Biography

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdeNLR2DGL8



Dick Flood is adding to his 56-year legacy as a country music visionary (much of which was spent in his musical alter ego, Okefenokee Joe) with the release of a new Christmas single and Gospel CD. Flood discusses his career highlights with Blitz Editor/Publisher Michael McDowell below. (Click on image to enlarge).



IT’S MY WAY: LEGENDARY
SINGER / SONGWRITER DICK FLOOD
REVISITS HIS CAREER HIGHLIGHTS,
DOUBLES AS OKEFENOKEE JOE AND
READIES NEW CHRISTMAS RELEASE

“Did you ever want something so bad that when you finally got it, all you could do was stand there and grin at it?”

Kingston Trio cofounder Robert Castle “Bob Shane” Schoen posed that question during the 31 July 1966 live set that eventually became the band’s landmark concert album, Once Upon A Time (Tetragrammaton TD-5101). To be certain, Shane’s characteristically astute observation continues to speak volumes for the many who chased their own respective dreams and eventually saw the fruits of their arduous labor.

One artist who perhaps personifies Shane’s maxim as well as any is the veteran singer, songwriter and visionary, Dick Flood. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the early 1930s, Flood articulated the position on a variety of levels in Chasing A Dream, a song that he wrote for Billy Grammer in 1958. Chasing A Dream became the B-side of Grammer’s signature single, Gotta Travel On (Monument 45-400).

However, Flood’s own dream began to reach fruition long before he made that contribution to the legacy of his future labelmate. A veteran of the Korean War, Flood’s vision began to take shape not long after his discharge.

“In the mid fifties, after being released from the U.S. Army, I became a regular on the Jimmy Dean CBS Morning Show for several years as one of the two Country Lads”, said Flood.

Buoyed by the regular exposure on Dean’s program, Flood and his Country Lads partner, Billy Graves were signed to Columbia Records, which was also Dean’s recording home at the time. The Country Lads began to generate their own momentum with their Columbia singles, including Alone In Love b/w the Grady Martin-penned I Won’t Beg Your Pardon (Columbia 41062) and the Mindy Carson composition, Anything, which was coupled with the late and highly prolific composer, Richard Eugene “Dick” Glasser’s early triumph, Lonely Lover (Columbia 41212).

When the Country Lads parted ways, Graves opted out of music and embarked upon a successful venture in the jewelry industry in Florida. But the dream had irrevocably taken hold of Flood, who went on to pursue a solo career as both songwriter and vocalist with a vengeance.

As a composer, Flood wasted no time in establishing a reputation as one of the finest. Aside from the aforementioned Chasing A Dream for Billy Grammer (which was an obvious inspiration for a number of Ned Miller’s like minded sides for Fabor Records), Flood soon found his work on the flip side of a number one single. Roy Orbison’s 1960 self-penned Only The Lonely (Monument 45-421) smash featured Flood’s Here Comes That Song Again on its B-side and irrevocably proved that the Country Lads veteran’s work was worthy of world class interpretation. But the best was yet to come.

“My song, Trouble's Back in Town, recorded by the Wilburn Brothers on Decca Records, stayed number one in the Country charts for quite some time, and became their signature song,” said Flood.

“It put me in the Nashville Country Music Hall of Fame as the writer of the number one country song of the year in 1962.”

The momentum sustained by that triumph for Hardy, Arkansas’ Teddy and Doyle Wilburn proved to be mutually beneficial. Not only did the Wilburn Brothers go on to host their own successful television series, but Flood remained in demand as a composer. To that effect, his Cold, Cold Winter (not to be confused with the late 1963 Mercury label single of the same name by the Pixies Three) provided one of the highlights of Anita Bryant’s post-Carlton Records tenure with the Columbia label (Columbia 4-42257).

His flair for well written Gospel material also resonated with pioneering country rocker, George Hamilton IV. The Winston-Salem, North Carolina native cut Flood’s A Little Bit Of Sunday Every Day on his 1972 West Texas Highway album on RCA Victor LSP-4609.

