Best Delta Queen Memory Ever

#396/ Flood Time Capsule: 2005

One of the wonderful byproducts of The Flood’s regularly serenading riverboats whenever they visited the Huntington area was getting to know so many musicians who worked and played on those boats.

Lasting friendships were made with Jazzou Jones and Bob Stevens, with Connie Jones and Bob Schad, Bud Black and Walter Kross, with Dave Para and Cathy Barton.

And central to all of those connections has been legendary singer/pianist/songwriter — the original “Red Hot Mama” of The Delta Queen — Phyllis Dale, who 19 years ago this week also orchestrated The Flood’s best steamboat memory ever.

The Remarkable Phyllis Dale

Phyllis was a featured entertainer on the DQ for a decade, and when she retired from the river, she launched a new career as a premiere travel agent, based in Florida. In early 2005, she began planning a special steamboaters reunion cruise for autumn on the Ohio River. From the start, she wanted The Flood to be part of it.

By then, the band had played a number of times on that glorious old riverboat.

The routine was that the guys met the boat when she docked for the day at Huntington’s Harris Riverfront Park. There they picked on the riverbank with their sad-puppy faces hanging out until someone in the crew took pity on the bunch and invited them aboard to entertain the passengers.

Following that strategy, The Flood had finagled opportunities to play on the decks, in the Forward Cabin Lounge, even up in the legendary Texas Lounge. However, the boys had yet to win the big prize: to be the featured after-dinner entertainment in the boat’s beautiful Orleans Room.

The Ashland Adventure

Phyllis Dale changed all that in 2005 when she tapped the lads to be one of the marquee acts in her week-long reunion cruise.

The boat docked in nearby Ashland, Ky., on Monday, Sept. 27, 2005, and the band arrived that afternoon in Dave Ball’s camper — rechristened “The Delta Bub” — for the soundcheck, then stayed on board for dinner before the show.

The Flood’s dear old godmother Nancy McClellan came down to hear the afternoon calliope concert and ran into The Flood contingent which whisked her aboard too. (Security was pretty tight those days in the aftermath of 9/11, but Pamela Bowen, the band’s intrepid manager, got permission for her.)

The Show

Showtime was 9 p.m. Floodsters handed out kazoos at the door as folks entered the Orleans Room so that everybody would be good and ready when the time came for on-stage instruction by The Flood’s “guru of kazoo,” Dave Peyton.

But what eager students steamboaters turned out to be! Even before Dave could give them guidance, people were already humming and hooting their kazoos in anticipation of the concert. (“Tiger Rag” on one side of the room, elephant noises on the other….)

The cruise directors, Jazzou Jones and Mike Gentry, looked a bit panicked. “How do we get them to stop?” Jazzou asked.

“Welcome to our world!” Charlie Bowen said, laughing, then suggested Jazz go out and announce, “Because of Homeland Security regulations, kazoos must be holstered when the boat is in port.” It worked.)

The 45-minute show itself was a hoot. Afterwards, throughout the cruise, long-time passengers came up to Pamela or Charlie to say that in the dozens of times they had sailed on the DQ, they had never seen the crowd in the Orleans Room react as enthusiastically.

Memories

A particularly fond memory of the night was Charlie’s conversation with one passenger who said that all the guys looked “like real characters” — true, that — but that the nattily dressed banjo player on the end of the bandstand seemed a little out of place in such a crew.

“Oh, that’s Chuck,” Charlie said. “He’s our probation officer…”

Floodsters were still telling that story years later. Here is a version from the chatter at a later rehearsal:

Jamming

While most of the band had to leave the boat right after the show, Charlie and Pamela along with Joe Dobbs and Edwina Ziegler stayed on board from the rest of the cruise.

This enabled Joe and Charlie to jam on board.

Especially sweet were jams with old friends Dave Para and Cathy Barton, whom Phyllis also had brought on board to entertain.

A highlight was an afternoon concert that Jazzou organized to feature Dave and Cathy, Joe and Charlie, with Phyllis Dale at the keyboard.

Going Forward, NO Going Forward

The band was looking forward to many more years ago partying with the DQ, but sadly, less than two years later, the Majestic America Line announced that the Delta Queen would cease operation, forced to retire after nearly 80 years of service.