How to Listen to Flood Radio

Radio Free Flood is back on the air! After a few weeks of technical difficulties, we've liberated the gremlins gumming up the works and got the online broadcasts up and running again. Click here to tune in.

Oh, wait a minute! You didn't know about Flood Radio? Hey, stop depriving your ears!

Background: The Flood has always dreamed of having its own radio station. But then, who hasn't? Imagine, day and night, listening to a radio that plays only the tunes of your favorite artists. Of course, with the Flood fellows, that'd be a pretty eclectic group of players.

You'd have to start with great string bands and jug bands, both old and new, from the 1920s and 1930s stars like the Memphis Jug Band, Tampa Red and Georgia Tom and Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers, Riley Puckett and the Skillet Lickers, and, of course, Charlie Poole to the 1960s' Jim Kweskin, the Even Dozen Jug Band, the New Lost City Ramblers to today's Juggernaut Jug Band and the Old Crow Medicine Show.

But you couldn't stop there. Stir in some blues singers like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and Mississippi John Hurt and new guys like Keb Mo' and Guy Davis. Then you'd need to add a pinch of classic bluegrassers from Flatt & Scruggs to the Stanley Brothers and the Coon Creek Girls, and then some rock greats like Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins, folk singers like Tom Rush, Dave Von Ronk and Ian and Sylvia, songwriters from Hazel Dickens to John Prine and Steve Goodman to Hoagy Carmichael and Fats Waller. Then throw in a little Doc Watson, Staple Singers, Fats Domino, Lefty Frizzell, Louis Armstrong.

And of course, we'd have to give some air time to our buddies -- Andy Cohen, Jazzou Jones, Cathy Barton and Dave Para, Rob McNurlin, John Lilly, J.P. Fraley, Pat Surface and others.

And, heck, The 1937 Flood itself should appear on the station from time to time, shouldn't it?

Well, now we have just such a station: Flood Radio on the Internet, made possible by last.fm, a UK-based Internet radio and music community website that now claims more than 21 million active users based in more than 200 countries. Using last.fm technology, The Flood created a custom radio station that plays the music of more than a hundred artists we've added to our online library, all the ones mentioned above and many more.

To check it out, just go to the Flood web site and click the "Flood Radio" link on the navigation bar at the left. Then click the circled arrow in the black last.fm player on the resulting page. After a moment, you should be listening to Radio Free Flood. What will you hear? Anything from Champion Jack Dupree playing "Hometown New Orleans" to Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys doing "Time Changes Everything" to The Band and "Ophelia." On screen, the player even has links for buying the tune you're hearing, if you'd like. Yep, we're hooked.

One note: Since last.fm is a rather cutting edge Web 2.0 application, it, well, doesn't always work right. Sometimes when we click the circled arrow, we get a message that says "no content / not enough content" or that there's been error loading the station. We've found, though, that if you just refresh page and try again or maybe leave the Flood site, then come back in and try again, it usually works. Sometimes, too, the player stops after a few tunes and has be re-launched. But hey, it's all free and pretty amazing, so if it's occasionally a bit hinky, well, hey, who the heck isn't?

How to Get Flooded for Free!

Risking the comeback that free music is worth every penny for you pay for it (oh, you kid), The Flood each week gives away a free tune that can be heard online without special software or magic decoder ring. Listening is easy: follow this link, pick a tune and click the gold arrow key at the left of its description.

It's all part of the Old Boyz' on-going Digital Jam Session project, launched on the Flood web site 10 months ago. Added to a backlog of previous weeks' releases, there's now well over an hour's worth of freebies assembled online, each with a brief introduction by Charlie.

Recorded at The Flood's weekly Wednesday night jam sessions, the tracks are far from "studio quality." On the contrary, they are in the finest warts-and-all tradition of "field recordings," so they have what one listener called a decided "back porch sound."

That means that in addition to the occasional flubs and miscues in the performances (the guys meticulously craft and insert these misfires only for your amusement, you understand), you often hear in the background people chatting, laughing, whispering, rolling dice, shuffling cards, performing the Heimlich Maneuver… Because of the nature of the beast, there are times, of course, when we wish the microphone had been positioned differently or the guys had given a little more thought to a bit of harmony, etc., but despite such glitches, the tunes do capture the joy of jams and we hope you like being part of it.

