Rocking with the Romines
#479 / Flood Time Capsule: 2001
By the spring of 2001, Chuck Romine had spent four months playing his tenor banjo each week with The Flood. That May he and his wife Phyllis decided it was high time for a picnic at which they could introduce their old friends to their new friends.
By then, a number of decisions had been made inside and outside of the Family Flood. For his part, Chuck decided he really wanted to cast his lot with this motley crew. Meanwhile, the rest of The Flood folk — Joe Dobbs, Dave Peyton, Doug Chaffin and Charlie Bowen — concluded that the band’s repertoire could be expanded enough to accommodate Chuck’s raucous party-in-a-box banjo.
Chuck’s Flood Debut
Chuck’s assimilation into a Floodster First-Class was inaugurated at his first gig, the band’s 2001 encore appearance at the annual Coon-Sanders Nighthawks Fan Reunion Bash, Huntington’s gathering of traditional jazz fans from around the country.
As reported earlier, the previous year, on a lark, C-S organizer Dale Jones had invited The Flood to provide a side order of jug band tunes for the reunion’s Saturday break session,
Everyone fully expecting this to be just a one-time novelty event; however, the jazz guys so enjoyed The Flood's eclectic mix of music — and hearing obvious shared roots of their tunes and some of the jug band numbers — that they urged Dale to invite the bunch back. From then on, Coon-Sanders would become a happy regular early May event on the Flood calendar for the next decade.
“Quickly, we got set up and launched into our 45-minute set,” Charlie told his mom in an email the next day, “and it went over very well. The crowd stayed and laughed along with us on the funny jug band stuff. We still remember strangers at a nearby table waving at us to get folks singing along on ‘Crazy Words, Crazy Tunes.’”
Chuck Finally Hears the Words
Incidentally, the gig also became part of Flood lore because it was the first time Romine actually noticed what Charlie and Dave were saying in those songs.
Of course, Romine — a veteran trad-jazz guy himself — had a long history with the Coon-Sanders bashes, often sitting in with the various groups assembled for the weekend-long sessions at a Huntington hotel.
However, he and Phyllis had been out of town the previous year and so had missed The Flood’s 2000 debut. That meant he really didn’t know what kind of program his new comrades would be putting on that morning.
Click the button below to hear Charlie telling that story to a Coon-Sander audience a few years later:
Kudos from Some Heroes
The Flood got many kind comments from listeners that morning. The best came in an email a few days later from one of their heroes, Mike Evans, the leader of Toll House Jazz Band, a wonderful Columbus, Ohio, band that was always a highlight of the annual Coon Sanders gatherings.
“The THJB band and fans really did enjoy The 1937 Flood at the breakfast session,” Mike wrote. “I think it is quite a positive reflection on your band that a crowd of traditional jazz fans enjoyed your music so much. You guys are very authentic — no pretenses, just heartfelt music and having fun doing it. It was nice to have that style represented at the festival."
Picnicking at the Romine House
Such praise had everyone still buzzing a week or so later, when Joe, David, Charlie and Doug headed over to Chuck and Phyllis Romine's house to play at a Sunday afternoon picnic.
" Quite a snazzy crowd for us," Charlie told his mom in an email, noting that the picnic also was a meeting of "The Regency Club," a local ballroom dance club whose history went back to the 1920s and included the Romines and their friends on the membership roll.
"A judge, several state legislators and current and former city council members were were all there, and they seemed to love the music,” Charlie wrote.
But No Sam?
Discerning eyes notice a missing face. You might be wondering, where the heck is Sam St. Clair in the above pictures and stories?
Actually, the Romines’ May 20, 2001, picnic predated The Flood’s meeting their harmonicat-to-be by a few months. And as reported here earlier, Chuck Romine and Huntington’s Rotary Club played their own roles in that fateful meet-up.
More Chuck?
But Chuck is the main story here. After the Coon Sanders show and then the Romine House picnic, he was firmly in the Family Flood, which would celebrate his friendship for the remaining two decades of his life.
If you’d like spend a little time with Chuck, check out the Chuck Channel in the free Radio Floodango music streaming service.