Those Route 60 Saturday Nights

#121 / Time Capsule: 2017

Five years ago this week, The Flood became the house band for a new wonderful (if short-lived) monthly music variety show called “Route 60 Saturday Night.”

The genesis of the idea was what we thought at the time would be simply a one-time appearance on stage at Route 60 Music Co. in Barboursville, WV.

For years we had been wanting to play that fine venue, but the logistics took some doing. It was worth the effort, though. Below is a video that Pamela Bowen shot at the show, with our Paul Martin leading us on a classic Bob Dylan tune:

Just What We Needed

The April 15, 2017, gig was an absolute ball. And for us, how welcome those good times truly were! That’s because the Family Flood had lately suffered some serious sadness. In the previous two years, starting in 2015, we had lost three of our four founding members.

Joe Dobbs and Rog Samples had both passed away within five months of each other. Then less than a year later, Dave Peyton took that bad fall that ended his playing days.

No wonder the remaining Flood originator, Charlie Bowen, just kept thinking about that joyous spring evening at Route 60.

The Next Big Thing

Soon, Charlie was back with an idea: What if we used the store’s excellent stage as a launchpad for a monthly show?

Route 60 Music co-owner Paul Callicoat loved the notion, but he had two important conditions. Paul wanted the new series (1) to showcase the original work of area singer/songwriters who would be guests of the monthly events and (2) to use all the proceeds raised from ticket sales to support local charities, donating to a different one each month.

Those goals greatly appealed to Charlie, and soon he and Paul were recruiting a team: The Flood would be the house band. The hosts and emcees would be broadcast veterans Randy Yohe and The Flood's own Michelle Lewis (today, Michelle Hoge). And we even brought Brother Peyton on board to be the storyteller-in-residence.

Our House Band Goals

One of the many things The Flood loved about being the Route 60 Saturday Night house band was that the monthly outings required us to think our repertoire in new ways.

We didn’t want anything we played to compete with or to distract from the material planned by the guest artists. So if a scheduled guest would be playing jazzy pieces, we wanted to frame his or her 20-minute set with something completely different, maybe some simple folk songs. On the other hand, if the guest star was offering a set of sweet ballads, we might contrast it a couple of raucous uptempo jug band numbers. 

Opening Night

For the Sept. 16, 2017, inaugural show, we were honored to feature two exciting young singer-songwriters:

— Sasha Colette, an Olive Hill, Ky., native, who offered a soulful, bluesy mix of folk and rock, what one critic called a “sweet mix of hillbilly meets hippie,” and

— Traci Ann Stanley, a Prichard native who had parlayed her job in a radio sales department to opening for touring Nashville stars such as LeAnn Rimes, Kelli Pickler and Kenny Chesney.

We had a fantastic crowd that night, standing room only.

We were thrilled. The only hitch was that our plans to broadcast the 90-minute premiere show on Facebook Live were thwarted by some mighty goofy wifi. But persevering in that technological maelstrom, Randy Yohe and his wife Vickie were able to get us enough video from the night for this little eight-minute sampler of the fun we had:

Keepin’ It Rolling

After that, Route 60 Saturday Night was “a go” for the next two years, with a spring (March-June) season and a fall (September-December) season each year.

In some 20 shows, we featured more than three dozen guests and raised thousands of dollars for scores of local charities. And the happy house band performed about a hundred tunes.

Ultimately, Route 60 Saturday Night was yet another victim of the Covid-19 pandemic, striking just as we were all set to roll out a big Season 6 in March 2020.

It Lives On Online

Fortunately, all the good times and good works are preserved online.

Today you can visit the show’s website for an archive of more than 24 hours’ worth of great music video. The site also has a handy index to make it easy to quickly to find favorite performers. Click here to reach the free site.