Podcast appearances and mentions of Danny Cox

Rabon Delmore never learned to drive a car, so it was always his older brother Alton behind the wheel as they tooled between gigs in the early days of their career during the Great Depression.That routine played a big part in The Delmore Brothers' prolific songwriting life. As he later described it in his autobiography, Truth Is Stranger Than Publicity, Alton would hum melodies while he drove and he and Rabon would harmonize on new verses as they occurred to them.Riding shotgun, Rabon acted as the editor and scribe. He wrote down the words on the fly, adding, deleting and refining the lines to fit the duo's signature syncopated rhythm.Because of this practice, the Delmores' songs were well polished by the time they got to a recording studio to preserve them for later generations of fans. It also gave them an edge in other ways too.Brown's Ferry DebutFor instance, while “Brown's Ferry Blues” wasn't released on record until 1934, the song had began developing in their minds four or five years earlier, and it served as their secret weapon at a crossroads moment in Athens, Alabama: the February 1930 Limestone County Fiddlers' Convention at the Old Athens Agricultural School. The poverty-stricken brothers arrived carrying their guitars in makeshift cases that their mother had sewn out of cotton picking sacks on with their names were painted in pokeberry juice. Facing stiff competition — including a tie-breaker with three heavily favored local girls — their well-honed tune sealed the win.“We had ‘Brown's Ferry Blues' down pretty pat,” Alton wrote in his memoir. “In fact, we could play it then just as good as we ever did... When we did it, the people really went wild and we won that contest without any question or any doubt. And that started us on our way to the Grand Ole Opry and the big record companies.” Whither Brown's Ferry?The title of the tune, incidentally, was inspired by Alton and Rabon's deep roots in northern Alabama, named after an old ferryboat that crossed the Tennessee River about 30 miles south of their home in Elkmount, Ala.Alton's book noted the old crossing was a place he and Rabon loved to visit when they were growing up in their lean years as a tenant farmer's sons.By the way, decades later that peaceful river spot of the 1920s underwent a massive transformation. In 1973, the Tennessee Valley Authority opened the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant on that exact site, turning the idyllic old-time ferry landing into one of the largest nuclear power facilities in the country.Song LegacyThe song “Brown's Ferry Blues” was a milestone in establishing Alton and Rabon as one of the most influential duos in early 20th century American music history.In December 1933, the Delmores traveled to Chicago for their first recording session with RCA Victor's budget label, Bluebird. “Brown's Ferry Blues” was recorded on the first day and sales quickly made the number a hit.The pair soon became the most popular act on the Grand Ole Opry. Starting in the mid-1930s, they recorded more than 80 sides for Bluebird.The shadow of “Brown's Ferry Blues” followed them. In 1943, when Alton organized an all-star gospel quartet at WLW in Cincinnati alongside Merle Travis and Grandpa Jones, they chose as the group's name “The Brown's Ferry Four.” Flooding the FerryDave Peyton, Roger Samples and Charlie Bowen used to play this tune back in the 1970s when the band was just getting started at the Bowen Bashes.But the song only recently has come back into the Floodipshere. Here it is from a recent rehearsal, featuring Danny Cox's guitar and Jack Nuckols' fiddle. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

Danny Cox gives his sermon on the Third Sunday After Pentecost at Christ Church Cranbrook.

Our Flood brother Danny Cox and his sweet wife Tami are on vacation this week, but before they hit to the road, we had to give them a good Flood set-off. Here's a little traveling music, the last tune of last week's rehearsal.About the SongWhen Merle Travis included “I Am a Pilgrim” on his seminal 1947 Folk Songs from the Hills album in 1947, listeners assumed he wrote it. After all, the same album included two of Travis's best-known original compositions, “Dark as a Dungeon” and “Sixteen Ton.”Actually, though, “Pilgrim” is a traditional gospel tune that has deep roots among white and African-American musicians alike.As we reported earlier, Kentucky-born Travis had a mentor: legendary fingerpicking stylist Mose Rager of Muhlenberg County. Legend has it that Mose's brother Lyman learned "I Am a Pilgrim" while in jail when he heard it being sung by a black prisoner in a nearby cell.As Asheville, NC, musician/author Wayne Erbsen has noted, “I Am A Pilgrim” was recorded “by 14 African-American groups before it was even a gleam in Merle Travis' eyes."For more on the story's curious history, see this earlier Flood Watch backgrounder.More from the Danny ChannelHas today's podcast got you in the mood for more from Danny Cox's fertile musical mind? Us too! So, come with us to the Danny Channel in the free Radio Floodango music steaming service. Click here to give it a spin.For Your Next Road TripSpeaking of travelin' music, remember that your friends in The Flood have created a road-friendly play list. Click below to read all about that: This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

This great late-‘60s Lovin' Spoonful tune is the perfect opportunity to answer readers' requests for another little sample from Danny Cox's latest reunion with his old guitar-pickin' buddy Bobby Murnahan. Just listen and at the end this track you'll hear Dan and Bob trading choruses on “(Sittin' Back) Lovin' You.”As reported here last week, Danny and Bobby grew up together in Lawrence County, Ohio. It's rare they can get together these days, but whenever Murnahan travels back this way from his Colorado home — as he did last month — we try to get him to join us in The Flood band room.About the SongThe vehicle for this Cox-Murnahan moment is John Sebastian's 1966 composition, which was the opening track for Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful, the third studio album by Greenwich Village's own folk-rock mavens. Today the disc just barely makes the list of top 50 albums released in that stellar year of rock which saw Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, The Beatles' Revolver, The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, The Rolling Stones' Aftermath and so many more.Not that Hum was ho-hum. On the contrary, as reported here earlier, that one album spawned four (count ‘em, four) charting singles for the Lovin' lads, including “Summer in the City,” “Rain on the Roof,” “Nashville Cats” and "Full Measure.”And while “Lovin' You” was not among the disc's hit singles for The Spoonful, a month after the album's debut in November 1966, the song was covered by Bobby Darin who took it into the Top 40.After that, the tune also became a successful number for four different female artists, including Anne Murray (1969), Helen Reddy (1973), Dolly Parton (1977) and Mary Black (1983).For more on the history of the song — including a side note on The Flood's early infatuation with it — see our earlier Flood Watch article by clicking here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

We knew the band room was going to rock last week as soon as we saw Danny Cox was bringing along his life-long buddy, guitarist Bobby Murnahan, who was visiting from Colorado.As noted here earlier, Danny and Bobby have known each other since before grade school. “Our parents attended the same church,” Danny has said, “and we got acquainted in Sunday school.”Almost immediately the youngsters were united by their interest in guitar innovator Chet Atkins. One day after church, Bobby showed up at the Cox house asking Danny to show him some Atkins-style picking.“I showed him what little I knew,” Dan remembers, and Bob took it from there. He and Dan purchased the Chet Atkins Goes to the Movies songbook and Bobby worked out the tunes. “I learned how to play Chet correctly because of his deciphering abilities,” Dan says. Dan and Bob have been good friends ever since. For more on the story of their friendship, see our earlier Flood Watch article by clicking here. About This Song from Last Week's RehearsalAs we noted in an earlier Flood Watch article, “Deep Ellum Blues” — first recorded on Bluebird by The Shelton Brothers (under the pseudonym “The Lone Star Cowboys”) — is all about life in a notorious neighborhood of Dallas.While New Orleans had its French Quarter and Chicago its Bronzeville, in Dallas it was Deep Ellum with its equally sketchy, colorful résumé. In the 1920s, if you walked down the streets on Deep Ellum, you could easily have rubbed shoulders with Blind Lemon Jefferson and Huddie Ledbetter, with Robert Johnson and Bessie Smith (not to mention with gangsters Bonnie and Clyde and Pretty Boy Floyd).Other versions of the song that celebrated this darker side of the Big D were made between 1957 and 1958 by Jerry Lee Lewis for Sun Records, by Bobby Jackson for Gold Air Records, by Mary McCoy & The Cyclones for Jin Records and, later still, by The Grateful Dead, Levon Helm and Rory Gallagher.For more on the history of this terrific Texas tune — as well as about the district of Deep Ellum — see our earlier article by clicking here.More from Flood Guests?Over the years, many guests — visitors like Bob, as well as returning Flood alumni (whom we call “Floodster Emeriti”) — sit in with us at rehearsals, jam sessions and performances. The band's web site devotes a page to a growing list of these guest appearances, with links to the audio and video of their visits. To use this registry, click here to reach the page, then scroll and click on an underlined date associated with a guest. On the subsequent page, click on the title of the song to hear the audio or on a video's start arrow to view it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

