Huntington Symphony vs. The 1937 Flood -- In the World's Most Lopsided Battle of the Bands, uh, They Won...fam

What a farcical, sad, strange week this has been for the Family Flood. Cascading events have culminated in our being forced to cancel plans for a June 14 concert with our old steamboatin' buddies, ragtime pianist Jazzou Jones and tenor banjo master Bob Schad, both of whom we've known and played with over the years on The Delta Queen steamboat and elsewhere.

How strange a week was it, you ask?

Well, it's not every day you find musicians blocking other musicians from performing. But yesterday that's just what the board of directors of the Huntington Symphony Orchestra voted to do.

Background: Jazzou and Bob have been invited to Huntington to play with the orchestra as part of its POPS series in a Saturday night concert down on the riverfront on June 13. They'll be here because of the good works of a local longtime steamboater who is a member of the orchestra board.

As soon as we heard our pals were coming to town, we contacted them and made plans for a Jazzou-Bob concert with The 1937 Flood on the day after the orchestra's performance. The Flood never intended to have any financial stake in the concert. On the contrary, donating our time and energy, we planned to charge admission for the Sunday concert and all revenue would go to Jazzou and Bob. We figured we could draw maybe a hundred people. At $10 a head, Jazzou and Bob would each get $500, perhaps doubling what the orchestra would be paying them for the previous night.

We then contacted the folks at Renaissance Arts Resources (the old Huntington High) who agreed to donate space for the concert, returning favors for The Flood's helping with their fundraisers. Once word got out around the Internet about the big Bob-Jazzou weekend -- the orchestra on Saturday night, then with The Flood on Sunday afternoon -- steamboatin' fans from as far away as New York and Florida started making plans to be here. So we were set to go.

Or so we thought.

But then out of the blue last Sunday night, Charlie got a call from the same orchestra board member who had originally arranged the appearance.

Now, we all know poor ol' Charlie is a bit naive, but he actually thought she was calling to thank us ... you know, for donating our time, enhancing the weekend, making it even more attractive to those out-of-towners who may be thinking about coming here ... not to mention, oh, providing a chance for more income for our mutual friends. Sorry, Charlie -- not so fast. No, the board member was upset. She said she believed The Flood concert on Sunday would somehow detract from the orchestra's performance the previous night.

Uh, what now?

Saying it slower so Charlie could grasp the concept, she said she thought that people might decide to go to The Flood event instead of the orchestra's concert on the riverfront.

Okay, now, well, that's sort of flattering. Why, yes, of course, there are many similarities between The Flood and a symphony orchestra (though we think we've demonstrated that our kazoo player is better). Still .... well, we don't exactly draw from the same fan pool. Surely no one would seriously think that someone interested in the orchestra would opt for The Flood instead, or vice versa. Who would honestly think a Sunday concert by the Flood would adversely affect the previous night's performance by the orchestra? In fact, it might have really improved turnout for POPS' Saturday evening event. Here's why. Jazzou and Bob have friends all over the country, and the pair -- living thousands of miles apart, as they do -- get to appear together very, very rarely these days. As word spread that there would be not one, but two opportunities to see and hear them together again, there would be twice as much reason for their many out-of-town fans to invest in coming to Huntington for that weekend.

Nope. Not having a bit of it. She remained unconvinced.

Matters escalated on Monday morning, when Charlie talked to the new orchestra manager, who told him that Jazzou and Bob would be bound by "performance contracts" that prohibited them from playing within 60 miles of Huntington for 60 days before and after the concert.

Huh. Well, now, that was news. The board member certainly hadn't mentioned anything about contracts during her lengthy conversation with Charlie the night before. And honestly? You got to question just when these performance contracts actually came into being. We're betting that West Virginia jazz great Bob Thompson didn't signed such a contract before his performance with the symphony. Hey, come to think of it, The Flood itself didn't sign anything like that when we played with the symphony orchestra on the riverfront several years ago. So, you just have to wonder if these restrictions were only now being brought up.

Anyhoo....

In advance of yesterday morning's monthly orchestra board meeting, we asked a longtime Flood fan who is also on the orchestra board to make our case to her fellow board members. We wanted her to at least make sure they understood The Flood's good intentions in all of this. Alas, despite her efforts, she reported afterward that the board discussed the issue but in the end would not remove the "60 days, 60 miles" contract provision.

So, there you have it. After consultation with Jazzou, we've reluctantly canceled the June 14 event. We're sad, of course, but also we can't help marveling at the ironies of this week. ...

That someone would work so hard to bring beloved steamboat musicians to town, then work just as hard to keep them from perhaps doubling their income while they're here. ...

That the city would open its arms to steamboat and ragtime fans from all over the country to come hear these musical giants, then systematically cut in half the opportunity to visit with them in our town. ...

