This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 More than 90 years ago, this was one of the last tunes recorded by our great hokum heroes Georgia Tom and Tampa Red. 

 
But while Tom and Red decided to go their separate ways in 1932, their songs just roll on and on. Here’s one of our favorites.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 We have a new old saying around here: When it doubt, let Danny do it!  

 
Danny Cox has an abiding love for the works of Jerry Reed and Chet Atkins and his take on “Drive In” from a recent rehearsal beautifully displays those intersecting energies.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 The sing-along — “if you know it, sing it!” as we say around here — is fundamental to folk music. 

As the folk music guiding spirit, Pete Seeger, once said, “I rather put songs on people’s lips than in their ears.” 

 
And for us, there’s no better sing-along than this tune, which the newest Floodster Jack Nuckols brought us about a year ago.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 Danny Cox and Randy Hamilton brought us this tune a year or so ago and as it matures, it just keeps enriching The Flood’s bloodstream. 

 
And it’s right on target to be included on the new album when we start work on that in the coming months. 

It’s an old Doc Watson tune. Here’s the latest take from a recent rehearsal. It’s “Deep River Blues.”

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

Honestly, we don’t remember when we first started doing this song. It was back when we were youngsters at those good old folk music parties in the ‘60s. 

A decade later, the tune was firmly entrenched when The Flood came together. And we were still playing it in 2001 when we recorded our first album, on which it’s the closing track. 

 
That was a good call, because we often use this song to close out a show, since it gives everybody in the band one more solo before we call it a night, as you can hear in this take from last week’s rehearsal. Here’s our latest take on Jesse Fuller’s “San Francisco Bay Blues.”

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.