Album Notes

“Flood Stage” was recorded live at Cooper’s Landing, a bar, eatery, and camp ground, (You can hear the beer bottles clanking into the recycle barrel in the background of the recording.) outside Columbia, Missouri on the banks of the Missouri River, which at the time was at flood stage and just a few feet from the concrete patio where the band set up. Because our regular guitar player, Don Rolling, was dealing with a newly minted member to his family we called in our previous bass player, Don McCarter, who drove in from St. Louis. We have also added a violinist, Michal LaGrega and his theremin. We now consist of Brent Bowman on sax, flute, and keyboards; Ryan Jones on bass; Don McCarter on guitar; Michael Lagrega on violin, theremin, and congas; Greg Field on drums, theremin, and percussion toys and occasional poetry. While we were in the midst of the gig, Don McCarter pointed out an unfortunate bovine floating past after being washed away from some farmer’s pasture upstream. We all decided to dedicate this CD to the memory of that cow and any others swept away by the flood, hence the mention of the river cow in the titles of the tunes on this CD. It also became the impetus in the forming of our new band, River Cow Orchestra, featuring some of the Brother Iota crew as well as new additions. Cooper’s Landing and the Missouri River flood of Summer 2008 became the fertile flood plain for some great new music and a great new band whose first CD is also available on CD Baby, “Emerging” by River Cow Orchestra.