While Flood’s reputation as a songwriter was most assuredly well deserved, he concurrently built a duly impressive legacy as a recording artist. Although he initially lost out to a competing version of The Three Bells by the Browns (RCA Victor 47-7555) with his own rendition on Monument 45-408 in 1959, Flood’s earlier success with Grammer at the label had nonetheless been sufficient to inspire Monument founder Fred Foster to extend to him the offer of a recording contract.

Before leaving Monument, Flood made his mark by saluting a fellow songwriting giant. Best known for his 1957 rockabilly monster classic, Bo Bo Ska Diddle Daddle (Columbia 4-41042), the great Wayne Walker had previously generated momentum within country music circles via his 1956 ballad, It’s My Way (Of Loving You) (ABC Paramount 9735). Flood responded in kind in 1960 with a faithful rendition of Walker’s ABC Paramount hit on Monument 45-414.

Soon after, Flood signed with Columbia’s Epic subsidiary, where he released two of the most essential singles of his career. 1961’s Hellbound Train / Judy Lynn (Epic 5-9479) has since become a country rock classic, while the 1962 follow up, King Or A Clown / Never Has So Much Been Lost (Epic 5-9500) was referred to by one astute musicologist as, “the best single that Jack Scott and Conway Twitty never made.”

Flood eventually signed with David Kapp’s Kapp Records, where he received equal billing on his releases with his band, the Pathfinders. Comprised of Randy Fincher, Charles Fincher, Larry Handley and Bill Benton, the Pathfinders accompanied Flood to Vietnam in 1966 to entertain American troops stationed there.

Flood’s tenure with Kapp found him reprising his own triumphs for others. To wit, his rendition of Trouble’s Back In Town (Kapp K-754) certainly holds its own against the earlier Wilburn Brothers rendition (Decca 31363).

While at Kapp, Flood’s Home Was Never Like This (which he eventually recorded and released as Nugget NR-1026, with his own Woman Leave Me Alone on the flip side) was also covered by Patti White, who recorded it as the flip side of her self-penned, Pete Drake-produced June 1966 single, Is Your Old Love Still New (Stop ST-111).

Personal triumphs notwithstanding, Flood was not averse to outside material. His excellent 1965 single, These Things Make A Heartache (Kapp K-640) certainly helped sustain his momentum with the label.

Even so, the fiercely competitive musical atmosphere of Nashville eventually took its toll on Flood, who opted for an unusual sabbatical in 1973.

“In the early 1970s, urged by a much stronger inner feeling, I left the Nashville scene and disappeared into the Okefenokee Swamp in South Eastern Georgia, re-inventing myself as a nature loving, singing, story telling, renegade South Georgia swamp man, Okefenokee Joe”, said Flood.

As Okefenokee Joe, Flood has released several CDs of superb original material, including My Life In The Okefenokee (which features the memorable Frog Giggin’, The Hazards Of The Trade and Swampy The Dog, Skeeter The Cat And Me), I Saw The Eagle Cry (highlighted by Everglades Symphony, Hold Back The Waters and There’s Gonna Be A Party In Wahoo Swamp Tonight) and the outspoken Disappearing Faces (which makes its point via such impacting offerings as If You Don’t Need It Leave It, That’s My Home and the title track). Material from those releases has long comprised a significant portion of Flood’s live performances in his alter ego.

“I've been doing shows locally in Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida for the past 40 years.”

While Flood’s all encompassing Okefenokee Joe persona has definitely kept him preoccupied, he has nonetheless not neglected that which initially brought him recognition. To that effect, he has returned to the studio to record and produce an all new Christmas work.

“I am trying to go nationwide with a CD single release of a Christmas song entitled This Night Of Peace on my own independent label, Cowhouse Island Records”, said Flood.

“(Cowhouse Island is) the name of the island I lived on in the great Okefenokee Swamp.

This Night Of Peace is scheduled for 15 October release on Cowhouse Island.

“I also have an excellent DVD of the song”, he said.

This Night Of Peace will also appear on Flood’s forthcoming Gospel-flavored, Because I Believe CD. Produced by Archie Jordan (Ronnie Milsap, the Tams, Barbara Mandrell, Charlie Rich, Larnelle Harris) at his Metter, Georgia-based studios, Because I Believe is scheduled for 15 January 2012 release.

