Memphis in June

 Back in the days when we would ride on — and occasionally even got to perform on — the good ol’ Delta Queen steamboat, it often meant a reunion with a dear friend, the boat’s band leader, the legendary New Orleans cornetist Connie Jones. We learned this song — an obscure Hoagy Carmichael composition — from Connie. On his album, it was an instrumental, but whenever we’d ask for it on board the boat, Connie would sing it. Now, The Flood’s only just begun learning this song — we started messing around with it a few weeks ago, so our arrangement is still evolving — but it’s already doing its magic, conjuring up memories of sunny days up in The Delta Queen’s Texas Lounge, seeing Connie, eyes closed and grinning as he purred those sweet Paul Francis Webster lyrics. Here then, in memory of Connie Jones in the week of what would have been his 87th birthday, is Hoagy Carmichael’s “Memphis in June.”