CD RELEASE FOR "JOE FLOOD TRANSLATES AND SINGS GEORGES BRASSENS"

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Thanks to everyone who came out on December 16 to make the "Danny Fitzgerald and the Lost Wandering Blues and Jazz Band" CD release event at Brooklyn Oenology the success that it was.   Will Stevens' photos of Danny and his friends were hung on the walls and looked great.  A packed house of friends and fans turned up and sat in with the band.  Mark Herschler and I produced the record to give our old friend and mentor, Danny Fitzgerald, his due.  The CD features Mark, Gene Clarke, Brian Price and me backing Danny up on the Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith songs that form the core of the group's repertoire interspersed with Danny's recollections of his long and storied life. The record is now available for streaming and download at www. joeflood.bandcamp.com.  Hard copies will be available at the band's performances at various venues in the Northeast in the months to come, beginning with a December 29th show at Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  We will also be making it available for online purchase soon.  We will keep you updated on press and new dates as they come in.  In the meantime, please look for and "like" the Danny Fitzgerald and the Lost Wandering Blues and Jazz Band page on Facebook!

Work, de Koven, and Barrett

I have spent the better part of the last year researching the lives, careers, and songs of Henry Clay Work (1832-1884), Reginald de Koven (1859-1920), and Edward Barrett (1817-1914).  The first two were born, as was I, in Middletown, Connecticut.  Barrett was born in Ireland and emigrated to Middletown in the 1850s, as did my great, great grandfather.  Work was known as a composer of Civil War songs ("Marching Through Georgia") but also contributed to the minstrel show and parlor song repertory. De Koven was the  composer of comic opera in America at the turn of the last century.  Between 1885 and 1914, Barrett wrote over 250 poems that were published in The Penny Press, the local paper of the day, many of them meant to be sung to traditional Irish airs. The Middletown Commission on the Arts and the Connecticut Department of Culture and Tourism have each awarded me a grant to continue my research and develop a performance piece based on the three men, their lives and times, and their relevance to our own.  On July 5th, 2013, I will be previewing some of the work I have done so far with a group of stellar local musicians: world renowned bassist Joe Fonda; drummer extraordinaire and author of "Connecticut's Fife and Drum Tradition" (the definitive book on the subject), Jim Clark; master of the accordion, concertina, and fife, John Kalinowski; and local rhythm and bluesman Fred Moses. The project has been and continues to be an exciting exploration of America's musical history as well as that of Middletown's and my own personal history.  I hope to see many friends old and new at the Buttonwood Tree on the 5th, and many more when we mount the final production in the months to come.

Old New Records

          It occurred to me recently that I have been lax about letting people know about other releases that I have been honored to be involved with over the last few years.  There are some great records that have included some of my songs and a few on which I also got to play, so here is a list of highlights with some links for purchasing.  I am sure they are all also available for purchase and download from iTunes, Amazon, and the rest, too.  Enjoy! 

 Garth Hudson Presents a Canadian Celebration of The Band

          This came out last year: Garth producing and playing on new versions of songs by The Band featuring Neil Young, Bruce Cockburn, The Sadies, Cowboy Junkies, Blue Rodeo, and more, including a version of my co-write with Levon, Jim Weider, and Stan Szelest, “Move To Japan” by New Foundlanders The Trews.  Really cool record. (Click on the link above.)

 Greg Trooper—“The Williamsburg Affair”

          This is another “lost” project, recorded about seventeen years ago in the heyday of Eric Ambel’s days at Coyote Studios in Brooklyn, a summer in which we made a Mojo Nixon record, recorded a Got To Blazes record live to 2-track (in one night!), and made this rocking record with Greg.  It’s one of my favorites of his, and not just because I got to play and sing all over it: great recordings of great songs.  Greg moved to Nashville soon after we made it, got a new record deal, made a bunch of other records, and finally put this one out about two years ago. Get it here.  

 The Bottle Rockets—“Lean Forward”

          This was a kind of reunion for me with The Bottle Rockets as we hadn’t done anything together since 2000’s “A Brand New Year”, but for this they recorded two songs I co-wrote with Brian Henneman, “Solitaire” and “Give Me Room”.  I also got to play fiddle and sing a little harmony on “Get On The Bus”.  Produced by Eric “Roscoe” Ambel and available here.

