This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

It's funny how songs come in and out of our lives. 

A half century ago when The Flood was thinking about being born, Dave Peyton and Charlie Bowen would get together on weekends to pick and sing, just the two of them, and among the tunes they’d play was “Way Downtown," which they learned from an old Doc Watson record. 

The song has drifted in and out over the years, and whenever it rambles back in, it’s just as comfortable as an old shoe. 

Here's a take from a recent rehearsal, with Randy Hamilton leading the harmony on the choruses and solos by Dan Cox, Sam St. Clair, Jack Nuckols and Paul Martin.
 

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 Whenever the guys haven’t seen each other for a couple of weeks, there’s always a special joy when we all get back together again. That was certainly the case at last week’s rehearsal. 

 
Add to that the fact that Floodster Emeritus Paul Martin dropped by to sit in. That always cranks up the energy level in the room. 

And you can just hear in this first tune of the evening. Listen to the solos from everybody on century-old anthem of the Roarin’ Twenties. Here’s a Flood date with “Dinah.”

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 The band’s founders — Dave Peyton, Roger Samples and Charlie Bowen — all started listening to the music of Bob Dylan some 60 years ago, so it’s no wonder that his songs are so deeply woven into the fabric of The Flood. 

And whenever we’re feeling folky — as we were at this recent rehearsal a week or so ago — it’s likely that a Dylan tune will the first to come to mind.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 Before Floodster Emerita Vanessa Coffman left the band, she taught the guys her mom’s favorite tune, a 1948 jazz standard. 

Well, everyone fully expected that when Veezy left The Flood last year to pursue other interested that the song would go with her. 

 
But then Danny Cox took up the tune and gave it a new life in our world. Listen to Dan’s guitar brewing up some robust “Black Coffee.”

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 It was a quarter of a century ago when Joe’s son, Dale Dobbs, first used the word “eclectic” to describe The Flood’s musical tastes. 

 
True, that. We do tap a wide variety of sources for our tunes, from blues and old-time to jazz, jug band and classic rock. 

Well, even we didn’t see this one coming, but you diehard Bee Gees knew we’d get to you sooner or later. Here’s Randy Hamilton leading us on Barry Gibb’s greatest composition.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 When Jack Nuckols switches from drums to fiddle, it often brings back lots of old memories of music parties 50 years ago. 

Here’s another tune that Dave Peyton, Joe Dobbs and Charlie Bowen first heard at those parties when the good old Kentucky Foothill Ramblers, led by H. David Holbrook, could play a whole evening full of Charlie Poole songs.

This from last week’s Flood affair, when the group’s old band mate Paul Martin and his mandolin sat in with current Floodsters Charlie and Jack, Danny Cox, Randy Hamilton and Sam St. Clair.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 After we Floodified a version of “Peaceful Easy Feeling” earlier this year, we started looking around for another Eagles tune we might bring into the repertoire. 

 
That’s when Randy Hamilton stepped up and said, “I might have one.” The old Eagles song “Love Will Keep Us Alive” is his sister’s favorite tune — in fact, Randy sang it at her wedding a while back — and when he started singing for us, it just naturally slipped into a Flood groove. 

Here from last week’s rehearsal is Randy leading the way!