Twenty-two years ago this week, at the kind invitation of long-time friend Ritchie Collins, The Flood performed at the Paramount Arts Center coffeehouse in Ashland, Ky., in the large marble lobby of the classic downtown theater.
In those days, the coffeehouse — called “The Rising Star Cafe” — featured live music every Friday night during the summer.
The Flood brought along a few logistic problems. For starters, at six members, the band was a larger ensemble than those that usually played that space in the beautiful 1930s-era playhouse.
To accommodate the band’s larger footprint, Ritch and his fellow Paramount folk opened the doors between the coffeehouse and lobby. They set up the band under glittering chandeliers and moved small tables out there for listeners.
Also the band’s personnel was a little different on that Summer 2004 night. Neither Joe Dobbs nor Dave Ball could make the gig, so we moved Doug Chaffin from bass to guitar and mandolin and asked our old friend Danny Gillum to stand in on bass. It all led to a fun, memorable evening.
(For other things happening in Floodlandia in those those, click here to reach the 2004 pages of the Flood’s online scrapbook.)
Returning to the Paramount
Eight years later, Ritchie Collins was again instrumental in helping the Family Flood roll back in to the same venue. This time the occasion was the opening night of the band’s 2012’s three-day “Joe Dobbs Book Tour,” launched to promote the release of our 77-year-old band mate’s autobiography, A Country Fiddler.
Each stop on the tour — the first in Ashland, the next in Charleston, the final day in Huntington — featured Joe performing his favorite fiddle tunes. After that, Joe read excerpts from the new book, which he had started working on a decade earlier. Then the band continued entertaining the crowd each night while Joe met readers and sold and signed books.
After the Ashland opener of the tour, Charlie Bowen’s sister-in-law, Bonnie Prince, a long-time volunteer at the Paramount, told him that regulars were coming up to her all evening saying things like, “Hey, this is the best Thursday night we’ve had here in a long, long time.”
“And,” Charlie told his cousin Kathy Castner in an email later, “Joe, who’s played there a lot with another group, says he’s never seen so many people there. So I guess we did okay. I know Joe did. He sold several dozen books!” (Click here for more events in The Flood’s Year 2012.)
Collins Connections
That Collins connection is indeed a rich one in the Floodiverse. For instance, that other group Charlie referred to in that email to Cousin Kathy was The Ritch Collins Three-O, a wonderfully swinging trio that played a tasty mix of jazzy standards and Collins originals.
In the last few years of his of life, Joe had such a good time sitting in with Ritch and the guys that the Three-O garnered a special shout-out in the acknowledgments in Joe’s book.
A Ritchie Tune
Even years after Joe’s death in 2015, Ritchie Collins has remained a beloved figure in the Floodisphere.
In 2017, for example, when The Flood helped launch The Route 60 Saturday Night music variety show, Collins and his long-time buddy Ron Sowell were among the very first featured guest stars. Below is a video of Ritch and Ron’s wonderful opening tune on a chilly December evening at Route 60 Music Co. in Barboursville:
Because the Route 60 shows were performed before an audience but also broadcast live to Facebook listeners, we chuckled at the Collins song’s richly apropos lyrics about how people “used to watch the radio”:
I’ve heard it called the Golden Age
When radio was alive on stage —
The Grand Ol’ Opry and the Hayride too
Renfro Valley and Sunshine Sue
Joe Dobbs — with his own long association with radio — would have grinned at Ritchie’s reference to Sunshine Sue. That’s because Joe knew that his young friend’s grandfather — pioneering country artist Curley Collins — performed back in the 1940s with Sunshine Sue Workman.
In fact, Curley married Kathleen Williams before an overflow crowd as the ceremony took place on a Saturday night in March 1949 on stage during a performance of the Old Dominion Barn Dance in Richmond, Va., and the “I dos” were broadcast over WRVA radio.
Ritch Today
A few years after the performance featured in the video above, Ritch Collins joined Paul Callicoat and Mike McCord and the rest of the crew at Route 60 Music Co. as their chief repairs specialist. “My dad got me the Dan Erlewine Guitar maintenance handbook as a kid,” Ritchie said, “and then began my repair career.”
He worked at Route 60 until earlier this year, when sadly the venerable music store closed after 25 years serving the Tri-State’s music community.
To continue his own good work, Ritch has opened RC Repairs at West Edge in Huntington. You can check out his RC Repairs space at 1040 Vernon St. by appointment or during his regular hours. Details are available on his Facebook page.
“I think everyone seeks someone to help them maintain the instruments they likely think of as family,” Ritch says. “I try to treat everyone’s instrument like it’s my own, part of the family. After nearly 50 years in the business, I’ve found ways to re-invent myself and keep it interesting. It’s still all about the music.”
Things are going well. Just last week RC Repairs was named one of the top engagers at West Edge.