This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 Our approach to this old prison work song is different from most. 

We take our inspiration from a creative version that singer Eric von Schmidt recorded back in 1961. For us, Ric’s melody not only gives Danny, Sam and Randy a lot of room for imaginative soloing, but also an opportunity for vocal harmonies at the end of each verse. 

This, then, is The Flood’s version of “Lazarus.”

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 Randy Hamilton brought us this song. 

Not long ago, he and his buddy, Flood guitarist Dan Cox, came in the room on a rainy night like last night, sat down, tuned up, and almost immediately the song fell into a groove. 

 

Along with Danny, Sam St. Clair found a special voice for soloing, and “Good Time Charlie,” with Randy’s lead vocals, landed solidly in our repertoire.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 We always try to come up with a couple of new tunes for our monthly gig at Sal’s Speakeasy in Ashland. Here’s the latest, with Randy rock solid on that harmony and he, Sam and Danny just cooking on the solos. It’s our take on “Deep Ellum Blues.”

Remember, we’re at Sal’s Speakeasy this weekend, 1624 Carter Avenue in downtown Ashland, Ky. We play from 6 to 9 this Saturday night. And best of all, the beautiful Michelle Hoge is driving in from Cincinnati just to sit in with her old band mates. It’s going to be an epic evening. Come out and party with us!

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 Danny Cox learned his version of this song from a recording by his hero Chet Atkins on his 1965 "More of That Guitar Country" album. 

This is a Flood track recorded at a recent gig at Sal’s Speakeasy in Ashland, Ky. Here you’ll hear Dan and harmonicat Sam St. Clair trading choruses on the tune as we call folks back to the bandstand to begin our second set. 

By the way, The Flood will be back at Sal’s next week. We’re playing Saturday, April 22, from 6 to 9 and, as a special treat, our dear friend, Floodster Emerita Michelle Hoge will the joining us as the evening’s guest artist.

This Week's Freebie from The !937 Flood

 Pamela Bowen has been our band manager for more than 20 years now, and she is a major influence on all things Flood, from the venues we visit to the tunes we play when we get there. 

 
So recently when Pamela suggested we augment the roots music portion of our repertoire with some classic old-time rock, we started casting our thoughts back to the tunes that rocked our youth, like this from 1956.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 If you hang out with The Flood much, it seems like everything we do is carefully planned …. right…. but actually, accident and happenstance are a couple of our good friends. 

For instance, earlier this week we got together to plan for our show tonight at Sal’s Speakeasy. Now, as you’ll hear in this track, between songs Charlie start singing a bit of this old 1920s hokum song. Immediately, Randy jumps in with some cool harmony. Then Sam brightens it up with his harmonica and Danny puts a bow on the whole thing with a cookie’ guitar part and just like that the tune has inserted itself into the set list. 

 
All that’s missing now is you. Come on down to Italian Eatery & Speakeasy tonight, 1624 Carter Avenue in beautiful downtown Ashland, Ky. and we’ll getting you singing along on that hey-lawdy-mama-mama, hey-lawny-papa-papa part!

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 Before we played this song at a recent rehearsal, we had a bit of conversation about all the more raucous renditions of “Corrina, Corrina” of our youth (and mom and dad’s youth…. of grandma’s youth…) 

But then when we kicked off the song, we all just naturally dropped into that bluesy, moody groove that Bob Dylan established for it 60 years ago. 

This is our first take on the tune, but it feels like it’s campaigning to be a regular in our repertoire. Stay tuned.