"Opus One"

 If your mother (or grandma or maybe your great-grandmother) was a Bobby-soxer in the 1940s, she probably danced to this song. It was a hit on the radio for Tommy Dorsey in late 1944, and an even bigger smash the following year for singer Anita O’Day, recording it with a band fronted by drummer Gene Krupa with the legendary Roy Eldridge on trumpet. In the Floodisphere,we’ve found that “Opus One” is wonderful way to warm up for an evening of tunes.

"Corrina, Corrina"

 For the past month, the world has been fascinated by a new movie about a 20-year-old with a head full of ideas rolling in from the North Country into New York City in the 1960s and changing music forever. For our tribute to this wonderful Bob Dylan biopic, “A Complete Unknown,” here’s a tune from that period. It’s our version of Bob’s version of “Corrina, Corrina.”

"Pretty Polly"

 All kinds of stories are told at the weekly rehearsals. Some are shared for laughs. Others are merely melodies and improvisations. Some come with pictures. And some — like this one — are the tales that are many times older than all of us.

"Am I Blue?"

 Often the first notes of the evening set the pace, the mood and the tone for the entire rehearsal. Well, as you’ll hear on this track, Danny Cox came into last week’s session ready to set the Floodometer on sizzle — and, man, it worked! Now, we’ve been doing this great old 1920s jazz standard for only a couple of years, but it’s already become one of our go-to tunes for a good time, especially whenever Dan’s got new musical ideas to explore.

"Black Eye Blues"

 When the whole band can’t get together — like last week, when it was just Danny, Randy and Charlie — it’s an opportunity to explore tunes not usually on the practice list. Now, in Flood years, this old Ma Rainey song dates back nearly a half century, to when the fellows were just starting to fool with the hokum tunes of the 1920s and ‘30s.

"Stardust"

 Since its composition nearly a hundred years ago now, many folks have performed this song as a slow, romantic ballad, drawing out the words and the melody. Good for them. However, when Hoagy Carmichael wrote “Stardust” tback in 1927, he performed it with a bit of the sass and sway that characterized the jazz of his day, and we in The Flood like to carry on that tradition. The song has some of the best chords of anything in our repertoire and in this take from last week’s rehearsal you’ll hear two solos in which Danny Cox is finding all kinds of interesting ideas.

"Payday"

 Purists tell us this doesn’t sound much like Mississippi John Hurt’s original, but that’s pretty much by design. Once we learn a song, we usually stop listening to the original so it’s free to find its own form in the Floodisphere. At least, that’s our take on what Pete Seeger’s folklorist father called “the folk process.”