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Digital Jam Session

DAveEach week The Flood gives away a free tune that can be heard online without special software or magic decoder ring. Listening is easy: just scroll this page, and click the gold arrow key play before any song description to hear it right now.

Recorded at the weekly Wednesday night jam sessions, the tracks are far from "studio quality." On the contrary, they are in the finest warts-and-all tradition of "field recordings," so they have what one listener called a decided "back porch sound."

BubThat means that in addition to the occasional flubs and miscues in the performances (the guys meticulously craft and insert these misfires only for your amusement, you understand), you often hear in the background people chatting, laughing, whispering, rolling dice, shuffling cards, performing the Heimlich Maneuver… Because of the nature of the beast, there are times, of course, when we wish the microphone had been positioned differently or the guys had given a little more thought to a bit of harmony, etc., but despite such glitches, the tunes do capture the joy of jams and we hope you like being part of it.

(Incidentally, each free tune is also turned into the Flood's weekly podcast, Jam Logs, so if you a pod person and would rather have the week's new song delivered directly to you, just subscribe to the podcast. For all the details on that, click here.)

NOTE: The "gold arrow" links below that you click to hear the audio use Flash software technology, which should work with most computers and browsers configurations. However, if you don't hear the audio, you might try this link to reach the podcast files directly. Just click titles on specific tunes on the resulting pages.

 Somebody Stole My Gal. Our good friend Richard Cobb says our weekly jam session reminds him of an old-fashioned "happening." Every week, the music that happens is Richard Cobbsolely determined by who walks through the door that night. And last night was a good example. About a third of The Flood couldn't make the session, but those of us who did were joined by buddies who came just to sit in for the evening, good folks like Jim Rumbaugh on harmonica and Randy Brown on guitar. All that music got stirred up and the next thing you know, we were whipping up a new batch of "Somebody Stole My Girl."

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 The Bayou Sara. It was on the good old steamboat Delta Queen that we first met Missouri folksingers Cathy Barton and Dave Para. Most recently, Cathy and DaveDave and Cathy shared the stage with us at a concert in Fairmont, W.Va., then a couple of weeks later, on the way home to Boonville, Mo., from Virginia, they stopped to spend the evening with us and shared a few tunes at the Wednesday night jam session. Cathy and Dave know a passel of riverboat songs. Here's a sweet one from Mary Wheeler's 1944 collection of roustabout songs called "Steamboatin' Days."

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 Martha Campbell. Fiddler and educator John Harrod once called the fiddle tune "Martha Campbell" the Kentucky Joenational anthem. The haunting melody does seem to have a remarkable resonance for the fiddlers of the Bluegrass State. It was one of the first tunes recorded by the great Kentucky fiddler Doc Roberts back in 1925. Researchers believe Roberts learned it at least 10 years earlier from his mentor, the African-American fiddler Owen Walker of Madison County, Ky. Joe Dobbs has been playing "Martha Campbell" for decades now, and recently when our banjo-picking buddy Judy Jones was visiting from Australia, she and Joe dusted off the tune again.

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 Ain't The Gravy Good. Trumpeter Cootie Williams wrote and sang this novelty tune back in 1938 when it was Cootierecorded by Duke Ellington's orchestra. The Flood did it regularly five years ago or so, but only recently have we dusted it off again. We forgot how much fun it is to play. Now, our Sam St. Clair often say about our racier songs that they're actually just "about food," but, hey, this one really is. Or, at least, we think it's about food...

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 Katy Dear. It was international night at this week's VeronicaWednesday gathering. Veronica Smith, mother of Flood buddy Mike Smith, was visiting from England and taking in her first Flood jam session. And from Down Under, old friends Rod and Judy Jones were back in town and sittin' in. It's hard to Rod and Judybelieve that it's been more than 30 years since The Flood first met Rod and Judy when, on their first visit to the states, they ended up on stage with us in a concert at the Huntington Museum of Art. Back home in Australia, along with another old friend, Lindsay Mar, they play in the popular My-T-Fine Stringband. Here fiddlin' Joe Dobbs joins them on an old-time classic.

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 St. Louis Blues. By the time of his death in 1958, W.C. Handy was earning upwards of $25,000 a year in royalties on his best-known tune, "St. Louis Blues." Not bad for a child that had been bringing home the bacon since its birth in 1914.

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 IIngridngrid Bergman. Last night's weekly jam session happened to fall on Woody Guthrie's birthday. The Flood paid tribute to the great American troubadour with a verse or two from "Do Re Mi," but it was Flood buddy Mike Smith who stole the evening with his version of a little-known Woody Guthrie pipe dream that was later set to music by the great Billy Bragg.

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 Sweet Georgia Brown. We've been playing around with "Sweet Georgia Brown" for years now, but only recently did Pinkardwe learn of the song's West Virginia connection. Dave Peyton dropped the news on us as a recent jam session -- "Hey, man, it's a West Virginia tune." True enough -- composer Maceo Pinkard was born in Bluefield, West Virginia, in 1897 and went on to become one of the greatest composers in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and '30s. While he wrote hundreds of tunes, including many for stage and screen, this was his greatest one. Yes, she might have been Sweet Georgia Brown, but the girl also had West Virginia roots.

