Sentimental Journey (The Maiden Voyage)

Right now, we're preparing for a show this Friday night at Woodlands Retirement Community up the hill from us here in our hometown of Huntington, West Virginia, and we've been thinking about the music that folks there might like. At last night's rehearsal, Michelle Walker suggested "Sentimental Journey," a tune that Joe Dobbs has been doing his solo performances for years. Now, of course, the spirit of this weekly podcast is to share The Flood's not-ready-for-primetime moments -- that is, songs still in development -- and here's a prime example. This is literally the first time the band as a whole has tried this tune and obviously we have some … uh, opportunities. The harmonies need tightening, we need to work out better cues for the solos and smooth out the accompaniment, but for now, I love the enthusiasm everyone's bringing to the song. And  it may be fun in a year or so to look back and  see how the tune has evolved and mellowed with practice. But first, a voyage of discovery. All aboard! 

The Coffee Rush

The drink of choice at The Flood's weekly rehearsals is Community Coffee from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. But there is a downside. After a few cups of this strong, rich, dark brew, the tunes tend to get a bit livelier. There's a standing joke that after Charlie's had a coupla mugs of joe, he starts kicking the tunes off too fast. Here's a case in point. We don't usually do "Blue Moon" at such a lively clip as this. But, hey, some of us kinda like it like this -- it's got a nice kick, though we're not sure you'd wanna dance to it. Oh, see what you think.

A Taste of Honey, Take 1

During a break at a gig last summer, our good friend Wendell Dobbs dropped by the bandstand and said, "Hey, I know a great song for The Chick Singer -- 'A Taste of Honey.'" As soon as he said, our eyes lit up. Yes indeed. It's a wonderful ballad that's been recorded by everyone from Sarah Vaughan to the early Beatles. Our Michelle Walker had never really tried the song before, but she was game to give a go and last night, at one of The Flood's occasional vocal-only rehearsals, we tested the waters. As you'll hear in this track, Randy and I are still figuring out some harmony parts, but Michelle is already nailing the lead. In the months ahead, this podcast may be revisiting the tune as we introduce it to the rest of band, but for now, here it is: "A Taste of Honey, Take 1."

A Flood Teaching Moment

These days the weekly rehearsals are largely about figuring out what tunes we'd like to put on the next Flood CD which we hope to start working on later this year. That means checking out new songs but also revisiting pieces we used to play a lot but some reason have let slip away. A case in point is Dave Franklin's classic fiddle tune, "Cincinnati Rag." It was a regular of ours at gigs 10 years ago or so, but it never ended up on a CD. At last night's practice, Joe Dobbs brought it out again. This resulted in an obvious teaching moment -- you can hear us discussing the chords as Joe lays down the melody -- but by the end, everyone was in agreement: this tune needs to be back on the regular set list.

Doug and Randy Trade Places for the Evening

The Flood has a lot more options in instrumentation these days. Doug Chaffin can play mandolin and guitar, even fiddle, not to mention his superb work on the upright bass. And our newest Floodster, Randy Hamilton, usually plays bass these days, but also is an excellent lead guitarist. Last night, we decided to mix things up a bit -- we asked Doug to bring his bass and Randy to bring his six-string. The results were memorable -- but hey, judge for yourself. Here Michelle Walker leads us through Gershwin's "Summertime."

Joe Dobbs Gets His Happy Birthday Song from The Flood

It all started at a gig a few years back when a Flood fan said, "Hey, my brother's in the front row and it's his birthday -- would y'all play 'Happy Birthday' for him?'" We had to admit we didn't know "Happy Birthday." Well, that's back exactly true -- we recognize it when we hear it; we just never learned to play it. Then the fellow said, "So, what DO you play for birthdays?" Right there on stage, we huddled a minute and then said, "Well, how about that old jug band tune, 'You Can't Get That Stuff No More"? That got a laugh, we played the song and a new Flood tradition was born. From then on, The Flood has marked birthdays with that Tampa Red tune. Well, last night, one of our own celebrated a birthday -- Flood co-founder fiddler Joe Dobbs turned 78 -- and we had him playing on his own birthday serenade.

We Do Requests .... Even from Facebook!

The Flood occasionally gets and plays requests, but here's a first -- a request that came in from Facebook! Our old friend Strat Douthat lives in Plainfield, Vermont, these days, but back in the early 1970s, he lived near us here in Huntington, West Virginia, where he was in charge of the local Associated Press bureau. Strat and wife Gail were regulars at the parties where The Flood was being born, serving as spiritual advisors, if you will, in the band's formative years.  Well, recently, Strat was checking out our Facebook page and left a message saying, "You guys still do 'Blackberry Blossom'?" Joe Dobbs remembered that was always one of Strat's favorite fiddle tunes, so he ran off a fresh batch for him at last night's rehearsal. By the way, if you haven't checked out our Facebook page, we hope you will. And we've made it easy for you. Just visit our website -- 1937flood.com -- and click the Facebook logo (the little "F") on the left side of the front page.