Backwater Blues

 After a long rehearsal, with lots of new material to work on, it’s always good to end up back on familiar ground, which for us usually means the blues. And more often than not, the blues means a shoutout to The Flood’s household deity, Miss Bessie Smith. Here’s a tune that Smith recorded almost a century ago. It’s since been recorded by everybody from Lead Belly, Josh White and B.B. King to Bob Dylan, Dinah Washington and Count Basie. Here’s The Flood’s 2021 rendering of the song, with a couple of solos by everybody in the room last night, Doug, Veezy and the two Pauls.

Black Coffee

 A very happy moment for us in is whenever a new member of the band is comfortable enough to start suggesting new tunes for us to try. That happened a couple of weeks ago when our newest Floodster, Vanessa Coffman, dropped Charlie an email saying, “Hey, just a though. Are you familiar with an old song called ‘Black Coffee”? I’m doing some music stuff here right now, and I thought I’d see if you wanted to give it a shot, too.” Well, yes, and yes, and oh my! Last night’s rehearsal was our first ride on this old Sonny Burke composition that the great Sarah Vaughn charted with in 1949. Ah, and just listen here as Doug Chaffin’s guitar and Veezy’s sax share some musical thoughts … well, over coffee, as it were…

Blues for Toy Stores and Records Stores

 Some songs don’t have names, just stories and moods. Here’s an example. Between the tunes at a recent rehearsal, we started reminiscing about some of the things we missed from our childhood. Well, listening to all that from the sidelines, our tribal elder, Doug Chaffin, started improvising an appropriately nostalgic blues lick from his own rock ’n’ roll roots. Take a listen and, as this track begins, you can hear our Mistah C, Paul Callicoat, wrapping up the conversation just before jumping in with his bass. Well, if this merry little ride — which features Doug trading musical ideas with Veezy Coffman — ever comes around again, we’ll just have to call it “Blues for Toy Stores and Records Stores…”

Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I)

 Sixty years ago this October, Ray Charles released his last album for Atlantic Records called “The Genius Sings the Blues,” The album compiled a dozen tunes Brother Ray had recorded over an eight-year period at the Atlantic studios, showcasing piano blues, jazz and southern R&B. A standout cut on that remarkable  album was the second tune on side 1 — “Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I),” a tune that’s since been covered by everybody from David Clayton-Thomas to Eric Clapton. And last night, it was the first tune we tackled at the first rehearsal of the new year.

Black Eye Blues

 One of the wonderful films that rolled out this month is “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” the latest in Denzel Washington’s exciting ongoing project to bring the best of the late August Wilson’s plays to the screen. That movie — an excellent vehicle for the Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman — has introduced a lot of people to the recordings of jazz legend Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, often called “the mother of the blues.” But we in The Flood are proud to say that we started doing Ma Rainey tunes, gosh, more than 40 years ago. Early on we recognized a kindred spirit in Ma through her randy lyrics and raucous wit. Shoot, even now, nearly a century after it was recorded, most of Ma Rainey’s music is meant for the midnight hour and afterward. And, hey, we’re still doing Ma’s songs. For instance, here, from a rehearsal we had a month or so before the the movie’s release, we roll out “Black Eye Blues,” in which Miss Rainey offered up this heartfelt warning to an errant lover: “You low-down alligator, you watch ’n’ sooner or later I’ll catch ya with your breeches down!” Ah, Ma, you could paint a picture!

Up a Lazy River

 America has always had amazing songwriters whose works simply change the way we all talk to each other, none more so than the great Hoagy Carmichael. In his 80 years, Hoagy wrote hundreds of songs, including 50 that achieved hit record status for numerous artists, and they still do.  For example, a few years, Norah Jones charted with Hoagy’s “The Nearness of You,” a song that was written and first recorded 40 years before Norah was even born. But, then, shoot, any of Hoagy’s wonderful songs would be enough to build a legend on. “Georgia on My Mind.” “Skylark.” “Heart and Soul.” ‘Stardust.” The Flood’s been doing Hoagy Carmichael songs for decades, and we’re sure to be adding some more to our repertoire in the new year. But we always come back to this one, our favorite, the first of Hoagy’s tunes we ever tackled.

Trouble in Mind

 Here’s a song that grew up in the after-dark world of New Orleans at the turn of the last century. “Trouble in Mind” was written by a pioneer jazzman named Richard M. Jones, who grew in the Crescent City and, while still a teenager, was pounding piano in the houses of New Orleans’ red-light district known as Storyville. He also sometimes led a small band that included other jazz forefathers like cornet player Joe Oliver, who later would be crowned “King Oliver.” But back to the song. In the the spring of 1924 “Trouble in Mind” was among the first blues recordings ever made. But it was two years later, in 1926 in Chicago, that singer Betha “Chippie” Hill popularized it with a rendition she recorded for Okeh Records with Richard Jones on piano and another young horn man, a 25-year-old Louis Armstrong, on cornet. Since those days, this song of New Orleans has been revisited by everyone from Big Bill Broonzy to Dinah Washington and Nina Simone. Here’s the latest Flood take on the tune from a recent rehearsal.