The Folk Process

As we were packing up following our most recent gig at Bahnhof last month, an old friend stepped up with a question.“Say,” he said, “where’d’ya get that melody for ‘Pallet on the Floor’? I’ve been hearing that song for years, but I never heard it played the way you did it tonight. D’y’all write that?”“Well,” we said, thinking fast, “yes! Yes, we did! Do you want to buy it? You know, everything we’re wearin’ is for sale!”He took a step or two back. (We get that a lot.) Seriously, though. Did we come up with that melody? Damned if we know!Origin StoriesAs reported here earlier, The Flood drew inspiration for its version of “Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor” from Rolf Cahn’s singing of the song on a Folkways album that he made with Eric von Schmidt way back in 1961.In his liner notes for the disc, Cahn said he and Eric adapted their rendition from various performances of the song, including Jelly Roll Morton’s Library of Congress taping of it in 1938.When we first listened to Cahn and von Schmidt’s seminal Folkways album a half a century ago, we just took Rolf at his word. However, all these years later — with YouTube having so many of those classic old albums easily accessible online — we can check Cahn’s sources.And guess what? We can find no other early recording — not Morton’s, not Mississippi John Hurt’s 1928 version of the song, not Virginia Liston’s first waxing of it three years before that — that used Rolf’s imaginative rendering. And, of course, there is no one around anymore to ask — Rolf died in 1994, Eric in 2007 — but from our research we’re now prepared to conclude that the tune was their own creation (perhaps improvised on the spot on that night at Folkways when their record was made).And We’re Not Done YetMeanwhile, our band has — as usual — added its own touches to the tune. As Flood folks started doing “Pallet” a couple of decades ago, they steadily honed and noodled with the melody, in particular stirring in some of the classic jazz variations they had heard.Sidney Bechet’s 1940 recording comes to mind, as well as Louis Armstrong’s 1954 performance of “Atlanta Blues,” in which W.C. Handy famously borrowed from traditional bits and pieces of “Pallet on Your Floor.”So….?In the end then, the question remains: Did we write this tune? And the answer is still … uh…. damned if we know…. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com