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 My Dear Companion. It was old-home week at the jam session. Two dear companions, former Floodsters from the 1970s, dropped in for a Stewart Schneidervisit. Bill Hoke of Abingdon, Va., who used to play bass with us, and Stewart Schneider of Ashland, Ky., our one-time harmonica player, were both on hand. We even got Stewart to dust off his harps and sit in with us for a few tunes, including this one, a great old Jean Ritchie composition called -- appropriately enough -- "My Dear Companion."

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 Moonglow. The first time Michelle Walker sang in public with The Flood was about seven years. We were playing moonglowat West Virginia's Snowshoe Mountain Resort and her tune was "Moonglow." We still do this great old Will Hudson - Irving Mills standard. Here, from last night's jam session, Michelle teams up with Joe Dobbs' beautiful fiddle for the 2010 version of the 1934 classic.

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 Blues for Jim. In the etiquette of The Flood, when a Jim Rumbaughfine harmonica player drops in on your weekly jam session, you gotta trot out a blues or two. In the world of harmonicas, you don't get much finer than Jim Rumbaugh. Around here, Jim's been driving force in the incredibly successful, entertaining Huntington Harmonica Club. We were so pleased have him with us last night that we hardly let him get settled in before we had him wailing on a little sumpin in the key of E..

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 Come All Ye Fair and Tender Maidens.. It was more than 35 years ago now when Dave, Charlie and Joe first got Jean Ritchietogether to start The Flood. Dozens of good friends have been in the band over the years, and one of the first tunes we ever did was this old Jean Ritchie ballad that veteran Floodster Rog Samples and Charlie arranged back in the mid-1970s. Nowadays, we don't think to do it much any more at the weekly jam sessions, but last night it just seemed like the perfect song to start with on a misty summer evening.

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 Trouble in Mind. At a recent weekly jam session, Joe guitarDobbs brought along a beautiful new dreadnought guitar made by Bob Thompson of Ravenswood, West Virginia. It passed from hand to hand for a while, but then spent most of the evening in the hands of our young lead guitar player, Jacob Scarr. It's interesting how something like that can add an extra spark to an already-energized night.

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 You Don't Know Me. MichelleIt was only a couple of weeks ago that Michelle first brought up this tune, and it's already become a favorite at the weekly jam session. It was written in 1955 by Cindy Walker and Eddy Arnold. Jerry Vale's version charted the following year, but the best-selling rendition was the 1962 hit by Ray Charles. Here's Michelle Walker's "You Don't Know Me," with Randy Brown doing the honors on the solo.

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 Ramblin' Boy. Whether at a concert or at a jam session, the music often depends as much on the people who listen as the people who play. All musicians know that -- it's the other side of the equation. Our good friend Bob McCoy passed away suddenly, and we lost one of our favorite listeners. Now, as we hear to this tune from a jam session last year, we can still see Bob grinning at us from across the room and singing along on the chorus.

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 Statesboro Blues. Blind Willie McTell did this tune in 1928 and the "Statesboro" in the title refers to McTell's home Willie McTellstate of Georgia, not North Carolina. Incidentally, Willie borrowed part of the lyrics from a 1923 Sippie Wallace recording of "Up the Country Blues," which many of us old hippies know as Canned Heat's tune, "Goin' up the Country." But for The Flood's version, we're heavily influenced by Tom Rush's recording in the mid-1960s.

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 Don't Get Around Much Anymore. When Duke Ellington wrote this tune, he called it "Never No Lament," and his orchestra recorded it under that name in 1940. But then Bob dukeRussell came along two years later and wrote some dynamite lyrics that gave the melody a whole new life as "Don't Get Around Much Anymore." The following year, there were no fewer than three versions on the charts at the same time -- The Duke's own as well as renditions by The Ink Spots and Glen Gray. Here's Michelle Walker's take on the tune.

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 All of Me. It was just a goofy night at the Flood jam session. Spring in the air, I suppose, and seeing old friends after Rudya seemingly endless winter. Coming out to sit in with us were Chuck Romine on banjo and Randy Brown on guitar and Dale Jones, leader of the Backyard Dixie Jazz Stompers, brought his trombone. And hands down, the highlight of the evening was when Dale used his trombone mute as make-shift megaphone to do his best Rudy Vallee imitation.

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 Stealin'. Here's a song that nobody can really claim to have written. Some individual lines in the lyric cropped up in stealinblues recorded as early as 1921. Others didn't show up until the version we learned it from, the Memphis Jug Band rendition recorded in September 1928. We in The Flood can't even remember when we started doing this one … but heck, there are LOTS of things *we* can't remember.