Tunes in The Flood repertoire are always subject to re-evaluation and rehabilitation. Perhaps a new key will freshen it up. Maybe there are new verses that can be sung. A new rhythm? A new chord or two?“Ready for the Times to Get Better,” the Allen Reynolds song that Randy Hamilton brought to the table a few years ago, is just such a song.About the SongAs reported here earlier, the tune already had very long journey to Floodlandia. The first time it was played in our band room was about 15 years ago on a mellow autumn night when Randy and his buddy Paul Martin dropped in to jam with us.Neither man was a member of The Flood yet — Randy would join the following year and Paul a few years after that — but their song was the hit of the evening (as reported in that week's Flood podcast).However, “Ready for the Times to Get Better” didn't work its way into our repertoire until a few years ago when Danny Cox happened to start picking it between songs on the night's practice list.The jaunty melody really jingled in our memory and Dan and Randy got together to woodshed a little, working it out. And since then band had been honing its arrangement, Sam polishing his harmonica solo, Jack and Charlie smoothing out their respective drum and banjo rhythms.The Tommy Emmanuel-Doc Watson EffectThe song's evolution in the band room took another turn last month when a Flood hero saluted another Flood hero with a special release from his first solo album in 10 years. Grammy-winning guitarist Tommy Emmanuel's Living in the Light is a virtuosic blend of acoustic pop, jazz, classical and roots music.Most of the performances on Living in the Light were recorded in one or two takes, exuding the sense of joy and wonder in these sonic explorations.One track on the album — what he listed as “Waiting for the Times to Get Better” — has special meaning for Emmanuel, who in early March chose the 103rd anniversary of the late Doc Watson's birth to release a video of the song he learned from Doc's work.“When I heard Doc Watson sing this song,” he told Bluegrass Today, “I knew I should try to do the same. I love his voice and guitar playing so much — it's so honest. If you look up the word ‘honesty' in the dictionary, there's a picture of Doc!“I wanted to do a tribute in my own way. ‘Ready for the Times to Get Better' is my attempt at singing a message. It's simple. We are all waiting for times to get better in our world, and singing seems to help me get through these tough times.”Meanwhile, when our Danny Cox listened to the track, he heard something else: a chord or two that were different from previous versions. Gently, Danny brought that Emmanuel effect to The Flood's take on the tune, and that's where its Floodifying stands today.For the back story of this great Allen Reynolds composition, see our earlier Flood Watch article by clicking here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

Our Randy Hamilton was born to sing songs like this. He and Danny Cox brought us “Spooky” last summer and we've been loving it ever since. Especially when we added Sam St. Clair's funky harmonica and Jack Nuckols' tasty percussion.About the SongAs reported here earlier, while The Classics IV made the lyrics famous with a chart-topper in the fall of 1967, the story of “Spooky” began several years earlier in an Atlanta club. Following a show sometimes in 1965, saxophonist Mike Sharpe (Shapiro) and his band mate pianist Harry Middlebrooks Jr. began riffing on the George Gershwin classic, “Summertime.”As they improvised, they realized they had stumbled upon something special. As they continued, the duo developed their own melody, to which Sharpe randomly assigned the name “Spooky.”The original version was recorded as a jazz instrumental featuring strange high voices to enhance the eerie vibe; it eventually peaked at No. 57 on the U.S. charts in January 1966.Sharpe and Middlebrooks initially thought the song's life cycle ended there, but a year later, The Classics IV added those lyrics about that “spooky little girl like you,” propelling the track to No. 3 on the Billboard 100. Harry's StoryMeanwhile, as “Spooky” was conquering the airwaves, co-writer Harry Middlebrooks was entering one of the most high-energy phases of his career: touring with Elvis Presley. It was the fall of 1970 when Middlebrooks received a call from Elvis's producer, Felton Jarvis, inviting him to join The King's first tour in 10 years.Middlebrooks served a unique dual role on the road: he performed as part of the opening act to warm up the crowd and sang tenor in the backup quartet, providing the vocal harmonies essential to Elvis's ‘70s sound. In a moment of professional synergy, Elvis, who was fond of “Spooky,” actually performed a cover of the Sharpe-Middlebrooks' hit during various live shows and rehearsals in 1970.Beyond his most famous composition, Middlebrooks established himself as a prolific figure in the entertainment industry. He composed for television and penned more 300 tunes recorded by such diverse artists as Tom Jones, Liberace and The Oak Ridge Boys.Middlebrooks recorded several albums for Reprise and Capitol Records and established himself on the club scene in Southern California, eventually singing at more 80 clubs. He became an in-demand session and backup singer for Neil Diamond, Anne Murray, Marty Robbins and others. In particular, he relished his seven-year run backing Glen Campbell for his Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe concerts.Another Helping of Randy Tunes?So, has today's podcast got you hankering for more tunes from Randy Hamilton? Coming right up!Just drop by the free Radio Floodango music streaming service and click into the Randy Channel for a randomized playlist of Hamilton-centric songs from The Flood repertoire. Or just click here to take the express route! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

The fun of playing some songs is that we just never know what we're going to hear. This George Gershwin piece has been like that ever since Danny Cox brought us better chords for it a year or so ago. Now the song is like a shiny little red convertible parked in the garage just waiting for the next sunny day. You and your buddies pile in, not knowing where you're going, just enjoying the company and the sights and the sounds of each other's laughter. Hop in! We're going for a joy ride!About the SongAs reported earlier, “Lady Be Good” has been a perennial party favorite for more than a century now.Nineteen-Twenty-Four was a watershed year for Gershwin. After spending more than a decade pounding the pavement in New York's Tin Pan Alley, he composed his landmark "Rhapsody in Blue." Then, alongside his brother Ira, George scored his first major Broadway hit, the musical comedy Lady Be Good, which ran for more than 300 performances.The enduring significance of the show's title tune, "Lady Be Good," lies in its rare ability to transcend musical eras. A unique entry in the Great American Songbook, it beautifully bridged two distinct jazz ages, surviving the transition from the loose Dixieland style of the Roaring Twenties to the smooth swing sound of the 1930s.A favorite among jazz legends as diverse as Charlie Parker and Lester Young, the song's rich history also includes interpretations by vocal icons like Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Tormé.For more on the back story of this song, see this earlier Flood Watch entry.More Floodifaction?And if this has you hungry for a little more of the band's jazzier selections, drop by the free Radio Floodango music streaming feature and click on the “Swingin'” Channel.Click here to give it a spin. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

Our guitarist Danny Cox paints pictures with his sound. He has a positively uncanny capacity for discovering ways to bring out the colors and textures in all kinds of melodies and to plant stories in the minds of everyone who hears.Just listen to his treatment of this rich old Sonny Burke composition, finding all kinds of new magic and nuance in this poignant melody.About the SongAs reported earlier, “Black Coffee,” written in 1948, spent the first decade of its life as a darling of vocalists. Recording it, for instance, revamped the careers of both Sarah Vaughan and Peggy Lee as their fans grooved on Paul Francis Webster's sparse, evocative lyrics.But composer Burke knew the potential of his melody as well; he himself performed it on alto sax in 1948. However, about decade passed before the song started getting serious attention as a jazz instrumental. That's because it was just what a young Ray Charles was looking for.While Brother Ray rarely singled out “Black Coffee” in interviews, he spoke extensively about the artistic philosophy that informed his instrumental treatments during that era. His decision to record “Black Coffee” instrumentally for The Great Ray Charles album was a deliberate effort to be recognized as a serious jazz musician, not just an R&B star on the radio.For that project, his second studio album, Charles avoided his signature vocal style in order to highlight his piano blues with all those Art Tatum-influenced flourishes. For the “Black Coffee” session (April 30, 1956), he deviated from his usual big-band horn arrangements and stripped the performance down to a trio. He was joined on the date by Oscar Pettiford on bass and Joe Harris on drums.Later in his autobiography, Brother Ray, he noted that these sessions allowed him to explore the chord structures of this fundamental jazz standard.Other RenditionsAfter Ray Charles's performance, other artists took “Black Coffee” on instrumental outings, such as Bobby Scott (1959), Earl Hines (1964) and Earl Grant (1968).Meanwhile, a wide and wildly varied group of singers also have served up “Black Coffee” in the 70 years since its introduction, from Canned Heat (on its 2003 Friends in the Can album) to the Pointer Sisters on 1984's That's a Plenty album.k.d. lang's “darkly twangy” version from her 1988 album Shadowland is considered an essential track in her discography, bringing a new interpretation to the song.Women have been especially attracted to the song, from Petula Clark (1968), Sinead O'Connor (1992) and Rita Cooledge and Gladys Knight (both 1996) to Maria Muldaur (2002) and Marianne Faithful ( 2008).For more about the song's history, see our earlier Flood Watch article by clicking here.More from DannyMeanwhile, speaking of more renditions, would you like some more Danny Cox tunes for your Flood Friday? We gotcha covered. Visit our free Radio Floodango music streaming service and give the Danny Channel a listen.Click here to set the Danny playlist in motion. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

