Gospel Hour
#149 / An Audio Extra
It is a Flood trope: We wrap up one of the band’s saucy little hokum numbers, and then someone mutters, “Well, there’s aNOTHer tune we can’t do in church…”
Actually, we do occasionally play in churches, though we sometimes seem to forgot where we are. We still talk about, for instance, the time we rather infamously asked the parishioners who invited us to perform in their church basement if they happened to have “a bar stool” on which our fiddler could perch. (They, incidentally, rather infamously did have one and, with a wink, demurely brought it out…)
The Flood’s eclectic repertoire includes a respectable set of religious songs, as you can hear in the new “Gospel Hour” show, the latest of the “Special Blends” playlists that we’ve built into our free Radio Floodango music streaming service.
Of course, it being The Flood and all, even our church-y bits come with a dose of sass, from Chuck Romine’s strutting Dixieland riffs on “Closer Walk with Thee” to Jacob Scarr’s blues-infused parts in “Wade in the Water” to Veezy Coffman and Danny Cox’s jazzy, cool contributions to “Wayfarin’ Stranger.”
Always Very Quite Contrary
Shoot, this resolute otherness was baked into The Flood pie from the start. In our earliest days — nearly a half century ago now — our late Flood co-founder David Peyton was already leading us on rollicking, raucous religious numbers, like his “Call Him Up” (also known as “Jesus on the Mainline”).
As you’ll hear in a track recorded at a party back in 1975, this is an insistent invocation that Dave learned — not from the pews of his mother’s staid Methodist church back home in Guyandotte — but in the hills and hollows near Gauley Bridge, WV, from the snake handlers he was covering for a story in his popular column in The Huntington Advertiser.
Brother Dave got his material from lots of places.
For instance, a few years after the Floyd County, Ky., -based Goose Creek Symphony released its 1972 “Words of Earnest” album, Peyton gobbled up Charlie Gearheart’s “Gospel” (“how can life be so cold? Where did all the water go that my boat was floating on yesterday…”) and taught it to Charlie Bowen and Roger Samples so they could supply some harmony at the parties that the three would play come spring.
Long about that same time, Charlie was busy teaching the guys his take on the Rev. Gary Davis’ “Samson and Delilah” (“If I had my way, I would tear this building downnnn!”) though, as you’ll hear (in a cut recorded at yet another party), it was Rog who stole the show with his scintillating solo.
Incidentally, “Samson and Delilah” and “Gospel" also were the open trackets on the band’s official(ish) bootleg album, Hip Boots: The Flooded Basement Tape. Click here to read all about it.
A More Reverential Rog
Roger has other key moments in “Gospel Hour” too.
Check out the audio from his appearance on Joe Dobbs’ “Music from the Mountains” radio show in autumn 2002, when he and Joe lovingly duet on Roger’s new composition, “What Would You Do If Jesus Met You?”
Guest Stars
Of course, in our world, you can’t even consider doing a gospel show without including the music of a couple of honored members of The Flood’s extended musical family.
Rob McNurlin, for example, is on tap in the playlist with no less than three of his classic church tunes, each one recorded at one of the weekly Flood jam sessions.
They include “Working on a Building,” “Angel Band” and “Let The Church Roll On” (each, by the way, accented with Peyton’s shouted words of encouragement and approval).
And, from another jam session, our long-time Australian friends, Rod and Judy Jones, waltz in with a wonderful rendering of the classic “Heaven’s Radio,” which they learned from the singing of Huntington’s own Molly O’Day.
Oh, and be sure to catch the great Kate Long singing harmony when Michelle Hoge presents “Morning Has Broken” in a very special Flood podcast from the archives.
Newer Tunes
While a lot of “Gospel Hour” features old tunes, it also incorporates some more recent compositions.
Randy Hamilton, for instance, is front and center on our performance of Vince Gill’s “Go Rest High on That Mountain,” while on another track, Paul Martin leads us in a memorable take on Lonesome River Band’s “Stray Dogs and Alley Cats.”
Special Blends
As noted, this show is the latest of our “Special Blends” playlists, devoted to specific seasons, people or themes.
They’re free, as is all the music in Radio Floodango, so let yourself explore. Find something that fits your mood.
For instance, hey, if you’re ready to get your yuletide on, you might like to tune in to our Christmas show, which we call … wait for it… La Flood Navidad.
… Yes, honey, we do get a charge out of ourselves.