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 Abilene. Back in 1963, Bob Gibson and John D. Loudermilk wrote "Abilene," a tune that would stay at Number 1 on the country charts for four weeks when it was recorded by Mr. Suntan himself, George Hamilton IV, but the song's been recorded by many people Abilenesince then. And incidentally, Gibson and Loudermilk never really said whether they were writing about Abilene, Texas, or Abilene, Kansas. Both cities claim it as their own.

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 Rickety Tickety Tin. Our good friend, Mike Smith, often comes to the weekly jam session with a beautiful a cappella Mike Smithballad from his home in the British Isles. But if you ask Mike for a tune near April Fool's Day, as we did a few Wednesdays ago, well, watch out. He was ready for us with this pseudo Irish ballad from the permanently warped mind of the great satirical songwriter, Tom Lehrer.

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 Bye Bye Blues. This tune was written in Tin Pan Alley Les Paul-Mary Fordin 1930 and over the next few decades was recorded by one great another another -- Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway. But most people didn't really notice the song until 1952 when it became a smash hit for Les Paul and Mary Ford. Here's The Flood's take on "Bye Bye Blues."

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 Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out. Bessie SmithJimmy Cox wrote this tune in 1923 and the great Bessie Smith recorded it that same year, her first year of recording for Columbia Records. Since then, the song's been recorded by … oh, well,-- everybody, from Leadbelly and Josh White to Jose Feliciano and The Allman Brothers to Billy Joel, Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart. This track was just a passing fancy at a recent Flood jam session.

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 Ain't Misbehavin'. Fats Waller wrote this song in Fats1929 and recorded that year for Victor Records. For the next 80 years, it's been recorded by Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Kay Starr, Ray Charles -- the list just goes on and on. In 1978, it was the title tune of a successful Broadway musical. And in 1984, Fats' original 1929 recording received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award. A few years ago, the song also was included in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress. Our buddy Randy Brown is sitting in with us on guitar on this version from the jam session.

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 Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone. Randy BrownJazz guitarist Randy Brown has been making music around our town for nearly 40 years. Most of the time he plays with Dale Jones and his Backyard Dixie Jazz Stompers. Recently, Randy dropped by the Flood's weekly jam session to sit in with his beautiful 1935 Gibson L-5. Here's a cut for the evening, featuring Randy and guys on a great old 1930s jazz standard.

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 Didn't He Ramble? Here's a tune that's been around the block so many times, it doesn't know WHERE it came from. Charlie PooleLouis Armstrong used to do it. So did Jelly Roll Morton. Rowdy college boys in the 1920s sang it. Before them, ragtime players had a version. Some even say the great W.C. Handy had a hand its creation. Don't know about, but The Flood takes its version from a late 1920s recording by our hero, legendary banjo picker Charlie Poole.

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 Since I Fell For You. The guys all love it when Michelle Walker can make it to a jam session. The lady we call The Chick Singer always has us sampling tasty tunes that aren't The Flood's usual menu. Here Michelle's take on that great old Lenny Welch hit from the 1960s, "Since I Fell For You."

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 Alberta, AlbertaLet Your Hair Hang Down. This old folk tune actually is an Ohio River song that was sung by the roustabouts who loaded and unloaded steamboats at the turn of the last century. Hundreds of contemporary versions exist, including one by The Blues Project back in the late 1960s and a fairly recent cover by brother Bob Dylan. This track came from the early hours of a recent Wednesday night Flood jam session.

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 Furniture Man. Dick Justice was a West Virginia original -- a Logan County coal miner and a white blues singer who was heavily influenced by black musicians, especially Luke Dick JusticeJordan from the hills of neighboring Virginia. Our Dave Peyton found this great old tune years ago on an anthology of little known recordings by West Virginians in the early 20th Century, and he's been singing it with The Flood for years now as "Furniture Man." Dick recorded his original -- for the old Brunswick label in the spring of 1929 -- as "Cocaine Blues."

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 Walk Right In. The first jug band tune we ever heard was on the radio. A.M. radio. Trouble was we didn't even know it Gus CannonWAS a jug band tune. It was 47 years ago -- 1963 -- and the song, at number 1 on the Billboard chart, was "Walk Right In" by Eric Darling's folk music trio, The Rooftop Singers. We didn't find out until later that "Walk Right In" was a much older song, that it was written and recorded in the late 1920s by the great Gus Cannon and His Jug Stompers. This version, recorded at last night's jam session, is The Flood's tip of the hat to Brother Gus.

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 The Wagoner's Lad. It's always a special night when singer-songwriter Doug Imbrogno drops by our weekly jam Doug Imbrognosession. And a highlight of last night's session was the tune Doug left us with at the end of the evening, his simple, a cappella rendition of a great old traditional number, "The Wagoner's Lad." This song is related to a lot of American folk songs, from "My Horse's Ain't Hungry" and "Rye Whiskey" to even "Pretty Polly" and "On Top of Old Smokey." The verses, found in many songs, can be traced back to England in the 1730s and a song called "The Ladies Case."