Magical Weekend

#89 / Flood Time Capsule: 2002

Twenty years ago tonight, The Flood began the best weekend of an extraordinary year. In Flood Lore, as noted earlier, 2002 would always be known as the year of “The Grand Tour,” a time when we traveled to gigs in towns up and down the Ohio River Valley and deep into the mountains of West Virginia and Kentucky to promote our first album.

Highlighting that entire year was an amazing Saturday night we had at Huntington’s Harris Riverfront Park as the guests of the Huntington Symphony Orchestra. But as wonderful as that evening was, it was preceded by an equally memorable Friday night when we played to a packed house in Kentucky at Morehead University’s 400-seat Duncan Recital Hall as part of WMKY radio's “Americana Crossroads Live” concert series.

Morehead Memories

"Wow!! What a great job you did," WMKY program/production director Paul Hitchcock told the guys after the June 28, 2002, Morehead show. "I heard so many positive comments on your set.”

And because Paul himself liked it too, he put a hunk of the Morehead show on the radio’s playlist for air time in many months afterward. In fact, more than a year after the appearance, we still heard from Flood fans saying they heard bit and pieces of Floodishness on the radio as they drove through the Bluegrass state.

The set we played that Friday evening was typical of shows we staged at many gigs on The Grand Tour, a witchy brew of jugband, swing and fiddle tunes with the occasional folk song. Want a sample? Click the button below to fire up your time machine for a half dozen songs from the Morehead show (including “Sweet Georgia Brown,” “Bill Bailey,” “June Apple,” “Paradise,” “Solider’s Joy” and “San Francisco Bay Blues.”)

Down by the Riverside

On the next night came the gig that the guys would talk about for years to come: Performing with The Huntington Symphony Orchestra down by the riverside.

A standing Flood joke in the following months and years was how the size of the crowd on hand that night increased each time Charlie told the tale, often corrected by Chuck Romine. (“3,000? Naw, Charlie. That’s not even close. 5,000, easy!…”)

But what was really true about the June 29, 2002, evening was what good sports maestro Kimo Furumoto and the HSO members were in hosting West Virginia’s most eclectic string band. Even as we were playing the show, we knew we were making a durable memory of a magical night, complete with a standing ovation after each of the band’s 20-minute sets. (And when not on stage, the guys rested in an air-conditioned trailer near the stage, “the complete Porter Waggoner Dream!" as Sam St. Clair said.)

The show began with the orchestra playing patriotic numbers and several concert pieces, ending with "Pops Hoedown." Then Maestro Furumoto introduced The Flood for its first set. The boys came on to a warm reception, learning instantly that they already had a number of fans in the audience. The Flood opened with an uptempo blues that we played as a swing tune featuring everybody in the band. Sam, who had lots of family there, was especially hot and his opening solo seemed to electrify the band and the listeners.

But it was Doug Chaffin's bass solo got the biggest round of applause. In fact, shoot, every time that night that Charlie said, "Hit it, Doug," the crowd perked up.

Perhaps because the program called the show "Mountain Music Fest," the audience expected the usual bluegrass standards. Instead, what they got was about 180 degrees away from that, and they liked it. It was leisurely on stage -- we had time to talk and joke while tuning for the next song -- developing a nice rapport with the crowd before wrapping up the first set with "San Francisco Bay Blues."

Later in the evening, the band returned to play one number with the orchestra, a fully-scored version of "Arkansas Traveler" with a solo by Joe Dobbs.

(Despite the fact that the arrangement called for the solo to be in the key of C -– not a happy key for a mountain fiddler -- Joe nailed it.) Next the guys invited 7-year-old Zoey (already Flood artist and principal dancer) up to hoof it with them on another fiddle tune.

If you’d like to hear a trio of tunes from the night, click the button below:

The Kazoo Surprise

The surprise of the evening came next. Earlier in the day, during the afternoon rehearsal, Floodsters passed out kazoos to all the members of the orchestra.

We had to have a little five-minute workshop — most of them couldn't figure out how to make any noise with kazoos — at which Dave Peyton, the Voodoo Kazoo Guru, got them playing in no time. So, then that night, during the second set, The Flood did its version of "Rag Mama," featuring Dave's great kazoo work.

After Dave's solo, we turned to the orchestra and said, “Play it, orchestra!” To the amazement (and perhaps horror) of the crowd, all 40 members of their beloved symphony and the maestro himself brought kazoos to quivering lips and let forth a real hummer of an ensemble, as Joe conducted them with his fiddle bow.

This moment of musical history was captured on a recorder in the audience. Click the button below to hear it:

Postscript

Of course, the surprise kazoory was featured prominently in another recent issue of Flood Watch (#53 / “The Voodoo Guru of Kazoo”). Oh? You say you missed that one? Hey, it’s just a click away!