The Spirit of Hokum Lives On

Songwriters are our patron saints, and we've got a bunch of 'em in The Flood. Bob Dylan and John Prine. Jean Ritchie and Hazel Dickens. Hoagie Carmichael and Fats Waller. Two others you might not be as familiar with -- Tampa Red and Georgia Tom -- have also been influencing us for decades. Now, back in the mid-1970s, Roger Samples and Charlie Bowen stumbled upon some raucous old 1920s recordings of Tampa Red and Georgia's Tom's Chicago group called The Famous Hokum Boys. Rog and Charlie introduced Dave Peyton and Joe Dobbs to these silly, happy tunes, and the rest, as they say, is hysteria. Well, here's a recording from a rehearsal just a few weeks ago that shows that in the latest incarnation of The Flood, that spirit of hokum is still alive and well.