Jam Logs, the Podcast of The 1937 Flood

 America has always had amazing songwriters whose works simply change the way we all talk to each other, none more so than the great Hoagy Carmichael. In his 80 years, Hoagy wrote hundreds of songs, including 50 that achieved hit record status for numerous artists, and they still do.  For example, a few years, Norah Jones charted with Hoagy’s “The Nearness of You,” a song that was written and first recorded 40 years before Norah was even born. But, then, shoot, any of Hoagy’s wonderful songs would be enough to build a legend on. “Georgia on My Mind.” “Skylark.” “Heart and Soul.” ‘Stardust.” The Flood’s been doing Hoagy Carmichael songs for decades, and we’re sure to be adding some more to our repertoire in the new year. But we always come back to this one, our favorite, the first of Hoagy’s tunes we ever tackled.

 Here’s a song that grew up in the after-dark world of New Orleans at the turn of the last century. “Trouble in Mind” was written by a pioneer jazzman named Richard M. Jones, who grew in the Crescent City and, while still a teenager, was pounding piano in the houses of New Orleans’ red-light district known as Storyville. He also sometimes led a small band that included other jazz forefathers like cornet player Joe Oliver, who later would be crowned “King Oliver.” But back to the song. In the the spring of 1924 “Trouble in Mind” was among the first blues recordings ever made. But it was two years later, in 1926 in Chicago, that singer Betha “Chippie” Hill popularized it with a rendition she recorded for Okeh Records with Richard Jones on piano and another young horn man, a 25-year-old Louis Armstrong, on cornet. Since those days, this song of New Orleans has been revisited by everyone from Big Bill Broonzy to Dinah Washington and Nina Simone. Here’s the latest Flood take on the tune from a recent rehearsal.

 A few weeks before COVID came along and started slapping us all around, Paul Martin looked up at one of The Flood’s weekly rehearsals and said, “Hey, fellows, have we ever thought about doing this song?” And then he sang a verse or two of a gorgeous old tune from Virginia’s Lonesome River Band. Well, shoot, we fell in love with it right then and there and wanted to start working on it, but of course, the Coronavirus had other ideas. With months of quarantine and cancellations, our masks and social distancing, the song got kind of lost in the shuffle for a while, until a few weeks ago when our newest bandmate, Vanessa Coffman, asked for it. And we’re so glad she did, because that put the tune back front and center. Now, as usual with Flood matters, the arrangement is still evolving — truth to tell, it probably always will be, knowing us — but here’s a kind of status report from last night’s rehearsal. That’s Paul Martin singing lead, with his fellow Paul, Paul Callicoat, providing all that cool harmony on the chorus. Doug Chaffin’s Paul Reed Smith guitar is finding just right feeling for the fills and mid-song, Veezy Coffman steps up with a spot-on sax solo. Here’s the tune Paul had on his mind all those months ago.

 Between the holidays and then snowy weather, we’ve not had a full band rehearsal lately, but last Friday — the day after Thanksgiving — was a warm, sunny day, and we had even further reason to be thankful that day, because that’s when we finally drew Doug Chaffin back into Flood affairs. Now, Doug’s been away for more than month. During these COVID-19 days, he needed to self-isolate for a few weeks in preparation for a little outpatient surgery. Well, now the surgery is done — everything went just fine — he’s back and rarin’ to play. To the mini-jam session with Vanessa and Charlie, Doug even brought a guest of honor: the 1958 Gibson Les Paul that his daddy bought him brand new more than 50 years ago when Doug was still a teenager. That valuable classic guitar doesn’t leave the Chaffin house much, but Friday was a special occasion. Here’s a tune we started the session off with, a cover a 1942 composition by the great New Orleans bluesman Lonnie Johnson called “Jelly Roll Baker.”

 The first time we played this old folk song for Vanessa Coffman, she heard what seemed to be the ghost of another tune in it. While we were singing a lament from the dark foothills of America, Veezy’s sax was exploring some rich Highland roots from the other side of the sea. Listen here as two songs meet and merge, not only fulfilling the lyrics’ opening wish — “if I had wings…” — and also then taking flight for enchanted destinations. Yon bonnie banks, indeed.  

 Our newest Floodster, Veezy Coffman, was still busy being born about the time we were putting a version of this song on a Flood album a couple of decades ago. And, shoot, we’re not sure her folks were even born yet when we first started playing around with it. So I guess you can say this tune has some serious roots with us. Our hero, the phenomenal David Bromberg, composed it for his “Demon in Disguise” album back in 1972 as a tribute to his heroes. For instance, the key line -- "when I ask for a water, she brings me gasoline" -- is a shout-out to the blues legend Howlin' Wolf. So here, from last night’s Flood rehearsal, is a 2020 rendering of a David Bromberg special.

 In these times of COVID, when we can get together for a rare rehearsal, we can’t meet in our traditional practice space at the Bowen house. Instead, masked, hand-washed and socially distanced, we gather after hours in the big room at Route 60 Music Co., which our bass player, the store’s co-owner Paul Callicoat, has so graciously opened to us. Now, one of the perks of practicing at Route 60 —  besides seeing all those gorgeous guitars hanging on the walls for sale … oo oo, hey, think about this: Christmas is coming, and you can show the pickers in your family some serious love with a guitar or two from Route 60!  … anyway, one of the OTHER perks of being at Route 60 is being greeted by Daisy, the West Virginia brown dog who rules that domain with a gentle paw. Daisy always seems happy to see us, but last night was even better than usual. When Sam, Paul, Michelle and Charlie launched in to the first tune, our take of Bruce Channel’s “Hey, Baby,” Daisy came running to us with her tail a-wagging. At first we figured she just misheard us and thought we were calling her name. Now, though, upon reflection we realize that she was telling us it’s high time we repurposed that tune. From now on we’ll be doing it as, “Hey, Hey, Daisy”!

 We love it when fresh ears bring something so new to an old tune. Now, our newest Floodster Vanessa Coffman had never heard this old folk song until she started playing with us, but she quickly found the chords and the melody gave her plenty of stretching out room for some imaginative solos and some tasteful fills behind the vocals. Here, from a mini-jam session last week, Veezy finds all kinds of musical opportunities in this great old roustabout song said to be from the Ohio River Valley steamboat era.

 There’s been a wide range of ages among the members of our band over the years, from 14 to 80, and we have a tradition of musical affinity between the oldest and youngest bandmates. For instance, a decade ago, we loved watching the bonds build between teenaged guitarist Jacob Scarr and septuagenarian fiddler Joe Dobbs. And now the tradition continues. When our newest Floodster Vanessa Coffman first started sitting in with us back in January, tribal elder Doug Chaffin immediately found a strong musical kinship. And now, 10 months later, those bonds are even stronger. For instance, listen to this moment from a recent rehearsal when the two of them gently complement each other’s intricate steps in an improvisational glide through a jazz standard. Here’s Doug’s guitar and Veezy’s tenor sax weaving in and out of “Misty.”

 When Bob Dylan wrote this song 50 years ago, it was a matter of necessity. In the winter of ’69, he had arrived at the Columbia Records studio to record the great “Nashville Skyline” album having written only four of the songs he’d need to fill that record. So, over the next two days at the Ramada Inn where he was staying for the recording session, Bob wrote “Tonight I’ll be Staying Here with You,” a piece that worked so well it ended up being the beautiful final cut of the  album. In many ways, it was the signature tune for that whole project. The Flood started playing around with the song back in the ‘70s when Rog Samples and Charlie worked out this particular arrangement, and it seems to come back into our collective consciousness ever few decades or so. Here’s a ride we all took on that Dylan train at last night’s rehearsal.