Jam Logs, the Podcast of The 1937 Flood

It’s interesting how sometimes a song can sleep in your psyche for years, virtually forgotten, and then suddenly something brings it back into your memory, maybe something you see or something someone says or maybe even just a dream. It was several decades ago that our old bandmate, the late Roger Samples, got so enamored of a beautiful little John Prine tune called “One Red Rose.” Well, this was in the early 1980s, just as Rog was ending his time with The Flood, the band he’d helped form nearly a decade earlier. He and the family would soon be moving from West Virginia to the green hills of Mount Sterling, Ky., so we never really worked out a full arrangement of the tune, and honestly we’d forgotten about the song, or thought we had. And then a few weeks ago, Charlie says he woke up grinning from a sound sleep because literally in a dream he’d heard Roger singing that song again, just as a clear as a bell. We’ve been doing lately at rehearsals, and now whenever we play it, it’s like a little three-minute reunion with our old friend.

As we gear up for this weekend’s big launch of the new Route 60 Saturday Night! concert series, we had a very special rehearsal last night, working on what The Flood will contribute as the show’s house band. On hand for the evening was Randy Yohe, who will co-host the monthly 90-minute music variety shows with our Michelle Lewis. You know, we are always amazed at how veteran broadcasters like Randy and Michelle are so comfortable ad libbing in front of a mike. Just listen as the two of them practice their patter for how we are likely this start the show this Saturday night. Remember, it’s this Saturday night at Route 60 Music Co., 60 Peyton St., in Barboursville. The fun starts at 7 p.m. It’s a $5 admission charge and all proceeds go to the Facing Hunger Foodbank of Huntington. Good times for a good cause!

As our friend and rehearsal night regular Rose Riter noted last night, sometimes it feels like the music calls for a little smoke in the air to add a certain misty element to the room. Well, we gave up the nasty cigarette habit years ago, but we did appreciate the sentiment, especially when Doug kicked off this particular tune for Michelle’s lovely vocals. Misty, indeed.

Like many band, we often will work hard on a song to get it ready for a show or for a recording, and then once the show or recording session is done, the song sort of drifts into the background again. A frequent comment at our weekly rehearsals after we happen to revisit a good old tune is, “Now, folks, we can’t let that one get away!” Well, we all voted that way last night when we happened back upon a Randy Hamilton special, Randy’s beautiful rendering of “Wayfarin’ Stranger.” We definitely aren’t letting this one get away.

The moon was much on our minds this week, as the solar eclipse brought people out to the streets to party like pagans. In fact, we were still having lunar thoughts last night at the rehearsal, trying decide on which of The Flood’s many moon tunes to use to commemorate the event, when — as usual — Michelle nailed it. Sing it, girl!

What an excellent evening we had last weekend at Taylor Books in Charleston. Hands down, it’s one of our all-time favorite venues. Every time we play there, we find a fun, warm crowd, so supportive, which encouraged us this time to roll out two hours worth of all-new songs. So, for this week’s podcast we’ll do a little something different. Here’s a mini-concert: four songs from last weekend’s sweet gig. Enjoy!

The Family Flood is excited about rolling into downtown Charleston this Saturday night. Starting at 7:30, we’ll be playing at Taylor Books at 226 Capitol Street, raising a ruckus. In fact, we’ve even got a tune about that—this old folk song that our band manager, Pamela Bowen, recommended to us earlier this year — all about the ruckus to be raised.

One of the joys of this summer has been working up a Flood version of a great old Ivory Joe Hunter song. For years, we’ve wanted to do this 1950 mega-hit, “I Almost Lost My Mind,” but it took this summer and Michelle and Randy’s rich and sexy harmonies to make it happen, as you’ll hear in this track from last night’s rehearsal. It’s one of the new numbers we’ll be doing later this month when we play at Taylor Books in Charleston. Mark your calendar: We’ll be there Saturday night, Aug. 12.

This week’s podcast does something a little different. Thought you might like to go behind the scenes and hear what goes into the arrangements. Last night’s rehearsal focused primarily on vocals, as we spent the evening hunting for harmonies for some of the new tunes we’ve been working on. Here are snippets of two songs. Listen to the color that Randy and Michelle’s voices bring to these new numbers.

We’re very excited about the show we’re putting together to perform in Charleston next month. When we appear at Taylor Books on Saturday night, Aug. 12, we want to have an all-new show, featuring tunes we’ve not played in public before. It’s a challenge, but, hey, we like challenges. And it’s giving us a chance to learn some great new songs, including some classics we’ve always meant to bring into The Flood repertoire. For instance, our all-time favorite love song to The Mountain State has always been “West Virginia Chose Me,” a work created a couple of decades ago by our old friend, writer/composer Colleen Anderson. It says everything we feel about our native soil. Here Michelle leads us through our first take on Colleen’s beautiful song at last night’s rehearsal.