Let the River Music Flow!
#618 / Audio Extra
Our band has always relished any invitation to come down by the riverside, especially when there’s chance to serenade a visiting riverboat.
And the latest addition to our Special Blends playlists in the free Radio Floodango music streaming service is destined to be a favorite of long-time Flood fans, especially those with paddlewheelin’ passions.
Called “River Music,” the new playlist features music spanning a half century of Floodiphilia, going all the way back to 1975 and a classic Dave Peyton-Roger Samples performance of “Banks of the Old Guyan” at the Bowen Bashes.
The other 19 tracks range from a live 2001 performance of “Banks of the Ohio” for an audience at Marshall University to a take on “Deep River Blues” just a few months ago at the Bowen House.
Guest Artists
Some wonderful guest artists join us in this new River Music show, most of them old friends we met on and around the good ol’ Delta Queen steamboat.
As reported here earlier, Phyllis Dale — the Delta Queen’s original “Red Hot Mama,” a consummate cabaret singer who performed in the boat’s Texas Lounge almost every evening on America’s rivers — jammed with The Flood on a memorable summer night in 2011.
A centerpiece in the new playlist is Phyllis’s rocking rendition of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Up a Lazy River,” complete with a tasty solo by guest guitarist Randy Brown.
And from that same evening is Phyllis’s performing her beautiful original composition, “She’s the Ohio,” which features a sweet flute solo by guest artist Wendell Dobbs.
Another old steamboatin’ friend who is guesting in this show is the venerable ragtime pianist Jazzou Jones, the DQ’s former cruise director.
Two of Jazzou’s original compositions — “High Water” and “Ragtime Mary Green” — come to the playlist from a morning in the spring of 2007 when Jones sat in with The Flood at one of its annual “jug band breakfasts” at the Coon Sanders Nighthawks Fan Reunion Bash.
Rounding out our roster of guest stars are Dave Para and the late Cathy Barton, a beloved Missouri folksinging duo who performed many times on the Delta Queen over the years.
In August 2010, Cathy and Dave accompanied The Flood on one of its regular trips to Prickett’s Fort near Fairmont, WV, then a week or so later, joined the guys at the weekly jam session at the Bowen House. Two steamboating songs from those events — “Bayou Sara” and “Happy on the Mississippi Shore” — are included in the new River Music show.
Floodsters Emeriti
Even more than earlier playlists in Radio Floodango, River Music features a rich reunion with the whole class of Floodster Emeriti, from Michele Hoge, Chuck Romine, Paul Martin and Dave Ball to Jacob Scarr, Doug Chaffin and Veezy Coffman.
An especially lovely moment in the show is Rog Samples’ soulful performing of “The Water is Wide” with Joe Dobbs on Joe’s “Music from the Mountain” radio show in the Fall of 2002.