In addition to this encouraging increase in recording activity, Flood intends to continue to concurrently pursue his Okefenokee Joe responsibilities.

“Although I’m kinda old now, I’ve no thoughts of retiring”, said Flood.

Indeed, while he might, in the words of one of his classic Kapp label Pathfinders singles, find himself Between Two Worlds, as he reiterated on the B-side of his Monument debut, Flood has long ago learned that an appreciative cadre of musicologists and academicians is never Far Away. To that effect, the following exchange with Blitz Magazine reiterates his ongoing commitment to excellence.

BLITZ: You were in the U.S. military during the Korean War. Did you have any aspirations towards a musical career prior to your time in the service? If so, who were the artists that most impacted you at the time?

FLOOD: Prior to my enlistment in the army, I had been teaching myself to play guitar. I had bought a four-string tenor guitar and a ukulele chord book, learned all the basic major, minor, and seventh chords on a four string, bought a six string harmony guitar for ten dollars in a pawn shop and tried to figure out what to do with the extra two strings. It took a while! Even today, I am still trying to master the six string.

The first song I learned to sing was Jealous Heart. There were only three basic chords in the whole song. That made it easier for me.

I got hooked on singing and playing and began to make my friends crazy by singing to them every chance I got. My favorite artists were Hank Snow, Hank Williams, Carl Smith, Faron Young and a fella I saw with his band in the Spigot Bar in Philly that no one at the time had ever heard of, by the name of Bill Haley. And yes, I believe I was beginning to have notions of trying to get into the music business.

BLITZ: You were a cast member of Jimmy Dean's morning television series. However, Dean's show underwent several changes in format and name during its run. At what point did you come on board with his show?

FLOOD: Shortly after I left the army, I was visiting an army buddy in Dover, Delaware. His name is Billy Graves. We had played music together in the army.

Television had just recently come into being. We were watching a local show out of Washington D.C. called The Town and Country Jamboree. It was a four hour telecast from the Capital Arena, hosted by Jimmy Dean. The announcer mentioned that the show was holding auditions for talent. So Billy and I decided on a trip to D.C. the next day.

We each auditioned as solo artists. Jimmy came out of the control room, thanked us for coming, said the show already had plenty of solo singers and that maybe if we were a duet he might be interested. The Country Lads were born that day.

We went back to Delaware, bought up all the albums of duet acts we could find and started learning duets. We heard about a talent contest to be held at Gambrills, Maryland and decided before we would go back and see Jimmy, we’d enter it and see what might happen. We entered, gleefully took first place, and decided it’s time to call Jimmy.

For the next several weeks, we tried in vain to reach him. Because of our win at Gambrills, we were eligible for the finals at Whippoorwill Lake in Warrenton, Virginia. We entered and did not even place. But Connie B. Gay, Jimmy’s manager and owner of the TV show, liked us and hired us for the TV show anyhow. In a few months, Connie told the cast that he had submitted us to CBS for a network show. Sure enough, we got the show.

After a year and a half of higher ratings than all other morning shows, New York decided to change the format to less country and more pop. A year later, we were all canned. Jimmy went to New York and continued to make history. Billy and I split. I moved to Nashville. We remain friends today.

A point of interest: I have an old publicity photo of (Billy) and me taken during our time and I have a recent photo of us meeting at a Native American pow wow I was performing at in Florida, fifty years later.
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BLITZ: Did Dean being signed to Columbia Records have any impact on the Country Lads also signing with the label?

FLOOD: Since the show was on CBS, almost everyone on the show was signed with Columbia Records.

BLITZ: The Country Lads' Lonely Lover was an early Dick Glasser composition and lent itself well to a rock and roll audience, as well as a country audience. Was that your intention?

FLOOD: To the best of my recollection, being a newcomer at the time, I would listen to and follow the advice of the people in charge as to what to record. But yes, it was common sense to hope that a record would go into the pop charts, as well as country. Even now I’m sure pop, with a much larger audience, sells a lot more records.

BLITZ: You composed the single B-side, Chasing A Dream for Billy Grammer. Was that track instrumental in your own signing to the Monument label? And was it in any way autobiographical for you? The track did seem to have an apparent inspiration on Ned Miller's future recordings for Fabor Records.