Here's another tune that Danny Cox has brought to us from his decades of lovingly listening to Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed's famous recordings.One of Jerry's composition, “Baby's Coming Home” is a standout tune that was introduced on 1974's landmark Chet Atkins Picks on Jerry Reed album.As reported here earlier, Atkins and Reed were not only esteemed guitarists but also good friends who shared a profound musical chemistry. A major figure at RCA, Atkins was instrumental in bringing Reed to the label.The album testified to Atkins' continued endorsement of the younger man's talent, showcasing interpretation of 10 of Reed's unique and often humorous compositions. Chet and Jerry were known for their distinct fingerpicking styles, drawing inspiration from pioneers like Merle Travis and incorporating their own original, complex techniques. This is what attracted Danny Cox to their work when he was still just a teenager learning to pick.About the SongJerry Reed wrote “Baby's Coming Home” around the time Chet was coming up with the plans for his 1974 tribute album. Atkins' rendering of the song is the first track of the disc's B side. Incidentally Jerry himself performed on only two of the album's tracks (”Squirrely” and “Mister Lucky,” and sadly not on “Baby's Coming Home”). However, a few years later, he and Chet did pick the tune together on TV. That wonderful, light-hearted segment was preserved on this YouTube video:A Muppet MomentBy the way, four years later, “Baby's Coming Home” made a curious comeback. This time with a tuba-and-banjo-heavy Dixieland-flavored arrangement, the song was the soundtrack for a sketch called “Lunchtime” during Episode 316 of The Muppet Show. Check this out:More Atkins-Reed Collaboration Chet Atkins Picks on Jerry Reed reminded many fans of Chet's Grammy-winning 1970 Me and Jerry release, an all-acoustic, instrumental album that featured the two buddies teamed up on a range of songs, from country and pop covers to original instrumental workouts.Several decades later, this collaboration was followed by another celebrated joint effort, the 1993 Grammy-winning Sneakin' Around album. More from Danny?If all this has you in the mood to put a little more Danny Cox into your Flood Friday, drop by the free Radio Floodango music streaming service and give the Danny Channel a spin.Click here to check it out! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

It's not easy to make the top dozen in CMT's “100 Greatest Love Songs,” but that is precisely the placement that the music network awarded to Keith Whitley's recording of “When You Say Nothing At All.”The song has a beloved place in our hearts. We remember the Christmas Eve in 1988 when that lovely number hit No. 1 in Billboard's Hot Country Singles.And for many of us, that is the sweet tune that first came to mind just five months later in a much sadder moment: when we heard the shocking news that 34-year-old Whitley had died at his Goodlettsville, TN, home.One of UsThe news hit especially hard in our area. Keith Whitley was a local hero. Born in Ashland, he grew up in the nearby Sandy Hook, Ky.It seemed like every one of that town's thousand residents knew Keith, but conversation was almost non-existent on the day of his passing. Words lost out to stunned silence.Today his memory is permanently etched into the landscape. A street is named “Keith Whitley Boulevard.” A memorial statue stands near the Elliot County Veterans Memorial and Cemetery. Peaceful, it is hallowed ground.Our Channelling KeithSome songs are like old friends. This old Paul Overstreet-Don Schlitz tune is certainly like that. We hadn't played it in six months or more, and then one sultry night last August, it strolled back into the band room like it had never left. Danny Cox kicked off those familiar first chords. Randy Hamilton stepped up with the opening lyrics, and this was the result.For more about the history of how this song came into being, see this earlier Flood Watch article. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

Danny Cox has an abiding love for the works of guitar heroes Jerry Reed and Chet Atkins, and the song “Drive In” — which Dan brings to this week's podcast from a recent rehearsal — beautifully displays those intersecting energies.As reported here earlier, Reed often wrote wonderfully tasty riffs and licks only to forget them the next day when he moved on to some new project. Atkins, a detail-driven professional and a successful producer, completed and recorded many of Jerry's pieces, practicing and polishing them to perfection.It was one of these fertile periods of Jerry's noodling and Chet's cultivating that produced “Drive In.” Chet was the first to record the piece, the opening track of his acclaimed 1968 Solo Flights album.Later John McClellan's book Chet Atkins in Three Dimensions: 50 Years of Legendary Guitar included a transcription of the tune, further cementing its place in Chet's legacy repertoire. It's no wonder that these days that the song is a popular vehicle for aspiring pickers on YouTube.More from Danny?If all this has you in the mood to put a little more Danny Cox into your Flood Friday, drop by the free Radio Floodango music streaming service and give the Danny Channel a spin.Click here to check it out! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

Danny Cox and Randy Hamilton brought us this tune a year or so ago and as it matures, it just keeps enriching The Flood's bloodstream.Not only that, the song is very much on target to be included on the next Flood album when work begins on that project in the months ahead. Give it a listen in this take from a recent rehearsal.About the SongAs noted in an earlier Flood Watch article, “Deep River Blues” is usually associated with the late, great Doc Watson, who included it on his self-titled debut Vanguard Records album back in 1964. The song became so connected to Doc over the years, in fact, that many fans thought it was original with him.However, as we noted, Doc was just 10 years old in 1933 (he was still “Arthel” to his North Carolina family in those early days) when Alabama's Delmore Brothers released their Victor recording of “I Got The Big River Blues.”Still thinking about that performance 30 years later when he hit the recording studio, Doc fashioned his famed rendition as he thought his hero guitarist Merle Travis would play it, with a heavy emphasis on the thumb thumping out a driving bass line. In the latest Flood rendition, Danny beautifully carries on that tradition.Turn Your (Flood) Radio On!Want to spice up your Friday with a little more from Randy and Danny? The free Radio Floodango music streaming feature has got you covered with randomized playlists of tunes featuring each of them.Click on the graphic above to zip right to the Randy Channel or on the graphic below to give Danny a spin! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

Former Cardinal Danny Cox joins Chris and Amy ahead of the 40th anniversary of the 1985 National League Championship. Cox and 20 former players are expected to attend the celebration on Friday, September 5, when the Cards host the Giants. 'There's no other place' like St Louis that treats former players so well, says Cox.

Chris and Amy discuss the evolving AI scene for computer programmers; the National Guard is being called to Chicago over objections from Illinois' Governor; former Cardinal Danny Cox looks back on the 1985 NL Champions; Chris has a better bobblehead idea.

