This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 When our friend, the remarkable percussionist Jack Nuckols, dropped in to visit with the band last week, we immediately drew him into the circle. First, we passed him the house bongos to play, but when a jug band tune came around, we put spoons in his hands. 

 
Jack was rocking it hard, we were digging on those rhythmic riffs and just as we were fixing to turn it over to him for a solo, darned if those spoons didn’t break in his hands. Now, Jack was apologetic, but — as you’ll hear — we all thought it was a hoot! What better way to end a song called, “Tear It Down”?

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 Here’s a tune that has drifted in and out of The Flood repertoire many times over the years. It drifted back in recently when we gathered on a sultry summer night that had a decidedly New Orleans tang to it. 

 

 

 Here’s our take on “Buddy Bolden’s Blues.”

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 Our latest Duke Ellington number is a great vehicle for sassy solos by everyone in the band. 

 
Here’s “I’m Beginning to See the Light.”

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 Well, this has been Bowen’s “Banjo Summer.” In early June, he dropped in to visit Paul Callicoat at Route 60 Music and, on a whim, Charlie traded an old guitar he had for a shiny new five-string that he spied on the wall there. 

Charlie didn’t know a thing about banjo, but he started watching some videos he found on YouTube from the remarkable Dr. Josh Turknett and his “Brainjo Academy.” He practice a bit every day and has been having an absolute ball. 

 
Now, we don’t think he’ll ever been an especially proficient player — honestly, banjo seems to be something you could study the rest of your life and still have more to learn — but… well, we remember a line in an old song that said, “I can be the doctor ’til the doctor comes…” We think the same could be said about banjo players. 

Here, from a recent rehearsal, was Charlie’s first bit of banjocity with the band, on a great old Tommy Thompson tune.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 We always try to have a few novelty tunes in our back pocket to lighten the mood at shows — or just to amuse ourselves at the weekly rehearsals. 

 
And this one, of course, is how we get all that big grant money, because it’s about history. Well, sort of…. There is some dispute about whether George Washington actually played the ukulele, but we do think it may have known a few red-hot mamas…