Life Writing Among New Friends

#197 / Flood Time Capsule: 2003

For a long time, fiddler Joe Dobbs had been thinking of writing a book about his life. He did nothing about it, however, until 2003 when he just happened to see a newspaper story about a “life writing” class at the Huntington Museum of Art.

Taught by writer/editor Patrick Grace, the course inspired Joe to eventually publish his autobiography, A Country Fiddler. The book actually was a long time coming, though. Joe’s project took eight or nine years of writing, then another a year of rewriting after revisions were proposed by a veteran copy editor, Flood manager Pamela Bowen.

Flood Lite

The seeds of Joe’s work were planted that winter and early spring in the Patrick Grace course, which wrapped up 20 years ago this week with a celebratory evening of music from The Flood.

Because his classmates were eager to hear his fiddling, Joe invited Doug Chaffin and Charlie Bowen to head up the hill to perform with him in the museum classroom on the last night of the course.

Flood Lite (as we always called any streamlined trio configuration of the band) “played for about a half hour during the break,” Charlie told his mom in an email the next morning, “and then again at the end of the evening as the students were leaving. And we sold about $100 worth of CDs, which was not bad. Shoot, we've played some major gigs and not sold that much, and this was a class of about 20 folks.”

Meeting Carter Seaton

Besides books a-borning and albums a-selling, that evening of Floodishness was auspicious for an even better reason: It brought into our lives a dear friend.

Carter Taylor Seaton already was an acclaimed sculptor and painter when she became eager to expand her self-expression skills into writing as well. Carter’s study in the Grace course resulted in her book Father’s Troubles, and then more.

In the 20 years since the course, Carter has gone to to write novels and non-fiction, not to mention dozens of magazine articles and columns, and she’s taken an active role in the WV Writers organization.

She also became a good friend with Joe through their shared experiences in the classroom that winter.

Soon Carter and her husband, Richard Cobb, were regulars at the Bowen House, attending the band’s weekly jam sessions, laughing at the jokes and bringing their own, requesting favorite tunes and learning a slew of new ones.

Cutting Up with Carter

Smart and funny, Carter Seaton has always found wonderful connections to her Flood family.

Kazoory

For instance, who but Carter would figure out that the anniversary of the 1937 flood (the natural disaster, not the band) would fall on National Kazoo Day? (Heck, who but Carter even knew there was a National Kazoo Day?)

And when she brought us that news on a chilly January evening, The Flood's preeminent kazoo guru — the late David Peyton— gave it the full attention it deserved in our next podcast. Click the button below to hear all about it:

Joe Dobbs Masks

And who but the ever-creative Carter would answer a challenge to come up with a Joe Dobbs mask? It happened one November evening when Charlie just mentioned between songs that we soon would be fiddle-less for a few weeks, because Joe was leaving for an extended trip to Australia.

In passing, Charlie quipped that to fill the vacuum we ought to start “wearing Joe Dobbs masks” to the weekly gatherings. Next week, Carter and Richard did just that.

Bowen in Clay

Then sculptor Carter outdid herself a few weeks later when she presented us with an original creation for the band's rehearsal room, a work she called "Guitar Buddha."

Our buddy Larry Kendall, on hand for the jam session that night, got these great pictures of the work. Ever since, the treasured "Guitar Buddha" has held an honored corner at the Bowen House.

A Blast from the Past

Recently when we heard that Carter was spending a few days in the hospital, we reached out to see if there was anything we could do to make her feel a little better. Her reply was so typically Carter: “Your music makes me happy.”

Asked what she’d like to hear or see from The Flood archive, she wrote back immediately: “I’d love a rollicking version of ‘Ain’t No Free.’”

Carter’s wish; our command. This vintage video we shared with her, from November 2009, is one of Sam St. Clair’s first public performance of what would become his signature song. Of course, the ever-ready partiers Carter and Richard are right there in the thick of things:

… And It All Started with Joe

Nowadays, it makes us happy knowing Joe Dobbs would grin to think of how his taking those Patrick Grace classes in 2003 produced decades of sweet new memories with dear new friends.

Speaking of memories, as we noted in Flood Watch last week, Joe already was thinking about a possible book when he told a little story during the band’s first Brazenhead Inn gig in Randolph County in 2002. If you’d like to read a sample of the book, we’ve got one for you. Click the button below to read his chapter called “The Sweater.”

And, while Joe passed away seven years ago, he still with us through the book, which continue to be available on Amazon.com.