Jam Logs, the Podcast of The 1937 Flood

In music, newness is often a magical ingredient, and everything about this song is new. It all started when Charlie brought home yet another new guitar, this time a sweet little Gretsch resonator that he’ll brought always keep in one open tuning or another Playing around with it in Open D, he landed on this old Jackson Browne tune he remember from the early 1970s that just seemed to lay so easily on the strings. Well, the song was new to Danny and Randy, but true to their Flood nature, they took to it right away, immediately finding ways to enrich it. Listen to Dan’s brilliant solos and Randy’s gorgeous harmonies on the choruses.The arrangement is still evolving, but we wanted to share it here while it still had that new song smell.

 This song pretty much languished in a desk drawer for the past 40 years, ever since Charlie wrote it back in the 1970s. Only recently, as the latest configuration of The Flood started exploring original compositions, did he even think of seeing if it might want a new life. But wow! He was really moved by how this sensitive re-imagining of the tune by these good people has made the song feel right at home in the 21st century.

 "Misty" has worn many hats in the Floodisphere. Back in the 1970s, it was a Ray Stevens-style campy instrumental for Joe and Rog. Then a few decades later, it became a sultry vocal standard for Michelle. Nowadays the song has returned to its original instrumental roots as a showcase for Vanessa and Danny. This take, from a rehearsal last month, is a classic jazz vehicle, starting with Veezy’s elegant statement of the melody, followed by her and then Dan exploring remarkable nuance among all those lovely Erroll Garner chords.

 Now, the older we get, the more we bristle at that thing we used to say each new year. You know, that “out with the old, in with the new” business? Well, we’re sure glad no one ever applied that silly rule to this great old song. The tune might be 150 years old, but it still righteously rocks, as we testify here with swinging solos from everybody in the band!

Last week was our first outing on this great old jazz standard.  When we started it, Veezy said she wasn’t sure she was familiar with it. By the time we finished it, it sounded like she wrote it herself!  

 Christmas is a time of tradition and what says tradition better than an ancient melody that has been associated with the gentle Yuletide season for centuries?

 Whenever Charlie’s cousin Kathy Castner comes for a visit from her Cincinnati home, they sing, and their musical connection goes back a long way. As a child, Kathy regularly visited relatives in Ashland. Whenever she did, her grandmother often assigned Charlie to sing her to sleep at her bedtime. One of the tune he brought to bear on the little girl’s eyelids was this New Christy Minstrels classic — “Today (While the Blossoms Still Cling to the Vine)” — and they’re still singing all these decades later. Here, from Kathy’s visit with the Family Flood last week, is the latest rendition, with sweet solos by Dan, Veezy and Sam and with Randy joining Kathy and Charlie on the harmonies.

 Christmas songs abound right now, but how about a tune for the downtrodden holiday shopper, the weary wielder of a maxed-out debit card? Well, your friends in The Flood can’t pick up the tab, but we can at least give you a blues to suit your mood, brought to you from a recent gig. After a day of rushing around spending money you don’t have buying things people don’t want, just take our advice: If you lose your money, please don’t lose your mind! For more on the song, see our free newsletter: https://1937flood.substack.com/p/if-you-lose-your-money

 Every configuration of The Flood — from the present all the way back to 1976 in our foggy ruins of time  — has done its own variation of this happy bit of hokum. And each version, in its way, has been a loving tribute to our heroes in the original Memphis Jug Band of the 1930s. This latest rendition, recorded at a recent gig, offers wonderful solos and fills by everyone in the band. Shoot, even the grins and the winks seem to come through in this track.

 You can learn about how versatile a band is by listening to its handling of instrumentals. Without the poetics of the lyrics or the theatrics of the singer, it’s up to the soloists to bring drama to the song. To hear what we mean, listen to this four-minute track from a recent Flood show. Vanessa Coffman opens the action with her tasteful statement of Fats Waller’s melody, “Honeysuckle Rose.” Then about a minute in, she begins to weave and spin brilliant new threads on that old familiar frame with her tenor sax, beautiful work that then inspires her bandmate, guitarist Danny Cox, when he follows with some gorgeous strings of his own. Yes, Veezy and Danny bring the honey to this rose.