Remember Aunt Jennie

#5 / Flood Time Capsule: 1974

Forty-seven years ago this month, David Peyton and Roger Samples recorded the first 1937 Flood classic, their duet rendition of Aunt Jennie Wilson’s beautiful “Banks of the Old Guyan” during a party at Pamela and Charlie Bowen’s house in the South Side of Huntington.

The tune always had a special significance for them. As a reporter for The Huntington Advertiser, Peyton had met banjo-playing Aunt Jennie in Logan County a few years earlier and had interviewed her a number of times for stories, along the way, falling in love with her and her music.

In the pre-Flood days of the late 1960s when Dave and Rog started playing as a duo, Dave just naturally brought several of Aunt Jennie’s tunes to the mix. Roger — who always had the heart and head of an arranger/composer — created this extraordinary musical setting for the ring of Dave’s vocals on “Banks." As we look back and listen today, we know how fortunate we are that Stewart Schneider, running the recorder at most of the Bowens' music parties over the years, pushed all the right buttons at just the right time to capture it.

Here then — direct from the foggy ruins of time — is that November 1974 moment:

You’ve Heard the Audio, Now See the Film!

As we noted above, Dave and Roger’s take on that great old Jennie Wilson song was captured at a party at Pamela and Charlie Bowen’s house in Huntington in 1974. There’s a lot more to say about those parties, called “The Bowen Bashes,” and that particular party is featured in this video:

It’s Episode Two in last year’s eight-part “legacy film series” about the music parties that were so central to the birth of The Flood in the mid-1970s; this chapter focused on Roger partying at his first bash! (For more information about the film series, which is viewable online for free, click here.)

Oh, and By the Way….

Meanwhile, if you’d like to hear more of Br’er Peyton’s tunes from over the decades, tune into the free David Channel on our music streaming Radio Floodango feature. Just click here to turn David on.