Lonesome Peytons, Home for the Holidays
#432/ Flood Time Capsule: 1975 (Video Extra)
The Peytons were homesick.
By December 1975, David, Susan and Davy had been 2 1/2 months in Lafayette, Louisiana, where Dave was researching Cajun culture for his Alicia Paterson Foundation project.
It was a fascinating new world for them — and they were set to continue exploring it until spring — but as Christmas approached, they all three missed Appalachia. Five-year-old Dave Jr. especially needed to be home in order for Santa to find him at the old, familiar Mount Union Road address.
There was just enough time to get back, set up a Christmas tree and visit a few relatives and friends, among them their Flood family. It would be a short visit; David wanted to be back in Cajun country in time to observe their New Year’s Eve festivities.
But the Huntington homecoming provided a little time for music, and David brought his Autoharp back with him. Only a few of his band mates could join him on such short notice; Joe Dobbs and Roger Samples both were spending the holidays with their families.
However, the day after Christmas ‘75 found Charlie Bowen, with his guitar, and Stewart Schneider, with his bass, driving to the Peytons’ place for an evening with Brother Dave.
Dave’s Song: “John Riley”
Only a few of the songs played that night would have deep roots in the Flood world; instead, most were tunes that pre-dated the band’s birth. In the video below, for instance, is Dave’s performance of the ballad “John Riley,” which he had worked out years earlier when he had just started playing Autoharp.
This song — which was one he and Roger played in the antediluvian days of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s — demonstrates Dave’s proficiency on the Autoharp. That mastery was something the rest of his band mates took for granted way too often, since Peyton always just routinely delivered whenever it was his turn to solo. Click the “Play” button above for a beautiful illustration.
Dave might have learned this particular number from Joan Baez’s debut album, which Vanguard released in 1960, although other folkies also recorded it. Pete Seeger had a version on his 1950 Darling Corey album. Bob Gibson recorded it in 1957, Odetta in 1960 and Judy Collins in 1961.
The song is a traditional English ballad also known as "The Broken Token" and "A Fair Young Maid All in Her Garden.”
Homer and Cecil
Wikipedia says the song derives from Homer’s Odyssey, interpreted through a 17th century folk tradition of the "disguised true lover."
On his “Folk from the Attic” series online, Jon Wilks notes the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library records about 650 entries relating to the song. “While it was collected across the UK,” Wilks says, “it seems to have taken particular hold from the (American) Midlands down across the South.”
Once it arrived in America, the song spread like wildfire, particularly around the Appalachian region. In fact, it is one of those fascinating curios that folklorist Cecil Sharp found himself collecting it on both sides of the Atlantic. Indeed, this song family demonstrates just how committed Sharp was to his work, almost bookending his life as a collector.
The VWML website records 79 entries relating Sharp to this song. The earliest that Wilks found was a woman named Lucy White singing it for Sharp — as “The Broken Token” — in April 1904 in Hambridge, England.
On the Road Again
The next morning after the jam with Charlie and Stew, Dave and his family loaded up the car and started the trek back to Lafayette. It would take them a couple of days — it was at least a 14-hour drive — but the goal was to be back in by Dec. 31 for the year’s end activities.
Meanwhile, as David and the family soaked up the Cajun culture, The Flood back home in Huntington continued to grow and evolve. By Spring ‘76, for instance, the band got its jug band jag on, as reported earlier.
And Dave’s Louisiana experiences would even play its part in that musical turn when he developed Wallace the Washboard, inspired by the players he had heard in Cajun country.
More Dave?
Finally, if you’d like a little more Peyton in your soundtrack on this New Year’s Eve, tune in the David Channel in the free Radio Floodango music streaming service.
Click here for a randomized playlist of Peyton-centric tunes from over the years.