Basin Street Blues

Sometimes before the song's even over, you know you're hearing the highlight of the night. This time there was something about the grin on Michelle's lips as she launched into this great old jazz standard that told us all this was going the keeper of the evening.

Dennis Dobbs Revisits The Flood with Brother Joe

"Floodsters emeritus" is what we call all former members of The Flood, but the truth is there's no such thing as a former member. Once a Floodster, always a Floodster. One of the earliest members of the band was Joe Dobbs' younger brother, Dennis. In fact, Dennis Dobbs was on stage with us at one of our very first gigs back in the mid-1970s, a weird and wonderful night when The Flood was among the warmup acts for country music legend Little Jimmy Dickens when he played Huntington's Memorial Field House. Nowadays Dennis and his family live in East Texas and don't back north all that much. But this week Dennis was visiting up here and, fiddle in hand, he came with Joe to the practice last night. Here the Dobbs brothers trade solos on a Bob Dylan standard.

Come Back to Us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard

We've been John Prine fans forever. In fact, Prine's debut album came out 40 years ago just about the time The Flood was stumbling into existence back in those hippy-dippy days of the early '70s, so it's only natural John Prine songs have been on our set lists since the very beginning. Dave Peyton, our Mount Union Road crooner, took this tune as his own as soon as it came out, and all these years later, it's still a regular at our weekly jam sessions.

Paul Martin Sings His "Seein' Ain't Believin'"

At a recent jam session, we were running through old tunes that were as comfortable as well-worn shoes. Part of the joy of the jams is revisiting melodies and lyrics are as familiar as dear friends. Then suddenly our buddy Paul Martin dropped into a beautiful song that most of us had never heard. As it went on, grins and winks were exchanged around the room, and at the end, when we asked, "Whose is that one?" Paul quietly acknowledged, "I wrote that." Now, Paul doesn't make it to the weekly sessions nearly as often as we'd wish, but you can bet that from now on, when he does, there will be a standing request for a repeat performance.

Sallie Sublette Brings Some Sweet Western Air

Our old friend Sallie Sublette doesn't get back to us very often. It's all day in airports -- it takes three flights to get to her native West Virginia from her home in Pocatello, Idaho -- but this week, Sallie blew back in and gave us another taste of that sweet western wind. Here she does "I Want to be a Cowboy's Sweetheart." While it was a great evening, it was all too short, because Sallie was flying out the next day. But before she went to cross the Great Divide, she also left us with a beautiful rendition of a Kate Wolf song on that very theme.

Joe Dobbs Plays Tunes About The Ladies

One of the things we all love about the weekly jam sessions is how related tunes tend to come up in bunches like wildflowers. Last night was the perfect example. At one point, Norman Davis -- who, with his beautiful bride, Shirley, are beloved regulars at our Wednesday night gatherings -- asked Joe Dobbs to play that old fiddle tune with a girl's name in it. Well, that led to 10 minutes of fiddle tunes named after women, from "Rachel" to "St. Anne's Reel" to "Red Wing" and more. Let's start the track at the moment with Norman asked his question.

Roger Samples Sings "Chemo Blues"

A band that's been around for 40 years has a lot of graduates. And the undisputed valedictorian of the class of Floodsters Emeritus is Rog Samples. Roger is one of the four founders of The Flood, and his vocals and beautiful guitar work, along with the great songs he writes, were central the band's sound for its first 10 years or more, before Rog and his family moved from West Virginia to the green pastures of Mount Sterling, Ky. We still get together as often as we can, and Rog and his brothers, Mack and Ted, are treasured friends. Now, for the past year, our brother Roger has been making a remarkable, inspiring stand against cancer, and with his typical wit and artistry, he decided there had to be a song in there somewhere too. And so, out of the fight of a lifetime comes his original tune, "Chemo Blues."