FLOOD: No. The last year of the TV show, Fred Foster and I became and still are friends. At the time, he worked for a record distributor, covering the radio stations in the Baltimore and Washington area. He had had tremendous success picking hits, and convincing DJs to play them..

He was considering starting a record label of his own. I invested $1,000 for ten percent of the company, which later became known as Monument Records, named after the Washington Monument in D.C. For the first year or so, the only song writers we had were Roy Orbison, Joe Melson, Fred himself, Paul Clayton and me. Chasing A Dream was recorded by several other artists as the years went by. But Billy was the first to record it.

As you know, a song of mine was on the flip side of Orbison’s Only the Lonely and the flip side of Grammer’s Gotta Travel On. Two million sellers! Because of that, for a while I became known as Flip Side Flood to all those involved. And yes, that song, Chasing A Dream at the time was written for someone whom I had for many years loved in vain.

BLITZ: Roy Orbison was a prolific composer in his own right. As such, how did he come to record your Here Comes That Song Again?

FLOOD: You are right. Roy was a great songwriter and singer, and a wonderful, sincere person. We were friends. I do not recall details as to why he recorded Here Comes That Song Again. I know he liked it. Possibly Fred convinced him to do it.

BLITZ: While at Monument, you not only recorded a competing version of The Three Bells that went up against the one on RCA Victor by the Browns, but you also did a version of Wayne Walker's It's My Way. Was covering Wayne Walker's record your way of paying tribute to another great?

FLOOD: With several huge hits on Monument under his belt, Fred Foster had made friends with a lot of influential people in Nashville. Trusting in friendship, he had shown some of the songs he planned for future recordings to the A&R man for RCA Victor. I’ll not mention his name.

One of the songs was The Three Bells. Next thing he knew, the song was out on Victor by the Browns and was already climbing the charts. Fred was furious! He did not want to lose out on that song.

So we flew to Nashville and I recorded it. It was released almost a month after the Browns had already climbed high in the charts. Yet it sold over 600,000 copies.

To my knowledge, our recording of The Three Bells was responsible for three Nashville Country Music firsts:

1. For the first time, the Nashville Symphony Orchestra was used on a country session.

2. We used both the Jordanaires and the Anita Kerr Singers for choral background.

3. Our version rode the charts separately from the Browns, reaching all the way to number twenty. Usually cover recordings were listed under the popular version, but ours rode separately. Needless to say, Fred never again shared his plans with anyone outside our circle.

Wayne Walker and Mel Tillis were friends of mine. They were both writers for Cedarwood Publishing Company and great writers of the time.

I recorded It’s My Way because we all thought we could make a hit with it. I did not think of it as a way of paying tribute to Wayne. But of course if it made a hit, it would certainly pay off for him.

As I recall though, it came out just after the huge FCC crackdown on the disc jockeys and their payola schemes. Most of the DJs I had come to know from The Three Bells had relocated to other stations or had left the business. Our promotion on the song was extremely difficult. It did not do what we hoped it would do.

BLITZ: Your Epic label sides, Hellbound Train, Judy Lynn, King Or A Clown and Never Has So Much Been Lost have all been favorably compared to Conway Twitty, Jack Scott and others. Were you trying to bring a bit of country rock into the mix at that time?

FLOOD: Having not been born in the South, and not being a “country boy”, I was not really as country a singer as I was a pop singer. I guess the best way to describe the what, the why and the how of what I was doing is to say I was just trying to make a hit record, no matter what style or genre.

BLITZ: You wrote Trouble's Back In Town for the Wilburn Brothers. It is a curious recording in that their relatively low key delivery seems to contradict the urgency of the lyrics. Did they interpret it the way that you intended it to be interpreted?

FLOOD: It has always amazed me that the one song that took me only about ten minutes to write is the one song that did the most for me. That song is Trouble’s Back In Town. Even this year, it is still paying me royalties and sometimes quite a large check.

I thought the Wilburn Brothers’ version of it was just fine. I was happy with it. The American public has shown that they must have done the right thing with it.