As Appalachians, we are mighty proud of Chris Stapleton, the 47-year-old Lexington, Ky., native who grew up not far from us in the tiny Johnson County town of Staffordsville in Eastern Kentucky. To date, Chris has won 11 Grammys, 11 Academy of Country Music Awards and 15 Country Music Association Awards.Besides that, he also has been named the ACM's Artist-Songwriter of the Decade, and not long ago Rolling Stone magazine included Stapleton among the “200 Greatest Singers of All Time.”Stapleton had written and/or co-written nearly 200 songs. He has six No. 1 country songs to his credit, including Kenny Chesney's “Never Wanted Nothing More,” Josh Turner's “Your Man,” George Strait's “Love's Gonna Make It Alright” and Luke Bryan's “Drink a Beer.” His work has appeared on albums by Adele, Kelly Clarkson, Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift and so many others.About This Stapleton SongHistory lovers also have always populated The Flood camp, so it's not surprising that this is our favorite Chris Stapleton composition.“Can You Run?” is set during the American Civil War and tells the story of a young slave pleading with his lover to join him for a dangerous dash to the Union line so that he can join “the freedom line of the Lincoln soldiers.”At one point in the song, he tells her: You know I hate to ask so late But the moment's finally come, And there won't be time to change your mind. Can you run?Click here to read more about this wonderful work.Our Take on the TuneThe Flood's current iteration of “Can You Run?” has been eight years in the making. Randy Hamilton brought the song to the band in the spring of 2017. He already had worked out the basic arrangement in his head, but it took a while to get the instrumentation just right.For instance, Jack Nuckols, whose drumming is so fundamental to this track, didn't arrive on The Flood scene until a couple of years ago, about the same time that Charlie Bowen began learning a bit of banjo, so that his five-string could provide a kicky little counterbalance to the sweet soloing by Danny Cox and Sam St. Clair.Happy with where the song has come, the guys are pretty likely to want to include it among the tunes they record on the new album they hope to start work on this fall. Stay tuned!More From Randy?Finally, if you'd like to hear more tunes that feature Randy Hamilton's vocals, check out the Randy Channel on the free Radio Floodango music streaming service.Click here to give it a spin! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

A lot of ghosts stalk our rehearsal room nowadays, but to a man they are a happy bunch of haunts. We have table set aside for photos of all our band mates who have passed on. But more than mere pictures, it's their music that keeps our old comrades alive. Here, for example, from a recent rehearsal is our current take on one of the late David Peyton's favorite tunes, with Charlie Bowen and Randy Hamilton handling the vocals and solos by Sam St. Clair, Jack Nuckols and Danny Cox. The tune — “Georgie Buck” — has never left The Flood band room since Peyton first brought there 20 years ago.About the SongAs reported earlier, “Georgie Buck” is one of the “play party” tunes that Dave learned from his old friend Aunt Jennie Wilson, the famed clawhammer banjo picker who was born in 1900 in Logan County, WV.Jennie learned tunes from family members and other musicians in her coalfield community. David always theorized that she learned this one from African American musicians who came to Logan County in the 1920s to work on the railroad and in the coal mines.Nowadays it is well-documented that “Georgie Buck” in particular — like other mountain music and dance — was influenced by black traditions of rhythmic dance and songs.A version of the same song, for instance, found its way onto the 2006 debut album by The Carolina Chocolate Drops, whose members reported learning it from the great African-American string band fiddler Joe Thompson.“Georgie Buck” also was in the repertoire of Chapel Hill, NC, guitarist and banjo player Elizabeth Cotten who, at 67, taught the same song to a 19-year-old Taj Mahal.An earlier Flood Watch article provided a fuller backgrounder on this good old number. Click here to read that.Now Let's Hear from the Haunts!Before we leave, we really need to give our spirited spirits a turn at the tune. “Georgie Buck” was featured on Joe Dobbs' last Flood album, Cleanup & Recovery, recorded in 2013 in Bud Carroll's Live at Trackside Studios. It showcases Joe's fiddling and Dave's lead vocal and soloing, as well as solos by Doug Chaffin and Sam St. Clair. and Michele Hoge singing harmonies with Charlie. Click the button below for that track: This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

The song that most defined the great Ray Charles's life and career was written the same year in which he was born.It was 1930 on cold, stormy night in New York City when “Georgia on My Mind” was written by Hoagy Carmichael and his roommate Stuart Gorrell.“In a third-floor apartment overlooking 52nd Street,” Gorrell recalled, “with cold feet and warm hearts, we looked out the window, and, not liking what we saw, we turned our thoughts to the pleasant Southland.”Carmichael later added to the story in his autobiography Sometimes I Wonder. As reported earlier, he got the idea for the tune from his friend saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer, who noted that songs about states were almost always marketable. “Nobody ever lost money writing songs about the South,” Frankie said. “Why don't you write a song about Georgia? I'll even give you the first line: ‘Georgia, Georgia….'”The resulting song was immediately huge in the jazz world, a hit for Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday, for Gene Krupa and Jo Stafford, for Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Kay Starr, Eddy Arnold and many more. But it was first recorded by Hoagy himself in October 1930 in the last studio session with his buddy and mentor, the legendary jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke. Enter Brother RayLess than a month before Hoagy and Bix's recording session — and a thousand miles away in southwest Georgia — Ray Charles Robinson was born in the town of Albany on the Flint River.Today many fans associate “Georgia on My Mind” with Brother Ray's iconic performance, but the song actually was rather late in coming into his life. By 1960, Charles had been in show business for 15 years, rocking the world of rhythm and blues. Already he had recorded classics for Atlantic Records, legendary discs like “Mess Around,” “Midnight Hour” and “I've Got a Woman,” like “Drown in My Own Tears” and “Hallelujah I Love Her So.”Whew! And all of those were recorded before his 30th birthday. How “Georgia” Met RayWhat Ray didn't have yet in 1960 was a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. But now the stage was set.He had left Atlantic for ABC Records, at which Charles would be recorded and pitched for the burgeoning new crossover market, especially with albums like his two Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music discs. (In the process, Ray also became one of the first black musicians to be granted artistic control by a mainstream record company.)Central to the start of this new chapter in the Ray Charles story was The Genius Hits the Road, a concept album that paid tribute to different destinations around the country. Think “New York My Home” and “Blue Hawaii,” “Moon Over Miami” and “Alabamy Bound.” But of course, the cut that eclipsed all the other tracks on the album was Charles's powerful, emotional interpretation of “Georgia on My Mind.” And that song had an unusual trip to the studio. The idea of singing Carmichael's classic came, not from A&R men or fellow musicians, but from Ray's driver who all the time heard his boss humming the thing. Jim Crow UglinessCharles' hit rendition of “Georgia on My Mind” — the first of his three career No. 1 hits — became the most widely-known version of the tune from that time on. But it came with racism and nasty politics getting into the mix.Barely a year after his “Georgia” hit the airwaves, Ray was due to play in Augusta, Ga. It was 1961 and Jim Crow laws were still very much in effect in the segregated South. Activists warned the singer that the theater at which the show was booked was strictly reserved for a white-only audience.Charles decided that no, he would not to play that night. As Elodie Maillot wrote recently in the online Pan African Music site, “Like Sam Cooke and others who refused to sing in front of all-white audiences, he was torn between his mainstream celebrity and his (being) kept in perpetual subjugation by segregationist laws.”For canceling the Augusta gig, Ray was fined $700 by the show's producer. After that, it would be years before he agreed to play in Georgia again, “but,” Maillot added, “‘Georgia on My Mind' became the symbol of his activism.”It took the state of Georgia nearly 20 years to finally apologize its native son, doing so when it chose Charles's recording as the official state anthem. Ray returned to perform in Georgia on March 7, 1979, serenading the state's General Assembly in Atlanta.Meanwhile, nearly 30 after that and some 200 miles to the south, a bronze statue of Ray Charles was unveiled in his hometown of Albany in 2007 in the middle of a square named for him. But Ray didn't live to see that; he died four years earlier in Los Angeles.However, he did live to see Rolling Stone magazine choose his recording for its list of the 50 greatest songs of all times.Our Take on the TuneAt last week's rehearsal, Danny Cox and Randy Hamilton did some serious gold mining in this old sweet song. This track opens with Charlie Bowen and Jack Nuckols laying down the basic melody and rhythm, then just listen as Danny starts spreading out all the riches he's found in those lovely old chords. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

