How the Hokum Happened
#70 / Flood Time Capsule: 1976
On a reel-to-reel recorder that we lugged into Dave and Susie Peyton’s house 46 years ago this week, we taped our very first jug band tunes, adding perhaps the most important ingredient in the witchy brew that would become The Flood’s music.
Up until that spring, The Flood (then just two years old) had been playing what most hippy-born string bands in Appalachia played.
For instance, David, Roger and Charlie rose and fell by their combination of traditional folk songs (“Blackjack Davy,” “Roving Gambler”), Dylan tunes (“Tomorrow is a Long Time”), new songs by John Prime (“Paradise”), along those from Steve Goodman, Arlo Guthrie, even a smattering of “radio songs” from James Taylor, Elton John and Pure Prairie League, Marshall Tucker Band.
Meanwhile, when Joe Dobbs joined us he brought a fine repertoire of fiddle tunes to explore (“Sail Away Ladies,” “Jerusalem Ridge,” “Rattlesnake Hornpipe”), and of course, Dave continued to contribute great numbers from that West Virginia original, Aunt Jennie Wilson (“Banks of the Old Guyan,” “Old Reuben”). All of that seemed like such a ripe, rich variety of music that would sate us for years; who needed anything else?
But Then Came Our Jug Band Autumn
Well, yeah, but then came the autumn of 1975. Starting in October, the Peytons — with Dave Jr. in tow — left for Louisiana, where Dave was working on an extended Alicia Patterson project down in Cajun country.
During their time away, Roger moved into the Peytons’ place on Mount Union Road to house-sit for the next six months. As it turned out, that half year proved to be very fertile for The Flood. Every few days, Joe would come by to jam with Rog; when he didn’t, Charlie did. Sometimes Stew joined them; sometimes all four of them would pick.
About the same time, Charlie started revisiting albums that had been introduced to him in the late 1960s by his friend Dwight Collins: the crazy, wonderful hokum music of Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band.
This led Bowen to the music of Stefan Grossman and Peter Siegel’s Even Dozen Jug Band, and then back to their source material, the old recordings by Gus Cannon’s Jug Stompers and The Mississippi Sheiks, The Memphis Jug Band and so many others.
When Charlie began bringing a few of these zany tunes to the picking sessions on Mount Union Road, new lights came on. “I remember talking to one old guy,” Joe commented a bit later, “who told me the happiest music he ever made was the stuff he played back in the 1920s!”
All of that inspired The Flood to set about channeling that vibe. It gave the guys songs that almost no one else was playing. When Peyton got back to West Virginia the following spring, he was greeted with an entirely new section of The Flood canon. Fortunately, Dave always was a quick study, and he and his Autoharp caught up fast. (Here’s two minutes of storytelling during a break at a recent jam session, with Charlie recalling those days.)
So, then, click here to hear — live from May 1976 and the living room of Peyton Place — the first two jug band tunes The Flood ever recorded: “Rag Mama” and “Jug Band Music (Certainly Was a Treat to Me!)” taped as a surprise for David when he and the family got back from Louisiana. On the track, you’ll hear Rog and Charlie on guitars and vocals, Joe on fiddle and Stew on bass.
By the way, Dave’s contribution to that new sound — Wallace the Washboard and assorted kazoos, bells and whistles which he would add in a few years — was greatly influenced by the zydeco rubboards he had watched and listened to in Cajun country during his Alicia Patterson grant research.
Keepin’ It Juggy
Of course, those happy, silly songs of ‘20s and ‘30s have been a mainstay of Floodishness ever since.
If you’d like to spice up your day with a randomly selected playlist of our jug band and general good-time tunes from over the decades, click here to check out the Hokum Channel on our free Radio Floodango music streaming feature!