BLITZ: You then composed Cold, Cold Winter for Anita Bryant. What was the inspiration for that record? Were you aware that an unrelated Cold, Cold Winter that had been written by Medora and White was recorded by the Pixies Three on Mercury in late 1963?

FLOOD: I’ll never forget! I was visiting my folks. In a spare moment, I was working on a song idea. I had the two verses written. I was looking for a chorus that would fit the theme.

My dad walked in the room and asked, “What are you doing?” I told him, “I am working on a song about the winter time”. He was just a little bit tipsy. He hollered out with his voice hitting high notes, “Well it’s a cold, cold winter”.

I said, “That’s it, that’s it! Thank you, Dad!” I had the line I was looking for. And no, I was not aware of the Pixies Three’s recording on Mercury.

BLITZ: When you signed with Kapp Records, your singles were then credited to Dick Flood and the Pathfinders. How did the band come together? Were you thinking of an ensemble approach, like Buck Owens' Buckaroos or Bill Anderson's Po' Boys?

FLOOD: In 1962, I began working more as a singer/entertainer than a songwriter. I organized a band called the Searchers, until a rock group under that name made a hit record. I decided, in order to not cause any confusion, to change the name to the Pathfinders.

While on Kapp, to promote my show, we put the band’s name on the recordings. So yes, it was the same promotional idea as Buck, Bill and all the others.

BLITZ: You released your own version of Trouble's Back In Town for Kapp. Were you trying to introduce it to a rock and roll audience at that point?

FLOOD: Yes, my version of Trouble’s Back in Town on Kapp was definitely arranged for a broader audience than just country.

BLITZ: The Pathfinders went to Vietnam to entertain the American troops stationed there. How did that come to pass?

FLOOD: All through the ’60s, I was performing at mostly U.S. military bases all over the world. In 1966, we toured the Far East, including Vietnam. I considered myself a poor man’s Bob Hope. Entertaining our troops wherever they were, but not making a fortune doing it. As a matter of fact, I came back broke from some of those trips.

BLITZ: While you were with Kapp, your Home Was Never Like This was released as a B-side by Patti White on Stop Records in June 1966. How did your song find its way to her?

FLOOD: I was not aware of Patti White’s recording of Home Was Never Like This until you asked me about it!

BLITZ: You also released your own version of Home Was Never Like This, backed with Woman Leave Me Alone on the Nugget label. One of your label mates at Nugget was the late, great banjo virtuoso, David "Stringbean" Akeman. Did you ever perform with Stringbean and/or work with him in any sort of professional capacity?

FLOOD: I knew Stringbean fairly well from my appearances on the Opry. Many Saturday nights, backstage waiting our turn to go on, we’d talk. He was quite a character. Well loved by all who knew him. What a tragedy when he was murdered right in his own home.

BLITZ: You reinvented yourself as Okefenokee Joe in the 1970s. You are presently offering a service similar to what the veteran folksinger Pete Seeger does, in that he brings like minded messages to schools on a regular basis. Given your own obvious stance as a believer, does being in what can often be a secular environment like that bring any challenges to you in terms of your ability to witness?

FLOOD: I do not believe in political correctness. I believe in honesty. Telling it like it is. I am appalled at the attitude my country seems to have assumed in so many matters.

In the Okefenokee Swamp, living so close to the earth and observing nature at first hand, I came to realize that right there, all around me was living proof of the existence of God. Every living thing has been designed so perfectly for the job it had been created to do and doing it in such an intricate and perfect system of checks and balances. It is all so beautiful and so well planned that it couldn’t have just happened.

Yes, there are times, especially in schools and certain festivals, when I have to be really careful how I explain certain things, or else they will refuse to have me come back. Thanks to political correctness.

BLITZ: Your Christmas recording is excellent and obviously reflects your own perspectives as a believer. Do you envision moving more towards a Gospel theme in future recordings?

FLOOD: I believe in a power far greater, far more important and far more intelligent than the entire human race put together. The songs I write, my Earth Day Every Day message in my performances, everything I do or have done in the past thirty years is intended to reflect that and to help others confirm their belief, as well.

Thank you for your comment about This Night of Peace. I do have a DVD of it up on YouTube. The official release date is October 15, 2011. It is my 2011 Christmas wish to the world!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdeNLR2DGL8