This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 When we roll in tomorrow night for our latest gig at Sal’s Speakeasy in Ashland, Ky., we’re bringing with us one of our all time favorite party tunes. The song we call “You Got Me Slippin’” is loosely based on a classic Jimmy Reed tune from 65 years ago at the dawn of rock ’n’ roll.

Remember, this Saturday night we’re Sal’s Speakeasy, 1624 Carter Avenue in beautiful downtown Ashland, Ky. We play from 6 to 9. Call ahead to save a table near the bandstand and come down to party with us.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 Nominally, this is a traditional song about abandoned love, but back in the 1960s when she reworked it, the late Jean Ritchie wrote new lyrics that went well beyond that to the larger theme of loss in general. Because of those deeper expressions, 

The Flood has often thought of this tune in times of our darkest grief, and we’ve even sung it at more than one graveside. 

 
So, it’s only natural for us to be thinking of it again these days with death of our own dear companion, Doug Chaffin. He absolutely loved playing this song. So, here’s to you, Doug.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

We started doing the song in the mid-1990s, right after we heard it on a then-new Bob Dylan album. 

We were looking for an easy, happy little tune that we can warm up on, letting everybody just stretch out a little. 

 
Well, nowadays it just as likely to turn up as a last song of the night — as it was here at a recent rehearsal — putting a bow on a great evening of music.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

"But Not for Me" is a kind of counter-love song — a great anthem to angst — and George Gershwin’s “But Not For Me” was ahead of its time. 

He and his brother Ira wrote the thing in 1930 for a popular stage musical called “Girl Crazy.” But it didn’t make the Billboard charts until a dozen years later — after George’s death, in fact — when Harry James and his orchestra got to Number 12 with it. 

 
Last week was The Flood’s first fling with the tune. See what you think.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

Charlie played this song for Dave Peyton on the first night they jammed together at a New Year’s Eve party 50 years ago. It was the one of the best tunes in their repertoire for their earliest gigs. 

After that, though, the song dropped out of the mix for many decade, but the one night this fall — help! — it came wandering back. 

 

 

On this track from a recent rehearsal, Charlie’s on banjo, Jack’s on bongos, Randy’s singing harmony and Danny’s playing those sweet, sweet solos.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

 We have several new tunes to bring tomorrow night  for our latest gig at Sal’s Speakeasy in Ashland, Ky., including this one that the great Ray Henderson wrote almost a hundred years ago. 

 
This song  was first recorded by Paul Whiteman and his orchestra in the mid-1920s, but its real claim to fame came 15 years later when it was the title tune for a beloved Bing Crosby movie that was released on the eve of America’s entry into World War II. Here’s “Birth of the Blues.”

Remember, we’re at Sal’s Speakeasy tomorrow night, playing from 6 to 9. Come on out and party with us at 1624 Carter Ave. in beautiful downtown Ashland, Ky.

This Week's Freebie from The 1937 Flood

There’s a reason why The Flood’s rendition of this Dylan classic sounds different from Bobby’s version — or anyone else’s take on the tune, for that matter. 

 That’s because back in the early 1980s, when Roger and Charlie started playing around with opening chord progression here, they thought they were writing an original song of their own. But then Rog and his family moved away — leaving West Virginia for the green hills of Kentucky — and the piece they were working on was left an orphan. 

It didn’t even have a name or the first hints of a lyric. Only a year or so later, when Charlie was noodling with it at a jam session did Dave Peyton say, “Hey, you know what? If you tweaked the chords a bit and added the bridge, you could sing that Dylan thing over that!” 

 
And right there and then, an arrangement was born, and we’ve been playing it like this ever since.