George Gershwin's “Lady Be Good” has been in The Flood repertoire for more than a quarter century. And lately the song has taken on a whole new life, ever since Danny Cox brought ‘round a better bunch of chords. Listen to Dan and the guys just rocking the socks off the thing!As reported earlier, Gershwin's perennial 1924 party tune, “Lady Be Good” is a rarity among jazz standards in the Great American Songbook, surviving the transition from the loose Dixieland style of the “Roaring Twenties” to the smooth swing sound of the 1930s and beyond.Jazz ConnectionsIn fact, the song was the centerpiece for a remarkable pair of performances on Jan. 28, 1946. The venue was Los Angeles' Philharmonic Theater Auditorium and the “Jazz at the Philharmonic” concert series, created by famed producer Norman Granz to bring together prominent jazz musicians of the era onto a single platform.Center stage that night were two musical legends poised at the intersection of shifting currents of jazz. Representing the waning days of swing was tenor saxophonist Lester Young; heralding the Next Big Thing — bebop — was altoist Charlie Parker.Pres and Bird's distinctive takes on the Gershwin standard that night would give the Philharmonic audience a memorable contrast.As Brian Zimmerman wrote in Jazziz magazine, “Parker, soloing first, scribbles hard and fast outside the traditional jazz harmonic template, revealing a fleet mind and even fleeter fingers. Young, meanwhile, is cool and laconic, letting his deep-rooted sense of swing and seductive tone do the talking.”Even before that night, “Lady Be Good” had figured prominently in the lives of both men. Young's 1936 “Lady” solo, from his very first recording date, is one of the most celebrated tracks in jazz history.Then four year later, when Parker recorded the same song on his very first recording date with Jay McShann, his opening phrase is a joyous acknowledgement of his debt to Young.Flood StagesThe same song also has been witness to different stages of The Flood's ebb and flow over the years.For instance, back in 2002, Joe Dobbs brought the boys the tune, and it was a featured track on the band's second studio album, with Chuck Romine, Sam St. Clair and Doug Chaffin joining Joe in carrying the water:Flood love of the tune really began to blossom, though, when Doug switched from bass to guitar and took charge of the lead on the number. Right up to the end, whenever Floodsters got together with their tribal elder, “Lady Be Good” was going to be played. Here, for example, from a January 2022 jam session at the Chaffin house in Ashland, Ky., you can hear Doug and Sam trading choruses with Vanessa Coffman's tenor sax over Charlie Bowen's chords:Now flash forward 3 1/2 more years and imagine how the band's earlier generations would appreciate the latest Flood class's keeping their honored tune fresh. From last week's rehearsal, here are Danny, Sam and Charlie rocking it with Randy Hamilton and Jack Nuckols:More from DannyAnd if this has you in the mood for more Dan Cox, just tune in the Danny Channel on the free Radio Floodango music streaming service.Click here to give it a spin. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

Move It or Lose It | Episode 132 | Kaitlin and Logan: Pride and Joy! Celebrating Pride Month

There are few sure things nowadays, but one thing we can guarantee is that today somewhere in the Mountain State this song is being sung, whistled, hummed or at least thought of about every 15 minutes.The truth is that The Flood has avoided doing ”Take Me Home, Country Roads” for about a half century now. It's not that the guys don't like it; on the contrary, just the opening line (Al-most heeeeaven, West Virginnnnia….) will always tease out a smile in our band room.But, well, gee, it just seemed almost like a cliché, you know? A bunch of West Virginians singing it was kind of like the boys down in San Antone doing “Home on the Range” or “Deep in the Heart of Texas” or a Crescent City crew doing “Saints Go Marching In.”That all changed, though, earlier this year. When everybody watched a stadium full of people at the Super Bowl in New Orleans spontaneously joining in on “Country Roads” following that Rocket Mortgage commercial, band manager Pamela Bowen looked at Charlie and said, “It might be time….”It is. The instrumentation is right nowadays. Jack Nuckols has dusted off his fiddle. Bowen has learned enough banjo to contribute something. Randy Hamilton has just the right voice for the lead. Danny Cox and Sam St. Clair grew up knowing that harmony. It was just a matter of getting it together in time for today. Happy West Virginia Day, y'all!About The Song“Take Me Home, Country Roads” was born, not in West Virginia, but in neighboring Maryland. Its first public performance was on New Year's weekend 1970 at the tiny Cellar Door coffeehouse in the Georgetown section of Washington, DC.The idea for tune started a few weeks earlier when songwriters Bill Danoff and his girlfriend Taffy Nivert — who performed together as “Fat City” —  were driving to a family reunion in Massachusetts, Neal Augenstein writes in Washington's WTOP.com. (Incidentally, if Danoff and Nivert's names are familiar it might be because they later renamed their group “Starland Vocal Band,” known for the 1976 hit “Afternoon Delight.”)For the “Country Roads” debut, Len Jaffe, a D.C. area singer/songwriter, was at the Cellar Door and later told Augenstein, “The road they were actually on was Clopper Road, in Gaithersburg, a little two-lane blacktop” at the time, but now an exit off Interstate 270.“When they got to the ‘Almost heaven …' part,” Jaffe added, “at first it was going to be ‘Massachusetts,' because that's where Bill was from. But they didn't like the vibe, so they used 'West Virginia.' They had never been to West Virginia.”That was the same weekend that John Denver would hear the song which would become his first platinum single. On Dec. 29, 1970, Denver played the first of a string of solo shows at the Cellar Door, where Danoff and Nivert were the opening act. Later that evening in the couple's Georgetown home, Denver asked if they had any new songs he could hear.“Get out that song you're writing for Johnny Cash,” Taffy said, and Danoff pulled out what at that point consisted of only the chorus and a single verse. Denver loved it immediately and helped Danoff and Nivert complete the lyrics and arrangement overnight. Then that very evening, Denver played the new song at the coffeehouse.“We just finished a brand new song,” Denver said on stage, “and I haven't even learned the words yet.” He taped the lyrics to the mic stand and, as an encore, the three of them did the song cold.“It was a five-minute standing ovation,” Jaffe told Augenstein. “The walls were vibrating. I thought the club was going to implode.”The following month in New York, as part of his Poems, Prayers & Promises album, Denver recorded the song with Danoff and Nivert doing the harmony vocals.West Virginia ConnectionsOkay, now, wait a minute. So the song debuted in D.C. after being written in Maryland by folks whose minds were set traveling to New England. Where the heck does West Virginia come into this story? Actually, Danoff says that from the start there were Mountain State connections to “Country Roads.” The portion of the lyric's bridge says “the radio reminds me of my home far away," a line he says is quintessentially West Virginian. That's because it is an allusion to his Springfield, Mass., childhood when he grew up in the ‘50s listening to “Saturday Night Jamboree” broadcasts each week from Wheeling's WWVA.“It was a powerful station,” he said, “and we got it clearly in Springfield at nighttime.”Danoff also had other West Virginia associations to draw from. For instance, he was a good friend of actor Chris Sarandon, a Beckley native who was once married to actress Susan Sarandon. But even more than that, Danoff recalled a group of hippies from a West Virginia commune who used to sit in the front row of the little clubs in which his and Taffy's band used to play.“They brought their dogs and were a very colorful group of folks; that's how West Virginia began creeping into the song,” he said.Mountain Mama's ReceptionIn the Mountain State, "Take Me Home, Country Roads” has, of course, received an enthusiastic response for more than 50 years now.In 2017, the state's tourism office announced it had obtained the rights to use the song in its marketing efforts. "'Country Roads' has become synonymous with West Virginia all over the world," said tourism commissioner Chelsea Ruby. "It highlights everything we love about our state: scenic beauty, majestic mountains, a timeless way of life, and most of all, the warmth of a place that feels like home whether you've lived here forever or are just coming to visit." The opening "Almost heaven" phrase became a primary tourism slogan.The song is the theme song of West Virginia University. Since 1972 it has been performed during every home football pregame show. It also is played after every home victory when fans are encouraged to stay in the stands and sing along with the team.On Sept. 6, 1980, at the invitation of then-Gov. Jay Rockefeller, Danoff, Nivert and Denver performed it to a sold-out crowd of Mountaineer fans at the dedication of WVU's Mountaineer Field.In 2014, the state legislature adopted it one of four official state songs (along with "West Virginia Hills," "This Is My West Virginia" and "West Virginia, My Home Sweet Home”).But About That GeographyFrom the start, however, some West Virginians have groused about the lyrics' sketchy geography. Blue Ridge Mountains? Shenandoah River? To local folks, that sounded a bit more like western East Virginia than their home turf.Some, with a grin, even propose a little judicious editing, maybe something like: Almost heaven, West Virginia, Snowshoe Mountain, Monongahela River….In the end, though, most mountaineers choose to love the song anyway, and, if anyone asked, they just say the song cleverly refers to the state's historical rather than contemporary geography.Still, those dicey directions always supply an easy punchline for smart-alecky Virginians: “Why, son, that's why West Virginia is just almost heaven.…”More Tunes for Mountain Mama Day?Finally, if you need more extensive soundtrack for today's West Virginia Day celebrations, remember the “Special Blends” section of the free Radio Floodango music streaming service includes a selection of Flood-centric Mountain State tunes. Click below for details: This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

