This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 You can learn about how versatile a band is by listening to its handling of instrumentals. Without the poetics of the lyrics or the theatrics of the singer, it’s up to the soloists to bring drama to the song. To hear what we mean, listen to this four-minute track from a recent Flood show. 

 
Vanessa Coffman opens the action with her tasteful statement of Fats Waller’s melody, “Honeysuckle Rose.” Then about a minute in, she begins to weave and spin brilliant new threads on that old familiar frame with her tenor sax, beautiful work that then inspires her bandmate, guitarist Danny Cox, when he follows with some gorgeous strings of his own. Yes, Veezy and Danny bring the honey to this rose.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 Danny and Randy brought us this song just a couple of weeks ago and in no time it became a rehearsal night favorite. 

Here’s our latest take on the tune, with Randy doing the honors on the vocals and everybody taking a turn on the solos.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 We have a different kind of podcast this week. Recently, the band has been working on some original compositions. This particular melody is one I started writing with back in the late 1970s, but you know what? Even after 40 years, the thing still doesn’t even have a name. Figures, I guess, for a song that’s about … well, procrastination. 

 Anyway, this week’s podcast invites you to eavesdrop as The Flood starts to craft an arrangement for this quirky little tune.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 The weekly Flood rehearsal has always been an eclectic affair. A typical night will travel from old jazz standards of the 1930s and ‘40s with their flurry of quirky chords to little-known jug band tunes and blues. Maybe we’ll stop along the way to sample a few Flood originals that are still busy being born. And often, after all that musical wandering, we’ll end up back at some simpler folk song of our youth. 

 
Last week, for instance, the last tune of the evening was this haunting Perry County, Ky., composition that the great Jean Ritchie built on just two well-considered chords.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 This song has been floating around the Floodisphere for many years, but it didn’t really take flight until Vanessa came along to blend it with a soulful Old World aire, and then Randy stepped up to take the lead on the vocals. 

 
Here, with pensive soloing by Dan and Sam, is our merging of the thoroughly American “Dink’s Song” with Scotland’s lovely “Loch Lomond.”

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 This tune really hasn’t made The Flood set list yet — we’ve only just started working with it — but it sure seems like it wants to settle down with us. Here listen to everybody listening to everybody else. 

 For instance, midway through, check out how Veezy’s solo establishes a lovely mood which Danny then beautifully echos when he takes his turn. Yeah, it’s not a regular Floodified number yet, but, hey, stay tuned.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

While Charlie has given his new banjo a nickname — it’s “Buzz Kill” to us in the Flood— the instrument actually does have its moments, especially when then tune on the table turns out to be of the old folksong variation. 

 
Here — as Danny, Randy, Sam and Charlie have a go at this classic Eric Andersen tune from the 1960s — the banjo brings a nice little trot.