That a mighty orchestra all of a sudden would turn protectionist and worry about losing money because of the efforts of a quirky little string band that was simply trying to donate its services and make memories for friends.

But then, on a brighter note, who'd've thought The Flood would ever get to scare a whole symphony orchestra?

Nice Words from Br'er Lavender

Our friend Dave Lavender gave us a nice shoutout in the Herald-Dispatch last week about the "Hip Boots" CD. Heading a section of his column with the title "The Soggy Basement Boys," Dave wrote:

It was a long winter. So long that everyone and their cousin has a new CD out and so long that The 1937 Flood said the heck with it and finally released their own bootleg tape.

With an obvious homage to Dylan's infamous "The Basement Tapes," one of the state's best known string bands, The 1937 Flood has scoured the dusty and even the digital archives to put out the new CD "Hip Boots: The Flooded Basement Tapes."

It's a clever "then" and "now" collection of nearly two dozen songs that showcases the long and wonderful kazoo-and-fiddle-powered trip that's been 30 years of The Flood.

Step in The Flood's time machine (i.e. recordings made from everything from digital recorders to reel-to-reel machines) to hear the family-esque band that's featured a ton of musicians including Rog Samples and Chuck Romine, Stewart Schneider, Bill Hoke, Randy Nuckols, Michelle Walker, Kathy Castner and many other folks who have played with the band that was started and still driven by former H-D'ers Dave Peyton and Charlie Bowen and fiddling Joe Dobbs.

Hip Boots: The Flood's (Self-Produced) Bootleg Album

As everybody's mother always said (usually with a pretty heavy sigh), if you want something Done Right, do it yourself.

Well, in our case, the real truth is that after more than three decades of making music, we just got flat-out tired of waiting for someone else to produce The 1937 Flood bootleg album, and (with a pretty heavy sigh) we decided that if it was going to happen, it looked like we'd have to make it so.

So... meet Hip Boots: The Flooded Basement Tapes. It's a collection of nearly two dozen cuts from various drop-in points during the 30-year-plus history of The Flood, a band deeply rooted in the foggy (some more foggy than others) years of The Hippy Culture.

In the finest tradition of bootlegs, the recording quality on this disc isn't always the greatest. These field recordings were made on the fly at coffeehouses and parties, clubs and concerts and in people's living rooms, using whatever equipment was available, from cheap cassette recorders to reel-to-reel machines that were pretty nice for the day to (later still) digital recorders of all stripes. Setting aside the sometimes suckiness of the recording quality, the tracks do capture the spirit and madness that brought The 1937 Flood together in the first place and has kept it together today.

Hip Boots also gives the current Family Flood a chance to send a huge shoutout to earlier Floodsters, great friends and brothers like Rog Samples and Chuck Romine, Stewart Schneider and Bill Hoke, Randy Nuckols and others. They're all still with us in the flow. The disc also feature some of the beautiful ladies who brighten our lives with their tunes, including Michelle Walker and Kathy Castner.

The CD is divided right down the middle between "Then," with the recordings from the 1970s and '80s, and "Now," with live concert recordings and studio out-takes made between 2001 through 2006. (We're keeping the 1990s to ourselves. The Flood: The Missing Years. Yeah, right. Let's just wait for the movie.)

Highlights on the new/old CD? Well, that's like trying to decide on your favorite baby pictures, but we'll try.

You gotta love Dave Peyton and Rog Samples' Spike Jones-ish rendering of "Unchanged Melody" from some obviously well lubricated evening in 1981. And then there's more recent track that finds the guys teaching the Huntington Symphony Orchestra to play kazoos at the Flood's performance with the orchestra at Huntington's Harris Riverfront Park in July 2002. And from the night before that concert, there's Chuck Romine's wonderful vocal and banjo lead on a rollicking version of "Bill Bailey" recorded in Morehead State University in Kentucky. And you gotten hear Joe Dobbs' sail through "June Apple," and Charlie Bowen in preacher mode as he shouts out "Samson and Delilah." Oo oo, and we smile every time we hear Randy Nuckols' spoons playing and Stew Schneider's great harmonica work on "Mama Don't Allow" from 1979. Then there's Bill Hoke trying out a dobro on an Eagles tune...

Well, okay, you see. We really can't really decide on favorites. But the good news is that you can sample for yourself every track of the CD -- and if you're so inclined, even buy it -- online with this link.

By the way, none of the 22 performances on Hip Boots appears on any other Flood CD -- in fact, 90 percent of the tunes themselves are exclusive to this disc -- so it could make a nice addition to the Flood shelf, especially if you know somebody who's on a mission to collect them all! We love people with a plan.

Come to the Jam Session (From The Cybersphere)

During the spring and summer, Flood buddies JoAnn and Bob McCoy are regulars at the Wednesday night jam sessions, and the band always plays better in the presence of those smiling, loving faces.

