A trope in our part of the world is, “If you don’t like the weather, wait an hour!”
The fickleness of what comes from our skies around here — or sometimes doesn’t — was on Charlie Bowen’s mind years ago when he wrote a song called “All Out of Season.”
His lyric opened with meteorological musings about a chilly afternoon when “suddenly from nowhere came an April kind of day / and sat herself right down in winter’s way….”
Origin Story
The song originally was performed by a short-lived group called Front Royal that Charlie and fellow Floodster Stewart Schneider started with long-time singer/songwriting friend John Koenig.
Front Royal, which lasted only a few years in the mid-1970s, existed mainly to create new music. “All Out of Season” was one of the last compositions to come out of that earnest little experiment. After the group folded, the song — along with the others created by the trio — went into storage for the next 40 years or so.
Rebirth
Only recently, as the latest configuration of The Flood started exploring original compositions, did Bowen think of seeing if his old tune might want a new life.
Of course, the slam on this song will always be that nothing could be more “all out of season” than a 1970s relic that’s been biding its time in a dusty desk drawer.
Still…
Well, just listen to how the sensitive retelling of the tune by these dear friends has made it feel right at home in the 21st century.
"All Out of Season"