Jono Manson— “Summertime” and “November”

          I have been represented in one way or another with most of Jono’s solo releases over the years, but “Summertime” was an especial treat because I not only got to co-write several of the songs and play some mandolin, but we reunited the Smoking Section vocal quartet-- Jono, Jerry Dugger, Ron Sunshine, and me--for background vocals at Craig Dreyer’s place.  I was so inspired by the session that the next time we were all around I got them together at Craig’s again to do some vocals on some of my songs. (Those recordings should be available soon.) And the title track on “November” refers to the first ever co-write between Jono, Brian Henneman from the Bottle Rockets, and me.  You can buy them here.

And last, but certainly not least,

Artie Traum— “Thief of Time”

          This was Artie’s too aptly titled last release.  Produced by the Wendy Waldman, most of the record was recorded with a dream band of Warren Bernhardt on keys, Gary Burke on drums, and Tony Levin on bass with guest spots by John Sebastian, Amy Helm, Donna Lewis, Teresa Williams, Kenny Edwards, Jim Photoglo, and yours truly doing a duet with Artie on our tune “Where The Blues Began.”  Great writing and incredible musicianship. (Click on the link above.)

Fall 2011
Joe Flood Sings Georges Brassens
I have admired the songs of Georges Brassens since I first heard them more than twenty-five years ago as a busker in Paris. His songs are like nobody else's, French or American, and over the years, I have been influenced by his style practically as much as by the Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Hoagy Carmichael, and Willie Dixon songs I grew up on. The closest thing America has to Brassens is Bob Dylan, but we all know the tale of Dylan going electric, and Brassens played his last gigs pretty much as he did his first, supporting his acoustic guitar on his knee with his loyal sideman Pierre Nicolas on double bass behind him. He brought none of Dylan's showmanship to the stage, just his songs.
Two years ago I set out to translate and record some of my favorite Brassens songs. I asked my friends Eric Ambel, Garth Hudson, and Mark Dann to help out and we enlisted some other great musicians to join us. We now have recordings of ten of my translations which we will be releasing soon. In the meantime, I have been adding these new versions to my shows and will be doing a series of shows the first Tuesday of every month at Cafe Nine in New Haven singing Brassens, in French and in English, and some other related material, too. I hope to turn this into a regular event where I can invite special guests and debut some new material and other translations as I do them, so please come out and support the effort if you get the chance.
You can read what poet Kenneth Rexroth thought about Brassens by clicking here. We will be making some of our recordings available for your listening pleasure soon, so please stay tuned.

Spring 2011

It has been a long and busy winter. In November I reconnected with my old friend, the great singer-poet Eric Andersen, for a gig here in Connecticut. We had such a good time that I sat in with Eric a couple of nights later on his gig at the Kate in Old Saybrook, and we are going to be playing a couple again this spring, beginning with a show at the Towne Crier in Pawling, New York on May 22. Watch the gigs page.
"Move To Japan", a song I co-wrote with Jim Weider, Levon Helm, and Stan Szelest for The Band's "Jericho", was re-recorded and released on Garth Hudson's new CD, "A Canadian Celebration of the Band". Garth is playing on all tracks with the likes of Neil Young and Bruce Cockburn and other great names in Canadian music. You can get it here.
I also got together with my alma mater, The Lost Wandering Blues and Jazz Band, for a standing room only appearance at The Buttonwood Tree in Middletown, CT. Search for them or me on youtube and you can see and hear a lot of the evening.
I have also just completed my Master of Arts in Romance Languages, translating songs of the great French songwriter Georges Brassens into English. We started recording them last summer with Eric "Roscoe" Ambel, Garth Hudson, Mark Dann, and Thierry Arpino, and recently finished up with Roscoe, Skip Ward, and Phil Cimino at Cowboy Technical in Brooklyn. These recordings will be available in one fashion or another very soon.
Lots happening. Check back soon!

Fall 2010

Thanks to everybody who came out to the show at the Kate for making it a great success. Not only was it a thrill to be able to play live with Garth Hudson and Eric Ambel in the same band, but a real treat to share the stage with Maud Hudson and my old friends Greg Trooper and Mike Foley. Maybe we can do it again sometime!

We'll keep you posted about upcoming dates and happenings this fall and hope to see you all again soon.

If you have of our night at The kate send them to us and we'll posted them right here. Thanks again.