Happy Birthday, Nancy McClellan. We miss you, love!

We start with Joe Dobbs playing a tune called "Blackberry Blossom." It was a favorite song of our dear friend, the late Nancy McClellan, whom we lost 15 months ago. Nancy was much on our minds last night because her birthday was this week -- she would have been 82 last Monday. Nancy was a life-long lover of a music, especially fiddle tunes. She couldn't teach us how to play -- Nancy didn't play an instrument -- but she surely did teach us how to listen! We feature another tune she always asked Joe to play, the beautiful ballad, "Ash Grove." But Nancy was never stuck in the past. She was always eager to hear new tunes. We can still remember the night she first heard the lovely Irish melody, "South Wind," just two years ago on a cold night like last night.  Grinning, her eyes sparkling, she said, "Play that again, Joe, would you?" So we wrap up with one more for you, Nancy. We miss you, love.

When I Ask for Water....

Because of the holidays and then the general wintertime yuckiness, we hadn't seen each other for a few weeks, so last night's rehearsal was a bit of a celebration. And when The Flood celebrates, we usually default to some silly, upbeat blues tune. For instance, we kicked off the whole evening by reaching back to a song we recorded on our second CD more than a dozen years ago. Our hero, the great guitarist David Bromberg, put this tune together back in the 1970s as a tribute to his heroes. For instance, its key line -- "when I ask for a water, she brings me gasoline" -- is a shout-out to the blues legend Howlin' Wolf.

More from "The Jacob Evening"

It was waaaay too cold to ask folks to come out last night, so we had to cancel our regular weekly rehearsal. It's always disappointing when we can't have the music, but this does give us a chance to serve up a second helping from our last get-together. We had a lot of great comments about our Christmas show. You may recall that we were able to have a little reunion with guitarist Jacob Scarr, who was home from college for the holidays. A couple of nights before Christmas, Jacob, Randy Hamilton and Charlie Bowen were joined by Randy Brown, Jim Rumbaugh and Karen Combs for a great evenings of laughs and tunes. So, for everyone who's asked for a little more of that "Jacob Evening," here's a late Christmas present.

Merry Christmas from The 1937 Flood

This is a special extended holiday issue of The 1937 Flood podcast. Christmas is a time of reunion and we were thrilled last night that Floodster Emeritus Jacob Scarr -- back in town on Christmas break from the college he attends in Colorado -- brought his guitar to sit in with us. He and Randy Hamilton and I were just getting started, when other friends started arriving to enjoy some time with Jacob. Along came Randy Brown with his big old Gibson L-5 and through the other door came blues harmonica great Jim Rumbaugh and his friend Karen Combs, a lady who knows a thing or two about the blues herself. Merry Christmas, folks. Our gift to you is a sampling of this very special evening!

If You Lose Your Money

Nobody ever did the blues better than Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Back in the late 1950s they recorded an incredible album for Smithsonian Folkways called "Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry Sing," which included a number of original compositions, including this one, a song we often use to open or close a rehearsal session, because it's just so much fun.

Musical Conversations

People play music for all kinds of reasons, in all kinds of places. For us, some of the best times come when we're just sitting around playing and listening to each other. It's a kind of musical conversation that sometimes reaches beyond mere words. Last night was a case in point. We hadn't seen each other for a few weeks, and it was good to just sit down and catch up. Want to eavesdrop? Here's a sample.