The mood can change very quickly in The Flood band room, often depending on whatever is the next song that crosses Charlie Bowen's rattlin' brain.For instance, in the first few seconds of this week's podcast, you'll hear the guys still laughing from the inside jokes and joys of the previous tune, while Bowen is ready to conjure up a more somber mood with some opening chords.Almost at once, Danny Cox and Randy Hamilton recognize the lead-in and join in on the 1950s torch song, “Cry Me a River.” Seconds later, Jack Nuckols is slapping a rhythm and Sam St. Clair is offering moody accents.Anything But PlebeianThe story of this song's troubled childhood — rejected in its first bid for movie stardom, initially passed over by the queen of jazz ballad, etc. — in an earlier post, but let's take another swing at it, this time focusing on a single word in its otherwise rather pedestrian lyrics.The bridge of “Cry Me a River” contains what writer Molly Leikin, in her book How to Write a Hit Song called “the best multisyllabic internal rhyme I've heard.” Specifically, the song rhymes: You told me love was too plebeian with Told me you were through with me'n'…“‘Too plebeian' and ‘through with me'n',” Leikin wrote, “are just as delicious now as when they were first written. This quadruple rhyme isn't just four syllables that rhyme, but four unique syllables.”But Jack Said No, And So Said MitchCool enough, but it was not everybody's cup of tea. In fact, plebeian (which, of course, is a snooty way of saying “commoner”) was just too highfalutin for many show biz folks.For instance, director Jack Webb originally wanted the song for his 1955 movie Pete Kelly's Blues, but he hated the use of the word and when songwriter Arthur Hamilton refused to change it, Webb yanked the song from the film.The lyric had no better luck at Columbia Records where the A&R chief — one Mitch Miller (of early TV's “Sing Along with Mitch” fame) — joined the plebeian haters and blocked it from being recorded there by Peggy King.The Stubborn SongwriterStill the songwriter stood his ground and refused to change his lyric. Wonder why, given the riches promised to Hamilton by having his song included in a Hollywood film? Well, writer John E. Simpson in his online newsletter “Running After My Hat,” has an intriguing theory.As noted in the earlier Flood Watch article, 27-year-old singer and aspiring actress Julie London, who would ultimately record “Cry Me a River” and have a monster hit with it, was married to Jack Webb at the time he would working on Pete Kelly's Blues.When Webb thought it would be a great idea to have some original songs, not just old standards, wife Julie remembered Arthur Hamilton. He was a young guy she'd graduated from high school with; in fact, he'd taken her to the senior prom.She and Arthur had drifted out of touch since their school days in the mid-1940s, but Julie remembered he'd wanted to be a songwriter. She gave him a call, asked if he was still writing music.“I was,” Hamilton recalled years later, “but I was writing them on the backs of prescription blanks, working as a delivery boy for a prominent drugstore chain.”When got the call from Hollywood, Hamilton cranked out three tunes — “He Needs Me,” “Sing a Rainbow” and (ta-duh!) “Cry Me a River” — the first two of which Webb used in the picture, but then Webb blocked the winner of the bunch because of Hamilton's refusal to change that problematic rhyme. Was It Code?So, again, why?“I've got my own pet theory about this,” Simpson writes in his newsletter, “completely unsupported by anything except speculation and a taste for intrigue: I wonder if the word ‘plebeian' was an in-joke of some kind between Hamilton and London? Lord only knows what sort of in-joke it would be. But it's a fun idea, isn't it?”Indeed. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

A relic of the Cold War, this tune was composed in 1955 by Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy under the title “Leningrad Nights,” but later at the request of the Soviet Ministry of Culture was renamed "Moscow Nights" with corresponding changes to poet Mikhail Matusovsky's lyrics.For the first half dozen years of its life, the song was known primarily in the Soviet Union, where a young actor named Vladimire Troshin recorded it in 1956 for a scene in a documentary about Soviet athletic competition. Honestly, the film did nothing to promote the song, but thanks to radio broadcasts it gained popularity.The melody hit the big time in the U.S. in November 1961 when trumpeter Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen recorded it under the title "Midnight in Moscow.” For the recording, Ball was inspired by an arrangement he heard by a Dutch jazz group called “The New Orleans Syncopators” who recorded the melody earlier that year.Ball's version peaked at No. 2 on both the U.S. and U.K. pop singles charts and spent three weeks at No. 1 on the American easy listening chart.Chad Mitchell Trio ControversyIn 1962, at the height of the folk revival in the United States, “Moscow Nights” was recorded by The Chad Mitchell Trio on their popular live performance album At the Bitter End on Kapp Records.And thereby hangs a tale, as reported by author Mike Murphy in his 2021 book We Never Knew Just What It Was: The Story of the Chad Mitchell Trio. When the album was released, the guys were on a three-month tour of Central and South America sponsored, not by the U.S. State Department, but rather by the American National Theater Academy. That sponsorship became relevant when in mid-tour state department officials showed up and tried to supervise the shows. When the trio reached Rio de Janeiro, the singers were met by some surly officials from the U.S.'s Brazilian embassy. Following the performance, one of the newcomers hustled the guys into an empty room.“What do you think you're doing,” he said, “singing that Russian song?”The group actually did several foreign language tunes. The parents of the trio's Mike Kobluk, who had emigrated to Canada from Russia, had long loved Russian music and often helped their son phonetically learn native songs. “Russian song?” said Chad. “You mean ‘Moscow Nights'? What's wrong with it?”“Don't you understand what's happening in the world?” the angry official said. “We're here fighting the spreading influence of communism. And you think you're going out to all the villages and sing an anti-American song?”“It's not an anti-American song,” Kobluk interjected. “It's a song about friends having dinner in Moscow.”“It's Russian!” the official shouted.As Murphy notes in his book, “Chad, whose fuse was shorter than either Mike or Joe (Frazier), responded accordingly. ‘Wait a minute. You can't dictate what we sing or don't sing. We're not here representing the State Department.”The official stomped out with ominous last words: “We'll see about that.” At all the subsequent stops, The Michell Trio continued to defiantly do “Moscow Nights.” Finally, in São Paulo, the State Department's Jim Salyers — who himself spoke a little Russian — caught up with them and accompanied them for the next two weeks of the tour so he could closely listen each night.After that, his verdict? “Love the song,” Salyers said, adding with a chuckle, “Keep doing it with your State Department's blessing.” (He was not, incidentally, as happy with the group's performing its controversial “The John Birch Society,” but that's a story for another time.)Pamela the FolksingerAs a young folksinger in college, Flood manager Pamela Bowen had her own special relationship with “Moscow Nights.”A consummate Chad Mitchell Trio fan, Pamela devoted many hours to a close listening to the group's albums. In particular, she painstakingly studied their performance of “Moscow Nights.” Her goal was to duplicate the trio's precise pronunciation of Matusovsky's lyrics so she could perform the same song at folk music shows at Marshall University, where she was a journalism student.Pamela even brought the song to television when she performed it on a local talent show that aired in 1966. There her diligent research was recognized when a Russian-speaking member of the audience sought her out to complement not only her performance, but the accuracy of her hard-earned pronunciation. Alas, neither audio nor video of her performance survives.Our Take on the TunePamela had long retired her folksinging by time her Flood fellows took up “Moscow Nights,” so she could offer no guidance on those tricky Russian nouns, verbs and adjectives. Consequently, the tune today is an instrumental in The Flood oeuvre, drawing inspiration from Kenny Ball and all the jazz innovations that followed.It all started last fall when Charlie, practicing his five-string, stumbled upon the old melody. When he shared it with the group, Danny Cox immediately found it offered lots of a stretching-out room. The tune — performed here at a recent rehearsal — is a welcome change of a pace on a busy night.Another Date with DannyFinally, if your Friday could use more of Dan Cox's musical explorations, we've got you covered. Visit the Danny Channel on the free Radio Floodango music streaming service.Click here to give it a listen! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

