This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 Newcomers here were surprised by last week’s podcast, which celebrated native West Virginians who became legendary jazzmen. “I’m sorry,” one of them said, “but to me the idea of West Virginia conjures up fiddles and banjos. I’ve never thought of it for jazz.” 

He’s forgiven for not realizing the diversity of the Mountain State’s musical tradition. For instance, this is the 100th birthday of the greatest jazz standards of all times, and it was written by Bluefield, WV, native son, Maceo Pinkard. Yes, she might have been a Georgia peach, but our Miss Brown was a West Virginia girl at heart!

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 Joining The Flood repertoire, some songs fit in right away, while others — like this 90-year-old Don Redmond classic — take a little time to settle in, but when they do, wow — they’re as comfortable as an old shoe.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

Our latest iteration of this song has been eight years in the making. 

Randy Hamilton brought it to us in the spring of 2017 and had already worked out the basic arrangement in his head, but it took a while to get the instrumentation right. 

For instance, Jack Nuckols, whose drumming is so fundamental this track, didn’t arrive until a couple of years ago, about the same time that I began learning a bit of banjo. 

Now Jack’s snare drum and my five-string could provide a little counterbalance to the sweet solos by Danny Cox and Sam St. Clair.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 A lot of ghosts stalk our rehearsal room nowadays, but to a man they are a happy bunch of haunts. 

And we have table set aside for photos of all of our old band mates who have passed on. But more than mere pictures, it’s their music that keeps our old comrades alive. 

 
Here’s one of the late Dave Peyton’s favorite tunes that’s never left us since he first brought to this very room 20 years ago.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 Danny Cox and Randy Hamilton do some serious gold mining in this old sweet song. 

 
This track opens with Charlie Bowen and Jack Nuckols laying down the basic melody and rhythm, and then just listen to Danny start spending out all the riches he’s found in those lovely old chords.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 “The Andy Griffith Show” was always at its best when the music-loving Darling family rolled into town. Now, The Darlings were played for the real-life Ozark band, The Dillards. Here from last week’s rehearsal is Randy Hamilton leading us on our take of the Dillards’ greatest tune.  

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

We first recorded this tune nearly a quarter of a century ago, a good old blues written in the 1930s by a Kentuckian named Teddy Darby.