From This Week's Flood Jam Session

The freebie from this week's 1937 Flood jam session features old-time music by old friends from Australia.

It was international night at this week's Wednesday gathering. Veronica Smith, mother of Flood buddy Mike Smith, was visiting from England and taking in her first Flood jam session.

And from Down Under, old friends Rod and Judy Jones were back in town and sittin' in. It's hard to believe that it's been more than 30 years since The Flood first met Rod and Judy when, on their first visit to the states, they ended up on stage with us in a concert at the Huntington Museum of Art. Back home in Australia, along with another old friend, Lindsay Mar, they play in the popular My-T-Fine Stringband. Here fiddlin' Joe Dobbs joins them on an old-time classic. Click here for the audio.

By the way, tunes from the jam sessions make up our weekly Flood podcasts. You can subscribe for free and get the music automatically delivered to your computer each Thursday. For details on that, click here.

From This Week's Flood Jam Session

The freebie from this week's 1937 Flood jam session is an audio progress report on a tune that Michelle and Charlie have just started working on.

By the time of his death in 1958, W.C. Handy was earning upwards of $25,000 a year in royalties on his best-known tune, "St. Louis Blues." Not bad for a child that had been bringing home the bacon since its birth in 1914. Here's a spin around the block in this grand old vehicle from this week's Wednesday night jam session. Click here for the audio.

By the way, tunes from the jam sessions make up our weekly Flood podcasts. You can subscribe for free and get the music automatically delivered to your computer each Thursday. For details on that, click here.

From This Week's Flood Jam Session

The freebie from this week's 1937 Flood jam session offers a unique tribute to Ingrid Bergman (by way of Woody Guthrie).

Last night's do happened to fall on Woody's birthday. The Flood paid tribute to the great American troubadour with a verse or two from "Do Re Mi," but it was Flood buddy Mike Smith who stole the evening with his version of a little-known Woody Guthrie pipe dream that was later set to music by the great Billy Bragg. Click here for the audio.

By the way, tunes from the jam sessions make up our weekly Flood podcasts. You can subscribe for free and get the music automatically delivered to your computer each Thursday. For details on that, click here.

From This Week's Flood Jam Session

The freebie from this week's 1937 Flood jam session gives us a chance to take some West Virginia cred for a classic tune.

We've been playing around with "Sweet Georgia Brown" for years now, but only recently did we learn of the song's West Virginia connection. Dave Peyton dropped the news on us as a recent jam session -- "Hey, man, it's a West Virginia tune." True enough! Composer Maceo Pinkard was born in Bluefield, West Virginia, in 1897 and went on to become one of the greatest composers in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and '30s. While he wrote hundreds of songs, including many for stage and screen, this was his greatest one. Yes, she might have been Sweet Georgia Brown, but the girl also had significant roots in the Mountain State! Click here for the audio.

By the way, tunes from the jam sessions make up our weekly Flood podcasts. You can subscribe for free and get the music automatically delivered to your computer each Thursday. For details on that, click here.

The freebie from this week's 1937 Flood jam session features a visit from some old friends.

In fact, it was old-home week at the jam session. Two dear companions, former Floodsters from the 1970s, dropped in for a visit. Bill Hoke of Abingdon, Va., who used to play bass with us, and Stewart Schneider of Ashland, Ky., our one-time harmonica player, were both on hand. We even got Stewart to dust off his harps and sit in with us for a few tunes, including this one, a great old Jean Ritchie composition called -- appropriately enough -- "My Dear Companion." Click here for the audio.

By the way, tunes from the jam sessions make up our weekly Flood podcasts. You can subscribe for free and get the music automatically delivered to your computer each Thursday. For details on that, click here.

From This Week's Jam Session

The freebie from this week's 1937 Flood jam session features a 1934 classic.

The first time Michelle Walker sang in public with The Flood was about seven years. We were playing at West Virginia's Snowshoe Mountain Resort and her tune was "Moonglow." We still do this great old Will Hudson - Irving Mills standard. Here, from last night's jam session, Michelle teams up with Joe Dobbs' beautiful fiddle for the 2010 version of the 1934 classic. Click here for the audio.

By the way, tunes from the jam sessions make up our weekly Flood podcasts. You can subscribe for free and get the music automatically delivered to your computer each Thursday. For details on that, click here.

The freebie from this week's 1937 Flood jam session features a special guest.

In the etiquette of The Flood, when a fine harmonica player drops in on your weekly jam session, you gotta trot out a blues or two. In the world of harmonicas, you don't get much finer than Jim Rumbaugh. Around here, Jim's been driving force in the incredibly successful, entertaining Huntington Harmonica Club. We were so pleased have him with us last night that we hardly let him get settled in before we had him wailing on a little sumpin in the key of E… Click here for the audio.

By the way, tunes from the jam sessions make up our weekly Flood podcasts. You can subscribe for free and get the music automatically delivered to your computer each Thursday. For details on that, click here.