In the Beginning, It was Dave and Roger

#42 / Flood Time Capsule: 1971

Inspiration for what would become The 1937 Flood can be traced 51 years ago this week to a joyous evening of music in Ashland, Ky., with David Peyton and Roger Samples in the middle of it all.

Our Story Unfolds …

By late February 1971, Pamela and Charlie Bowen had been back in the Huntington area for about two months, having moved home from Lexington, Ky., after Charlie finished his courses at the University of Kentucky.

At the newspaper where they were working as freshly minted reporters, the Bowens got a call one day in the newsroom from their old friend Nancy McClellan inviting them to this "mini-concert" planned to raise funds for the fledgling Mountain Heritage Folk Festival to be held that summer.

That night at Ashland Community College, “we sat on cushions in front of the stage,” Pamela recorded in her journal, "and taped most of it and took a lot of pictures." Alas, the recordings are gone now, but Pamela's words recall the impact of the evening. Their dear friend Terry Goller was the headliner, coming on stage with his 1935 Martin and a slew of new and old songs.

But the real hit of the evening was David Peyton with his Autoharp, teamed up with young Roger Samples who just picked the bejeesus out of a new Guild guitar.

Now, the Bowens had known David for a long time. Charlie had met him four or five years earlier when Peyton came to frequent music parties that Pamela hosted in the basement of her parents' house in Ashland.

In those days, Dave was just starting to teach himself the Autoharp; decades later he told that particular story to a radio audience when he was a guest on Joe Dobbs’ “Music from the Mountains” show. Click here to hear the story.

Coffeehouses

The other half of that night’s duo — the inspired/inspiring Rog Samples — the Bowens didn't know as well. Oh, sure, as a fellow student, Pamela had sung and played on stage with Roger in the late 1960s at folk music concerts at Marshall University. Also, she and Charlie had been to parties at which Roger had played and sung in smoky corners. Honestly, though, the Bowens hadn't really gotten to know him yet. However, from a distance Charlie and Pamela quickly became huge Rog Samples fans, especially as admiring listeners at Roger’s coffeehouse performances.

In fact, coffeehouses at Marshall and in Ashland are central to Roger’s story, as he himself recalled here during his own visit to Joe’s radio show in 2002. Click here for Rog’s story.

So that February 1971 night in Ashland, Pamela and Charlie were wowwed at all the music that David and Rog could get from just two voices and two instruments.

But What’s It All Mean to The Flood?

Well, it’s complicated. Roger, set to graduate from Marshall in a few months, already was in transition that February night. Soon after his graduation that spring, Rog’s work would take him farther and farther from Huntington, meaning he had less and less time for music. And that meant David -- who worked with the Bowens at the newspaper -- was open to new musical combinations. And Charlie was eager to try to step into this void…

But it would take a couple of years to make it happen.

For now, on chilly February Friday night in 1971, the Bowens went home from the Ashland concert with Rog and Dave's music echoing in their’ minds.

“...And one sang high and the other sang low and the other sang a raggle taggle gypsy-o…”

Postscript: Banks of the Old Guyan

Sadly, as we noted, we’ve never found the tapes we recorded that night at the ACC concert, but we do have the next best thing: David and Roger performing a wonderful reprise of one of the songs from that night.

This is the Peyton-Samples rendition of Aunt Jennie Wilson’s beautiful “Banks of the Old Guyan,” recorded during a November 1974 party at the Bowens’ house in the South Side of Huntington. Click here to hear the tune.

The tune has a special significance for us. Peyton, as a reporter for The Huntington Advertiser, had met banjo-playing Aunt Jennie in Logan County a few years earlier and interviewed her a number of times for stories, along the way, falling in love with her and with her music.

Dave just naturally brought several of Aunt Jennie’s tunes to the Flood mix. Roger — himself a proud son of West Viriginia, as he discussed here with Joe Dobbs during that 2002 radio appearance — created this extraordinary musical setting for the ring of Dave’s vocals on “Banks." As we look back and listen today, we know how fortunate we are that Stewart Schneider, running the recorder at most of the Bowens' music parties over the years, pushed all the right buttons at just the right time.

Incidentally, this moment was the subject of this earlier issue of Flood Watch, which you can read right here.