Napoleon never heard “Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine,” because, well, it's not French. The tune might be Scottish. But probably not. Some say it's an American march. Maybe Irish instead. Or not.One thing is certain: Definitive derivation of old fiddle tunes is not the hill you'll want to die on. Most of the best-loved melodies have at least a half dozen different names, each usually with its own equally murky history.WhitherThis particular tune is considered traditional, and the first part shows up in several melodies from Ireland such as “Centenary March" and "An Comhra Donn.” A group called The Black Irish Band (who are from Sonora in California, so there's that…) recorded the song in the late 1990s as the Scottish “New Caledonian March.” And, in fact, back in 1837 George Willig of Philadelphia published it as “Caledonian March.” (Guess it wasn't “New” then….) But the tune also is melodically similar to English hornpipes called "Durham Rangers" and "Sherwood Rangers." Meanwhile in America, folklorist Samuel Bayard found the same melody was a common march tune in his primary collecting area of western Pennsylvania, circulating in the 1940s under various names, such as "Bruce's March" and "The Star of Bethlehem." A Keystone State musician told Bayard it was called "Ranahan's March," which he said commemorated a local bandmaster. North Carolina Fiddler Mack Snoderly has played a slow, dirge-like version of it, and he calls it "Dying on the Field of Battle.”But Bonaparte?So, how the heck does Napoleon get into this tangled tale?That was exactly the question pondered recently in an interesting bit of gab on an online discussion board called Banjo Hangout.It all started when a visitor posted a message with the title, “Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine” and noted, “I was wondering which event the title of this tune implies.”After a number of fits and starts in the replies from various readers, banjoist Don Borchelt got down to cases. Noting that Napoleon's army did cross the Rhine in 1805 (in order to invade Austria and fight the battle of Austerlitz), Borchelt went on to say he didn't think the song actually referred to any specific spot of history, pointing out that a number of fiddle tunes refer to Napoleon.“As for the tune's title,” he said, “the various Bonaparte titles — ‘Bonaparte's Retreat,' ‘Napoleon Crossing the Rhine,' ‘Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine,' ‘Bonaparte Crossing the Alps,' ‘Bonaparte's March,' etc. — are often used interchangeably by fiddlers.“The one I generally hear called ‘Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine' is a tune pretty much of American origin,” Don concluded, “and the fiddlers back in the day probably had an imperfect knowledge of Napoleon's military history, in those dark centuries before Wikipedia.”Our Take on the TuneMaybe in the Floodisphere we'll just give our version of the tune the title bestowed on it by our Danny Cox, who with a wink recently said, “Hey, let's play that “Bonaparte Chewin' a Rind.”Actually, Flood old-timers first heard the melody 50 years ago this autumn when fiddlin' Jim Strother played it with The Kentucky Foothill Ramblers at the September 1975 Bowen Bash. It's not known from where Jim got it, but for sure a few years earlier, in 1972, North Carolina's Fuzzy Mountain String Band recorded a rendition that was popular among the hippy pickers of the day.So, if you'd like to run the time machine back a half century and hear Strother's playing that started this whole conversation, click the Play button on the bash legacy film below and move the slider up to 35:30.More Song History? Finally, if sorting out music history appeals to you, be sure to visit the Song Stories section of this newsletter, where we tackle the tales of dozens of tunes in The Flood's very eclectic repertoire. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

Join Danny Cox as he gives his Sermon on the Fourth Sunday in Lent at Christ Church Cranbrook.

Join Susannah and Sarah as they explore what's happening with global trade and how it could affect the UK economy – touching on Trump tariffs, the UK growth forecast and interest rate cuts.Helen Morrissey, Head of Retirement Analysis, talks about how people can prepare for retirement and reflects on changes in the retirement space since the major pension reforms (Freedom and Choice) made 10 years ago.Special guest, Danny Cox, Head of Communications here at HL, tells us about how he was able to plan his finances for an early retirement.This podcast isn't personal advice. If you're not sure what's right for you, seek advice. Investments rise and fall in value, so investors could make a loss. Tax rules can change and any benefits depend on your personal circumstances. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Spring in Appalachia is notoriously fickle. One minute the sun is promising an early wakeup call for the dogwoods and the redbuds; the next minute, snow is mocking our optimism.Last week started, for example, with a lovely, bright preview of April. However, in midweek, The Flood's weekly rehearsal was greeted by clouds, biting winds and cold rain. By the time the guys packed up to head home, ice would be forming on the back roads in the hills.But inside the band room, the guys have mad skills for climate control. Want some autumn leaves? They got a tune for that. Want a little taste of June? There's one for that too. And summertime? Shoot! Gotcha covered.Decades' Worth of Summer HeatAs reported here earlier, The Flood started playing “Summertime” a quarter of a century ago with various arrangements. Sometimes, for instance, it has been an instrumental, featuring solos over the by years by Joe Dobbs and Doug Chaffin, by Jacob Scarr, Paul Martin and Vanessa Coffman.The first time the song came to a Flood album — the 2002 The 1937 Flood Plays Up a Storm — Charlie Bowen handled the vocals. Eleven years later, by the time the band released its fifth album, Cleanup & Recovery, the guys had turned over the singing to Michelle Hoge.Nowadays, Randy Hamilton is front and center on the vocals. At last week's rehearsal, the first take on this tune was slow and bit lifeless, but then Randy said, “Let's try it again,” and kicked it up into a new gear. At the start of this track, you'll hear Randy ask his band mates what they think. “Yeah!” they all say, then Danny Cox lets his guitar register his vote with some of the most inspired playing the whole night.By the way, if you like to learn more about how George Gershwin came to write this American classic, click here for a backgrounder in The Flood's Song Stories section. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

Send us a textIn this episode, we interview Danny Cox, a seasoned marketing professional with a diverse background in digital marketing, content creation, and brand strategy. Danny shares his insights on telling the right story in a crowded content ecosystem.What you'll learn in this episode:How to discover your brand's authentic purpose.Strategies for balancing content creation with algorithm demands.The role of storytelling in building emotional connections.Tips for rekindling your organization's “why” as it scales.How to use AI as a tool without losing originality.Why brand values are crucial for long-term success.Listen in for actionable advice on crafting meaningful content that resonates with your audience!

Andy Van Slyke, Jay Randolph, John Costello and Danny Cox all join the show to share their memories of Whitey Herzog

 On this episode, Danny Cox, Vice President of Guest Experience at Breeze Airways, discusses the challenges airlines face in creating great passenger experiences. He emphasizes the need for airlines to let go of antiquated processes and mindsets and focus on. Danny shares how Breeze Airways is working to improve the airport experience and reduce stress for travelers. He also highlights the importance of partnerships and the impact they have on the overall guest experience. Plus, Danny discusses the role of leadership in guiding the team and fostering an empowerment mindset.Tune in to learn:What are airlines missing when it comes to great experiences?Making the airport experience easierWhy is it difficult to give control back to customers?How Breeze differentiates itself in the marketGuiding a customer service teamHard lessons in building a new business–How can you bring all your disconnected, enterprise data into Salesforce to deliver a 360-degree view of your customer? The answer is Data Cloud. With more than 200 implementations completed globally, the leading Salesforce experts from Professional Services can help you realize value quickly with Data Cloud. To learn more, visit salesforce.com/products/data to learn more.Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Our guests today are Cody Newton and Dr. Doug Cleveland. Cody Newton is a serial entrepreneur, having started or been involved in over 20 companies, including professional sports, franchising, direct sales, and the energy markets. He is dedicated to democratizing renewables, carbon credits, and recycling for home and business owners in his latest project with Carbon X Solutions. Dr. Douglas Cleveland is a trained Anesthesiologist from the University of Chicago with a Medical Economics Certificate from the Harvard Business School. Doug is also an entrepreneur with expertise in process and operational efficiencies and shares Cody's passion for the energy and renewables space and the impact it can have on the environment. I found this story fascinating, as two entrepreneurs with vastly different backgrounds saw the same problem and figured out a way to complement each other with their diverse approaches to business. They built a team and tackled a problem many experts said was impossible. This conversation will highlight the complexities and challenges of starting a new venture when everyone around you says it can't be done. If there is one thing I have learned from all these interviews, it is that entrepreneurs almost always have to defy the odds and many naysayers along the way to launch a product or service that is new, innovative, and world-changing.Learn more at www.CarbonXSolutions.com Show Notes:3:00 - Doug begins by sharing how he entered his entrepreneurial journey. He shares how he started out in med school to become an anesthesiologist and started practicing anesthesiology but became restless to do more and learn more.6:00 - Doug shares his background, where he got his various degrees, and where he completed his professional training.7:00 - Cody shares his background of growing up in a small farm town, embarking on getting a degree from Kansas State and pivoting to become an entrepreneur. 13:00 - Doug discusses breadth vs. depth in the medical field and how that translates to his entrepreneurial journey.Quote: “Riches are in niches.” 16:00 - Doug and Cody share some “key lessons” they learned early in their careers that would be valuable to young people starting out in their careers to help speed up their entrepreneurial journey. They share the 26:00 - Cody and Doug share how they discovered carbon credits and why they were led to participate in this “green movement” to help the environment, as well as businesses and homeowners participating in this movement.31:00 - Cody discusses the posture of his heart toward smaller and medium-sized businesses when involving them in this industry. He shares his goal to make this attainable for small and medium-sized companies to utilize this business opportunity. Quote: “We can expand this green revolution faster as we make it more accessible.”40:00 - Cody shares the story of how he found himself in the right spot at the right time to make a partnership and how this reflects the entrepreneurial experience of living intentionally in everyday life. Quote: “If you always plant seeds, the harvest will come over time.”“If you're passionate about something, the worst thing you can do is keep it inside.”42:00 - Doug chimes in and shares his story when meeting Cody and beginning their partnership.48:00 - Cody and Doug discuss the struggles and obstacles they have faced and had to overcome throughout their journey. They share what they have learned from that process.54:00 - Bob asks how they balanced seeking counsel and guidance while pursuing their goals when they may have been advised not to.Quote: “The experts don't always have the same vision that you do… take what they say with a grain of salt.”59:00 - Doug and Cody share what they foresee the next 3-5 years to look like for this industry and talk about what they hope to accomplish in these future opportunities. 1:07:00 - Bob asks Doug and Cody to share their favorite books“Boys in the Boat” by Daniel James Brown, “The Obstacle Is The Way” by Ryan Holiday, “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius, “Intentional Living” by John C. Maxwell, “Seize The Day” by Danny Cox, “Elon Musk” by Walter Isaacson, “Carbon Trade” by James Prosper, “The Captain Class” by Sam Walker, and “The Bomber Mafia” by Malcolm Gladwell1:15:00 - Bob asks Doug and Cody what words of encouragement they would give to a class of MBA students amidst the complexity of our current marketplace and what they would share to inspire them in their careers. 

