Send-Off for a First Fan

#407 / Flood Time Capsule: 2004

Twenty years ago this week, The Flood was on hand to give a loving send-off to one of the band’s oldest friends.

Harvey Bascom McClellan died Oct. 20, 2004, a day before his 89th birthday, and the Family Flood was honored to be asked to perform at his memorial service in Ashland, Ky.

With his wife Nancy, Harvey had watched and listened to the band coming together at all those parties and folk festivals in the 1970s, and the McClellans were there for all The Flood stages along the way.

Tales of Jazz, Tomatoes … and a Ladder

Harvey McClellan was a reservoir of great stories, mostly drawn from his own experiences.

He was especially excited, for example, when in 2000 The Flood began regularly playing at the Coon Sanders Nighthawks Reunion Bash. This annual gathering of traditional jazz fans in Huntington honored the first Kansas City jazz band to achieve national recognition, which it acquired through national radio broadcasts from Chicago.

Harvey, while a native of Henderson, Ky., spent much of his early years in Chicago. There he not only heard radio broadcasts of the original Coon Sanders Nighthawks, but also actually had family members associated with the band.

Harvey was proud of his Henderson upbringing — he told how his town famously had been the home for a time of jazz’s beloved composer, W.C. Handy — and friends loved hearing tales of Harvey’s boyhood.

A favorite story was how as a youngster he used to help a local grocer picking out the best local tomatoes to sell in the shop.

“He had me traveling from farmer to farmer, sampling their crops,” Harvey related. “For the longest time after that, I still carried a salt shaker in my pocket, because … well,” he added, “you never know when you’ll come across a tomato that wants testing.”

Even at the end of his life, Harvey still had fresh stories that reflected his undying curiosity about the world. Click the button below to hear a story that the guys first heard from Floodster Emeritus Stew Schneider, who conducted the service at Harvey’s memorial:

Harvey’s Songs

Harvey sometimes recommended tunes that The Flood could tackle. It was his suggestion, for instance, that the group do a version of “Just a Closer Walk to Thee” that honored its New Orleans ties.

It needs to swing a little, Harvey said. Not a lot, though; just enough to make people smile, maybe even through their tears sometimes. It was with Harvey’s advice in mind that the guys worked up the version that they put on their I’d Rather Be Flooded album in 2003.

Then exactly one year later, it seemed only appropriate for the Floodsters who had known Harvey the longest — Dave Peyton and Charlie Bowen, Doug Chaffin and Joe Dobbs — to play that same song in that same way at his memorial service. Here’s that moment from the evening of Oct. 23, 2004:

About the Song

The composer of Harvey’s tune is unknown, but evidence suggests "Just A Closer Walk With Thee" dates back to southern African-American churches of the 19th century. It’s likely he first heard it in Henderson.

The first known recording was by the Selah Jubilee Singers for Decca Records on Oct. 8, 1941. Two months later, the great Sister Rosetta Tharpe also recorded it on Decca with Lucky Millinder and His Orchestra.

A few years later, a revived interest in traditional New Orleans jazz saw multiple recordings of the tune, starting with a classic 1945 rendition by Bunk Johnson’s Brass Band.

Country and rockabilly performers were right behind them. Red Foley has a million-seller with the song in 1950 and Tennessee Ernie Ford charted with it in the late ‘50s.

Since then, it seems everybody — from Johnny Paycheck, Little Richard and Ella Fitzgerald to Ike & Tina Turner, Lawrence Welk and Dr. John — has taken a turn on the tune.