This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

This week's freebie offers another tune from a new friend.

There are all kinds of ways to define the word “magic.” Among musicians there’s magic in the way an old tune can seal the bonds of new friendships.

These days we are delighted to have jazz saxophonist Vanessa Coffman sitting in with us at the weekly rehearsals. Last night there were smiles all around the table when she brought some new magic to “Misty.” Click to hear the tune.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

This week's freebie introduces a new friend!.

Here’s the beautiful sound of jazz saxophonist Vanessa Coffman who sat in with us at last night’s rehearsal. Pamela and Charlie met the 19-year-old Marshall University music major just two weeks ago when Floodster Emeritus Stew Schneider suggested they catch her solo gig at a hotel in downtown Ashland. They are so glad they did. What a talent!

And not only does Vanessa have exciting musical ideas, she also have a seasoned instinct for crafting her solo to complement the other players around her. Here’s an example from last night. In this section of “Georgia on My Mind,” listen to how Vanessa’s solo builds beautifully on what Paul Martin lays down just before she comes in, then leaves a warm space for Doug Chaffin to follow her, like a sweet, musical conversation.

We’re looking forward to more sessions with Vanessa Coffman in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned, friends. Click to hear the tune.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

This week's freebie features our New Year’s greeting to you.

We start the new year with one of the oldest tunes we know.

“The Water is Wide” is Scottish in origin and traces its roots all the back to the 1600s. It seems to be related to several of the English and Scottish ballad collected by Francis James Child in the second half the 19th century, but the modern version was popularized in the 1950s and ‘60s by Pete Seeger.

 In our rendition, from a recent rehearsal, Michelle sings the lead with sweet solos by Paul, Sam and Doug. Click to hear the tune.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

This week's freebie features our Christmas card to you.

Well, this eventful 2019 is coming to an end and we look forward to being back in your ears in the new year, but before we go, friends, Michelle speaks for us all here on this Christmas Eve in wishing you the merriest of Christmases. Click to hear the tune.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

This week's freebie features a Christmas tune we’re working up for a gig this weekend.

Until the great Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Famer Charles Brown opened our eyes and ears to the concept, most of us never thought of Christmas as a time for the blues. But then in 1961, King Records released “Charles Brown Sings Christmas Songs” and suddenly Christmas was cool.

The standout track on that album was Brown’s composition called, “Please Come Home for Christmas,” a song that has hit the chart dozens of times since that original release. The Eagles, for example, had a beloved version in the 1970s, Bon Jovi would revisit the tune in the 1990s. Meanwhile, in this century it’s been given fine treatments everyone from Willie Nelson and Martina McBride to Kelly Clarkson.

And now we in The Flood will be incorporating the number into our house band tunes at this weekend’s Route 60 Saturday Night holiday show. Here we are working on our arrangement at last night’s rehearsal. That’s Paul Martin singing lead and Michelle Lewis with her call-and-response harmony. It’s “Please Come Home for Christmas.” Click to hear the tune.

Remember, it’s Route 60 Saturday Night, THIS Saturday night, at Route 60 Music Co., 60 Peyton Street in Barboursville. We have some of the region’s favorite sons as our guests this month, including singer-songwriter Rob McNurlin and the group Blues Crossing, featuring Mike Lyzenga and Ray Hensley. The show starts at 7 p.m. Admission is $5, and this month all proceeds go to help the good work of Facing Hunger Foodbank of Huntington. Come on out for a good time for a good cause.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

This week's freebie features some accidental magic that makes music worth doing.

No matter how far we roam in search of new material, The Flood never gets too far away from its folky roots. A Woody Guthrie or a Pete Seeger tune can bring us back home in an instance.

And fundamental to the band’s DNA is the music of the great Huddle Ledbetter, better know as Lead Belly. In fact, one of the first songs The Flood ever did back when it was aborning in the early 1970s was a Lead Belly classic called “Ella Speed,” about a turn-of-the-century murder of a lady of the evening in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Folklorist John Lomax recorded Lead Belly singing that very song in Louisiana’s Angola Penitentiary in 1933.

And while Lead Belly is the recognized source of that song, we learned it from another recording. It’s on Ian & Sylvia’s wonderful 1964 “Four Strong Winds” album, with John Harold doing the guitar solos.

Well, here’s The Flood’s 2019 latest rendition, with the solos in the able hands of Paul Martin, Doug Chaffin and Paul Callicoat. It’s “Ella Speed.” Click to hear the tune.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

This week's freebie features some accidental magic that makes music worth doing.

Sometimes the magic of the evening comes just when you think the evening is over!

At a recent rehearsal, we’d had a good, productive session and the boys were heading for the door. Sam had already had to go, the two Paul’s — Paul Martin and Paul Callicoat were packing up their instruments — and Doug was wringing out the last notes of the night on his fiddle.

But before the guys could get their coats on, Michelle and Charlie started playing a favorite tune, and in a flash they were back in their seats to play one more. Here it is, old winter’s song: “Autumn Leaves.” Click to hear the tune.