We announce each week's new freebie on our Facebook page. If you're on FB and haven't already, be sure to click the "Become a Fan" button on that page to be wired in for Flood updates. And we'd appreciate it if you'd recommend the page to any of your Facebook friends who you think would enjoy occasional Floodishness.

(Incidentally, each free tune is also turned into the Flood's weekly podcast, "Jam Logs," so if you a pod person and would rather have the week's new song delivered directly to you, just subscribe to the podcast. For all the details on that, click here.)

Hear The Flood During "Create W.Va." Conference

The 1937 Flood heads to downtown Huntington on Monday evening for a free concert as part of the big "Create West Virginia" Conference that hits town this weekend.

Festivities kick off Sunday with Kathy Mattea and "Mountain Stage" at the Keith Albee Performing Arts Center. Also during the conference will be live jazz at the Frederick, spoken word and dance at the Jesyln Performing Arts Center and music at Marshall University. Elsewhere, watch for art-, food- and music-filled receptions -- at venues ranging from the Huntington Museum of Art and the Big Sandy Superstore Arena to Marshall University -- and more than 50 pieces of fresh art all over downtown thanks to the Art Gawk.

The Flood plays from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Monday at a reception at the Morris Building, 845 4th Ave. The guys will share the space with the Marshall Guitar Ensemble and new media animated projections by Marshall graphic design students.

For more on the goings-on, check out Dave Lavender's story in The Herald-Dispatch!

Flooding the Riverbank This Monday Evening

The Flood heads down to Huntington's Harris Riverfront Park this Monday evening for what's happily become the band's annual shoutout to the Belle of Cincinnati and her riverboat passengers.

For the third straight year, the Belle sails to town for the big "Lights of Autumn" fundraiser for Hospice of Huntington, a volunteer group dedicated to assisting the non-profit agency with various projects. Last year more than 500 supporters attended this event. This year's 2-1/2-hour cruise on the Ohio River features on-board entertainment by the great Bob Thompson Unit from Charleston as well as by Live Bait from Tampa, Fla., and The Catalinas from Charlotte, N.C.

And, as always, The 1937 Flood -- whose appearance is again sponsored by the good folks of Magic 97.9 (thanks, guys!) -- offers free pre-boarding entertainment at the top of the park's amphitheater area from 5:30 to 6:30. Looks like there'll be a full complement of Floodsters on hand, along with The Chick Singer, the beautiful Michelle Walker, the lily of Cross Lanes.

So, whether or not you're taking the cruise, come on down and we'll party on the shore 'til boarding time.

For more information about "Lights of Autumn," click here.

Meanwhile, for your Flood calendar, you can ink in a couple of upcoming events. On Thursday, Oct. 15, the Flood plays at the Cabell-Huntington Convention and Visitors Bureau's Grand Opening / Business After Hours gala and later in the month the guys will take part in the Oct. 18-20 Create West Virginia convention in Huntington. More details on both of these events as we get closer.

The Flood Serves Up a Jug Band Breakfast This Saturday

The Flood is coming to breakfast this Saturday morning, and you're invited!

For years now, Dale Jones, the heart and soul of Huntington's annual Coon-Sanders Nighthawks Fan Bash of jazz lovers and players, has invited The Flood to share in the fun by bringing some jug band tunes to the gala's Saturday morning breakfast session. We're doing it again this Saturday!

Named after early jazz pioneers Carleton Coon and Joe Sanders of Kansas City, the annual jazz fest kicked off with Thursday night's free jam. The Friday and Saturday night sessions feature jazz musicians from literally all around the country. On hand this year are old favorites like The Toll House Jazz Band from Columbus, Ohio, The West End Jazz Band (Chicago) with Leah Labrea, A Touch of Dixie from Raleigh, N.C., and Dale Jones' own great Backyard Dixie Jazz Stompers.

This is the seventh year in a row that Dale has invited us to get up early and be part of the fun. For this year's set, The Flood will be joined by our old buddy Chuck Romine on tenor banjo. Shoot, we'll probably even tease a few vocals out of him too.

And watch out -- Br'er Peyton is packin' a washboard. We're jes' saying...

The breakfast is at The Ramada Inn Limited, 3094 16th Street Road. The Flood plays from 9:15 or so to just before 11. Admission is $20 for the breakfast session.

For more information about this year's Coon Sander bash, click here to see a report Dave Lavender story in the Herald-Dispatch.

