Our First "Live" Album

#175 / Flood Time Capsule: 2016

Seven years ago this week on a wonderful winter's evening at Woodlands, we gathered for a concert that would result in the band’s first ever “live in concert” album.

It wasn't our first attempt at such a project — oh, we had tried a number of times over the years to make a "live" album — but this was the first time the magic actually worked.

It was a bittersweet magic, though.

We were a bit sad that night, because this was to be a first big public show we were doing without the incomparable Joe Dobbs, who had died just four months earlier after spending nearly half his life with the band.

But we were also happy in knowing that Joe's spirit was very much in the room that night; it was, after all, Joe who most wanted us to do a live album in the first place.

One of our late fiddlin' friend's favorite comments was that the band he helped form 40 years earlier always sounded better at parties and concerts than it did in rehearsals and in studios.

“It helps that everybody’s a ham,” Joe usually added with a grin. He knew us well.

Dedicated to the Dead

The album born that evening at Woodlands would be dedicated to Joe, but also to his dear friend, Flood co-founder Roger Samples, who just two weeks after the show lost his long battle with cancer.

The irony was not lost on us — and we think both of our old comrades would have chuckled too — that the long-awaited “live” album owed so much to the our recently departed.

Joe and Roger also were the ones who imbued their band with its unquenchable thirst for new musical ideas. Roger, for instance, in the 1970s showed us how to augment our repertoire of fiddle tunes and Dylan-cum-Prine folk songs with jolly jugband music. And 20 years later, it was Joe who said, "Hey, think we could try some swing tunes?" We could, we did and (thank you, Joe!) we still do.

The Night’s Brew

In their honor, we mixed up a curious musical stew to serve that chilly January night, blending some jugband and swing numbers with some railroad tunes, some folk ballads with West Virginia originals, all seasoned righteously with blues, country and roots rock. For a five-minute sample of that classic Flood Friday night, click the button below:

And if you’d like more than just a sample, the entire album is spin-able for free these days online in our Radio Floodango feature. Click here to give it a listen.

Dave’s Last Ride

This also was to be the last Flood album on which Dave Peyton appeared. Later that year he took a bad fall at his Mount Union Road home that ended his playing forever.

The truth is Dave almost didn’t make the album at all. He was under the weather on the night of the Woodlands show and couldn’t come to the gig.

But our audio-tech wizards saved the day. The on-site sound was beautifully captured that night by our buddy Bo Sweeney. Himself a musician, Bo knew just how to set and control the mikes to get the sounds we were hoping for. After the show, the sound was mixed, massaged and maneuvered brilliantly by our then-newest Floodster, Paul Martin, who put in long hours at Flood Audio Command Central.

It was to Paul’s southern Ohio mountain hideaway that Peyton came in the days after the Woodlands show to add his Autoharp and vocals to the existing tracks.

To this day it makes us smile to hear fans swear that they remember Brother Peyton on stage with us that night at Woodlands. We wink, nod and again quietly thank Paul and Bo for that particular bit of musical magic.