In the colder months, though, the McCoys are gone from the Ohio Valley, staying in Florida. But that doesn't mean they're not getting their Wednesday night Flood fix.

JoAnn said in email last week that she and Bob listened to the Flood's Red Barn radio show online, even tuning into it "about the time you would have been having your practice. And we felt like we were there. You may have seen us bilocating there. :-)

'We may have to listen to that every Wednesday night till we come up," JoAnn added. "The sound was so clear, the songs and music were just great, and everyone seemed to be having such a good time. It was just like in your music room with everyone there. I'm so glad they put it on the Internet where everyone can listen to it. It was just great. Thanks for letting everyone know about it."

If you have friends currently elsewhere and in need of a little Flood infusion, tell them how they can use The 1937 Flood web site to party with the band -- and, of course, in cyberspace they don't even have to wait until a Wednesday night.

Remember, too, that besides the Radio Barn radio show, you also should visit our Digital Jam Session page. So far we have about an hour's worth of music there, all recorded informally (okay, QUITE informally) at the jam sessions, with a new tune added every week. Of course, the tracks there aren't anything like "studio quality" -- it's just a single recorder in the middle of the room, after all -- but they do capture the spirit of our Wednesdays.

Oh, and finally, if you've not seen it yet, be sure to check out Tim Irr's wonderful video report for WSAZ-TV of a typical jam session night.

Now Hear The Flood Radio Show Online

Last January, Floodsters were the guests of the Red Barn Radio program in Lexington, Ky. The show, which aired on various radio public radio stations in February, now can be heard online. Audio of the hour-long show has been posted on the web. For the show, the guys played a lot of music and were interviewed by host Brad Becker.

Want to hear it all? Start with this link:

www.wgad.net

When you reach the WGADNET page, scroll down to the Red Barn Radio logo, the click on the "Flash" button on the right side.

This should load a media player. On this screen, click on "4. RED BARN RADIO SHOW 07-14 - 1937 FLOOD" and the audio begins. (Note you also can use this player to listen to other recent Re Barn shows, including one by The Flood's old buddy, Rob McNurlin, who appeared the week after the Flood.)

Now in its seventh season, Red Barn Radio is a syndicated weekly broadcast started by Ed Commons and Marilyn Myers and produced with Becker. In-depth interview with the performers are conducted during the performance and incorporated into the final edit for airplay by affiliate stations, including Public Radio in several states and Canada.

Meanwhile, speaking of free Floodishness, be sure to also check out 1937flood.com for more audios and videos, including a nice 4-minute TV feature, and visit our online store, where you'll find all sorts of goodies.

Filming the Flood

Anchorman Tim Irr of Huntington's WSAZ-TV dropped by one of the Flood's weekly jam sessions last month and produced a feature story that beautifully captures the fun and foolishness of a Wednesday night at the Bowen Bower. We have the video on the web site.

Charlie and Pamela had invited Tim -- who lives nearby with his family in the South Side -- to simply come by and listen to the music some Wednesday night on his dinner break between his 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts. They never meant to suggest that he should come and work, but work he did! He filmed for more than hour, catching a number of tunes and interviewing members of the band and the audience.

We were fortunate that there just happened to be a particularly good turnout that evening. Susie and Ervin Jones were on hand, as were Rose Riter and her friends, Shirley and Norman Davis. From Ashland, Nancy McClellan and Zoe Davis drove in as well as Donna Chaffin, Doug's wife. And Mike Smith was sitting in with Joe on fiddle.

In his report, which aired last night, Tim interviewed Charlie, Dave Peyton and Jacob Scarr from the band, as well as Rose and jam session first-timers, Shirley and Norman.

If you missed the story on either My-Z TV or the regular 11 p.m. WSAZ newscast, you can view it on our web site -- click here -- or on YouTube.

Put the Flood on Your Chest (And Refrigerator!)

No bobbleheads and Joe Dobbs action figures yet, but The 1937 Flood merchandising department has been kicking into high gear with a new line of Flood shirts, mugs, bumper stickers, magnets, buttons and more. All are available for online ordering through a Merchandise page added to the Flood site.

The new Flood gear is made possible through CafePress, the online retailer of stock and user-customized on-demand products. CafePress.com, headquartered in San Mateo, Calif., with its production facility in Louisville, was started in 1999 and has processed more than a hundred million items to date.

To check out the new online store, come to the Flood site, click the Merchandise option on any page and browse the departments: short-sleeved and long-sleeved shirts, mugs, bags, bumper sticker, buttons and magnets. Clicking any topic will take you to the CafePress installation which will handle orders and delivery. Our experience is products usually arrive within 10 days or two weeks.

We hope to regularly add new items to the lineup. Remember, if it doesn't say "Flood," it's ... uh, well, probably not...