 We've been doing this song for a very long time, and it's always different, depending on who's in the room. In this rendition from a rehearsal a few weeks ago, our man Danny Cox makes it special with his signature guitar stylings.

 The Flood has been doing versions of this song for decades. This rendition was the first song of the evening at a Flood rehearsal a few weeks ago. Riding on the infectious rhythm laid down by Randy Hamilton and Jack Nuckols and framing the solos by Danny Cox and Sam St. Clair, the number heralded a particularly fun evening at the Bowen house.

 This song took a very long road on its journey to Floodlandia. The first time it was played in our band room was more than a dozen years ago on a mellow autumn night when our friends Randy Hamilton and Paul Martin dropped in to jam with us. Now, neither was a member of The Flood yet — Randy would join the following year and Paul a few years after that — but their song was the hit of the evening. However, the tune never worked its way into the repertoire — until just recently. A couple of weeks ago, Danny Cox just happened to start picking the tune between songs on the night's practice list and the melody really jingled in our memories. After that, Dan and Randy got together to woodshed a little, working out an arrangement, and at last week's rehearsal they popped it on the rest of us. With joy, everybody joined in.

 “Sweet Georgia Brown” entered The Flood's repertoire soon after the band began in the 1970s and in the ensuing decades the tune has come back into the playlist again and again, serving as a sweet showcase for dozens of Flood soloists over the years. This latest rendition, recorded at a rehearsal just last week, has Danny Cox, Randy Hamilton, Sam St. Clair and Jack Nuckols all taking the tune for a spin.

 Here's a tune with some mighty deep roots in the Floodisphere. Two decades after our heroes, The Coasters, released this song in July 1957, The Flood started fiddling with it on another summer night. After that, though, it went to sleep again for, oh, a half century or so. Then not long ago, it popped back into our minds. Right away, Randy Hamilton started singing harmony on the chorus. Suddenly the song is back, evolving into a fine vehicle for Jack Nuckols' cool drumming and tasty solos by Danny Cox and everyone else in the room. Even visiting pickers. For instance, on this track, Floodster Emeritus Paul Martin dropped in with his mandolin. Just listen to how slowly he jumped right into the mix!

  Ever since it came together decades ago, The Flood has always sought a rich diversity in its repertoire. So late last year when Danny Cox asked, “Has the band ever done the song ‘Sunny'?” he heard an invitation in the enthusiasm of the answer: “no.” So, Danny worked out the chords, Jack took up the rhythm, we turned the vocals over to Randy, and suddenly the song is in the works. In fact, it's even picking up fans among the visitors. On this particular track, for instance, Floodster Emeritus Paul Martin happened to be in the room and happily took a ride on one of the choruses. Here's the progress report, then, on Project Sunny.

 Okay, we have a Christmas confession to make. Honestly, we don't really care that much for Christmas music. Oh, we're not scrooges or anything — well, a few of us are — but it's mainly it's just the nature of Christmas songs themselves. The chord patterns are not especially easy to remember and since you only them for a week or two every year, you don't ever get a chance to get cozy with them. Plus, well, frankly Christmas tunes generally don't swing. (Try to put a beat behind “Little Town of Bethlehem” and there will be repercussions….) But here's one that does fit the Flood groove nice, especially with the merriest of our merry band — Danny Cox and Floodster Emeritus Michelle Hoge — leading the way. We hope you DO have yourself a merry little Christmas.

When Danny Cox gave his life to Christ as he awaited his conviction, he couldn't wait to get out of jail and start living like a new man! But when a discouraging prison sentence and a terminal illness changed his plans, he had to surrender to God in a whole new way. Join us, won't you? So you don't miss the conclusion of Danny's compelling story, right now on UNSHACKLED! Visit our podcast website to learn more about this ministry, unshackledpodcast.org.

When Danny Cox suffered embarrassment over growing up in the projects, he swore to himself he would never be poor as an adult. But his journey toward fame and fortune led him down a dangerous path of partying, drugs, and eventually, prison. Find out what happens when a letter from home reminds him of the hope that is available. Join us, won't you? For Part 1 of Danny's true story, right now on UNSHACKLED! Visit our podcast website to learn more about this ministry, unshackledpodcast.org.

 Wow, Jack Nuckols' drumming has brought a whole new class of cool to the old band room. Whether it's his tasty solos, or rocking along with Randy Hamilton's bass under Charlie Bowen's vocals, or making his wise and witty contributions to the ensemble supporting Danny Cox and Sam St. Clair's solos, Jack's rhythms have got us all wanting to get up and dance. Just listen to what he brings to this old hokum song from the late 1920s.

 This song has marvelous lyrics by the great Johnny Mercer, as Floodster Emerita Michelle Hoge demonstrates whenever she's in the room. But she's not here to sing it, the song also is an extraordinary vehicle as an instrumental. Here from last week's rehearsal, Danny Cox lays down a lovely melody, then his old friend and our guest for the evening — Bob Murnahan, in town for a visit from his Colorado home — takes a couple of choruses to mine gold in all those cool chords.

For this old folk song, we follow the well-established narrative about a love affair that goes tragically wrong, but we take a lot of liberties with the traditional melody. Well, our unique tune goes back the very beginnings of The Flood. When Dave Peyton and Charlie Bowen were just starting out as a duet a half century ago, they found that odd string of chords seem to set just right with their simple guitar and Autoharp accompaniment. Since then over the years, every configuration of The Flood has found something new to add to that basic original arrangement. And it's still happening. Just listen to this take from last week's Flood rehearsal and to what Danny Cox and Sam St. Clair have contributed with their solos. 

Table Talks 1 - Kensington Church Podcast | With Danny Cox by Kensington Church Media

Power of a Story 2 - Kensington Church Podcast | With Danny Cox by Kensington Church Media

Light of the World - Kensington Church Podcast | With Danny Cox by Kensington Church Media

With the slogan "Seriously Nice", Breeze Airways is reimagining customer service for brands and businesses to be the best part of a customer's day. So, what does it look like to be Seriously Nice? In this episode, Vice President of Guest Experiences, Danny Cox shares what it means to be Seriously Nice, how they raise the bar for guest experiences, and why they decided to omit voice as a primary channel for customer service.

When Danny Cox gave his life to Christ as he awaited his conviction, he was eager to get out of jail and start living like a new man! But when a discouraging prison sentence and a terminal illness changed his plans, he had to surrender to God in a whole new way. Don't miss the conclusion of Danny's compelling story, right now on UNSHACKLED!

When Danny Cox suffered embarrassment over growing up in the projects, he swore to himself he would never be poor as an adult. But his journey toward fame and fortune led him down a dangerous path to partying, drugs, and eventually, prison. Find out what happens when a letter from home reminds him of the hope that is available, in Part 1 of his true story, right now on UNSHACKLED!