Jam Logs, the Podcast of The 1937 Flood

We have so much fun as the house band for the Route 60 Saturday Night variety show each month, and lately our favorite part has been getting you in the audience singing along with us on a good old folk song or two. We have another show this weekend. and here’s the tune we plan to end the evening with. Take a listen, learn the chorus and then come on out Saturday night and sing it us with! Here, from last night’s rehearsal, is our rendition of the great Tom Paxton’s “Ramblin’ Boy.” Remember, it’s Route 60 Saturday Night, THIS Saturday night at Route 60 Music Co., 60 Peyton Street, in Barboursville. This month’s guest artists are Karen Combs and Jesse Crawford. The 90-minute show starts 7 p.m. Admission is $5 and all proceeds go to a local charity. Come on out for good times for a good cause!

We had a wonderful evening playing at Woodlands retirement community last weekend — we always do have fun there — and a special time whenever we go up the hill to Woodlands is the half hour or so before the show when we get to go back to do some tunes for the folks in the health care unit. These are residents who are right now aren’t physically up to coming down to the concert hall for our regular show, so we bring a bit of the show to them. Every time it is such a treat for us to get them singing along on songs from their youth — and from ours too. A particular favorite from last weekend’s visit was Michelle’s rocking rendition of “My Blue Heaven,” which was a hit for the great Gene Austin more than 90 years ago. And we revisit the song here in these moments from last night’s weekly rehearsal.

It’s been about 40 years ago now that Roger Samples and I sat in the kitchen on a hot summer night and came up with this arrangement of an old Appalachian ballad we both loved. Now, this particular version of the song settled in my memory over the years, coming out again only occasionally. For instance, it did make it onto The Flood’s first commercial CD back in 2001, but then went back into hiding for another decade or two. Well, last night was one of those evening when it made another rare re-appearance. Here’s “Come All Ye Fair and Tender Maidens,” pretty much as Rog envisioned in all those years ago.

A couple times at our weekly rehearsals nowadays, we have fun listening to Doug and Paul trade licks on good old traditional instrumental tunes, from waltzes to what Grandpa used to called “party tunes.” Here’s one — Doug’s unique rendition of a great old fiddle tune, which last night got an extra jolt of joy by old buddy Chuck Romine who dropped by to help out on the number with his tenor banjo. Here’s “Red Apple Rag.”

When we’re putting together the songs we plan to do at our gig as the house band for the monthly Route 60 Saturday Night show, as we are this weekend, we’re always on the lookout for a tune or two that can be a sing-along for the audience. Well, one of The Flood’s all-time favorite sing-alongs is this great old Charlie Poole song, “Didn’t He Ramble?” And here it is — with solos by Doug and Paul — just for you, so you can practice on it before coming out to the show this Saturday night. And if want to sharpen your harmonies for the sing-along, listen to what Michelle and Randy are doing with the choruses here. Fun stuff! Remember, it’s Route 60 Saturday Night, THIS Saturday night, May 18, at Route 60 Music Co., 60 Peyton St., in Barboursville. Our guest artists this month are Colten Settle and Wiley Dew. The show starts at 7 p.m. Admission is $5, and this month all proceeds go to help the good works of Dress for Success. Good times for a good cause.

The Flood doesn’t do many country-western tunes, but some songs rise above categorization. They're just bigger than their genre, and that includes, well, just about everything written and sung by the great Hank Williams. A few years back, we started playing around with Hank’s hauntingly beautiful “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” but for the longest time the song just didn’t quite click for us, not, that is, until Michelle claimed it for her own. Here’s a Michelle Lewis special from a rehearsal just a couple of weeks ago.

We met a phenomenal young fiddler named Paddy King last weekend when former Floodster Dave Ball introduced us to him at the Jewel City Jamboree and he joined us on stage for our part of the show. Needless to say, Paddy King just lit up the set with some of the most imaginative fiddling we’ve ever heard. Well, last night we had a ball when Dave brought the 24-year-old Floridian by the weekly rehearsal for two hours of memorable music. Here’s an especially tasty bit from the evening. Michelle’s “Summertime” takes on a whole new life dwith three choruses by Paddy midway through the tune. We just couldn’t get enough. And, of course, for The Flood we couldn’t help but think about much our old comrade, the late fiddler Joe Dobbs, would have loved picking with Paddy King, so before the night was over we had to ask him to visit one of Joe’s signature fiddle tunes, “Whisky Before Breakfast.”

In prepping for our set at the Jewel City Jamboree this weekend down by the riverside, we’re dusty off some of our older songs. Here’s one we’ve not done in about a decade, but Jim Rumbaugh, sitting in with us on bass for this gig, inspired us bring it out again. With tasty solos by Jim, Paul, Sam and Doug, here’s “Alberta, Let Your Hair Hang Down.” Remember, it’s Jewel City Jamboree this Friday and Saturday at Huntington’s Harris Riverfront Park. The Flood’s contribution will be at 5:30 Saturday evening.

Jim Rumbaugh first started coming around the weekly Flood sessions about a decade ago, and he quickly became such a dear friend. We knew him first as an excellent harmonica player and we watched as he nurtured and grew the beloved Huntington Harmonica Club, which nowadays has a public jam session every week. It was only later that we learned Jim also is a first-rate bass player, that in fact he has been playing bass longer than his harps. Well, it was only natural when we found out that Flood bassist Randy Hamilton can’t make an upcoming gig that we asked Jim to sit in with us and he has graciously agreed. Last night he brought his big, beautiful Rickenbacker to a session to start working on some tunes for the show and we just had a ball. Mark you calendar! Jim Rumbaugh will be using that thing with us down on the riverfront Saturday, April 27, as The Flood does its part at the the fifth annual Jewel City Jamboree.

It’s been a couple of years since Floodster Emeritus Chuck Romine dropped in to jam with us — he and Phyllis have been pretty busy lately with the general business of living the good life — but when he refurbished yet another great old tenor banjo, he just had to swing by last night and share it with us. And of course, whenever Dr. Jazz is in the room, we’ve got to revisit some of tunes that were Flood standards back when Chuck was with the band in the early years of this century. Here Chuck and Doug trade musical ideas on a great Michelle Lewis standard, “Bye Bye Blues.”