Careless Love

If an alien anthropologist were flying by to study our music, he’d probably be fascinated — well, as we Earthlings are — with how altering a single element can change a whole vibe, even in mid-song. Here’s a case in point from last night’s Flood rehearsal. So, Michelle and Charlie are tooling along on pretty much a standard version of one of the band’s favorite warm-up tunes, our take on W.C. Handy’s good old “Careless Love.” Then, though, Doug Chaffin seems to hear something new that he can add to the piece, but he’ll need his fiddle instead of his guitar to do it. Listen and about a minute in — toward the end of Sam St. Clair’s harmonica solo — you’ll hear Doug switching instruments. A grin flashed from Paul Martin, who’s sitting right next to Doug at that moment, is our first signal that something in the tune is changing. On down the line, Paul Callicoat hears it too and soon he’s adding a little extra sumpin-sumpin to his bass line to compliment and encourage the bluesy fills that Doug is now playing on his fiddle. By the end, this old tune is in a brand new groove and somewhere out there in space, the little green men are probably grinning too.