Horsin' Around in Horse Country

#270 / Flood Time Capsule: 2004

Traveling for a beautiful autumn day in horse country, Flood Lite — Joe, Doug and Charlie — performed an afternoon of tunes for those coming and going at the 2004 edition of the annual Fall Meet at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky.

While we weren't scheduled to start playing until noon, we reached the grandstand early, so they put us to work at 11:30, escorting us up to a neat little balcony over the main entrance, just off a snazzy board room.

There we perched in a cozy in semicircle overlooking the smartly-attired folks arriving in a steady stream. We played four half-hour sets, taking five- and 10-minute breaks between each.

For the sets, we alternated among fiddle tunes, swing numbers, jug band pieces and folk songs. Several thousands folks pass through below us as we played, giving us lots of smiles and thumbs-ups.

A little before 2, we took a breather. Doug and Charlie went to find a bite to eat while Joe snuck a nap. When we got back, our contact was ready to move us to a new location on the other side of the complex. The young man carried Doug's bass for him; it was a good thing, because it was quite a hike.

Along the way, the fellow paid us a nice compliment, saying we were the best band that had played at the Fall Meet. We didn't realize the significance of that remark until the next day when we looked on the Keeneland website and found they've been having entertainment every weekend since Oct. 8, more than a dozen different groups.

For the last hour of the day, we performed down on the ground level near the clubhouse, in a beautiful little courtyard where lots of folks walked by.

“It was just what we needed to get re-energized,” Charlie later told his mom in an email, “and we had a ball, playing until our hands darn-near dropped off. We even got folks dancing to some of the fiddle tunes. Fun way to end the day.”

More Flood History?

If you want more of the band’s long story, check out the newsletter’s “Flood History” section, right here.