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Other recent blog reports

Some of you report you've occasionally missed one of our blog postings and asked for a chance to catch up. No problem. If you missed any of our other recent reports, click a title below to read that particular back issue:

-- No Sympathy from Symphony. Huntington Symphony vs. The 1937 Flood -- In the World's Most Lopsided Battle of the Bands, uh, They Won...

-- Hip Boots: The Flood's (Self-Produced) Bootleg Album

-- Come to the Jam Session (From The Cybersphere)

-- Now Hear The Flood Radio Show Online

-- Filming the Flood

-- Flood Merchandise: Put the Flood on Your Chest (And Refrigerator!)

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Join Us on Facebook

By the way, if you're on Facebook and you've not "fanned" us yet, please do! Just visit The Flood's Facebook page -- click here -- and click the "Become a Fan" option. Thank you kindly!

Huntington Symphony vs. The 1937 Flood -- In the World's Most Lopsided Battle of the Bands, uh, They Won...fam

What a farcical, sad, strange week this has been for the Family Flood. Cascading events have culminated in our being forced to cancel plans for a June 14 concert with our old steamboatin' buddies, ragtime pianist Jazzou Jones and tenor banjo master Bob Schad, both of whom we've known and played with over the years on The Delta Queen steamboat and elsewhere.

How strange a week was it, you ask?

Well, it's not every day you find musicians blocking other musicians from performing. But yesterday that's just what the board of directors of the Huntington Symphony Orchestra voted to do.

Background: Jazzou and Bob have been invited to Huntington to play with the orchestra as part of its POPS series in a Saturday night concert down on the riverfront on June 13. They'll be here because of the good works of a local longtime steamboater who is a member of the orchestra board.

As soon as we heard our pals were coming to town, we contacted them and made plans for a Jazzou-Bob concert with The 1937 Flood on the day after the orchestra's performance. The Flood never intended to have any financial stake in the concert. On the contrary, donating our time and energy, we planned to charge admission for the Sunday concert and all revenue would go to Jazzou and Bob. We figured we could draw maybe a hundred people. At $10 a head, Jazzou and Bob would each get $500, perhaps doubling what the orchestra would be paying them for the previous night.

We then contacted the folks at Renaissance Arts Resources (the old Huntington High) who agreed to donate space for the concert, returning favors for The Flood's helping with their fundraisers. Once word got out around the Internet about the big Bob-Jazzou weekend -- the orchestra on Saturday night, then with The Flood on Sunday afternoon -- steamboatin' fans from as far away as New York and Florida started making plans to be here. So we were set to go.

Or so we thought.

But then out of the blue last Sunday night, Charlie got a call from the same orchestra board member who had originally arranged the appearance.

Now, we all know poor ol' Charlie is a bit naive, but he actually thought she was calling to thank us ... you know, for donating our time, enhancing the weekend, making it even more attractive to those out-of-towners who may be thinking about coming here ... not to mention, oh, providing a chance for more income for our mutual friends. Sorry, Charlie -- not so fast. No, the board member was upset. She said she believed The Flood concert on Sunday would somehow detract from the orchestra's performance the previous night.

Uh, what now?

Saying it slower so Charlie could grasp the concept, she said she thought that people might decide to go to The Flood event instead of the orchestra's concert on the riverfront.

Okay, now, well, that's sort of flattering. Why, yes, of course, there are many similarities between The Flood and a symphony orchestra (though we think we've demonstrated that our kazoo player is better). Still .... well, we don't exactly draw from the same fan pool. Surely no one would seriously think that someone interested in the orchestra would opt for The Flood instead, or vice versa. Who would honestly think a Sunday concert by the Flood would adversely affect the previous night's performance by the orchestra? In fact, it might have really improved turnout for POPS' Saturday evening event. Here's why. Jazzou and Bob have friends all over the country, and the pair -- living thousands of miles apart, as they do -- get to appear together very, very rarely these days. As word spread that there would be not one, but two opportunities to see and hear them together again, there would be twice as much reason for their many out-of-town fans to invest in coming to Huntington for that weekend.

Nope. Not having a bit of it. She remained unconvinced.

Matters escalated on Monday morning, when Charlie talked to the new orchestra manager, who told him that Jazzou and Bob would be bound by "performance contracts" that prohibited them from playing within 60 miles of Huntington for 60 days before and after the concert.

Huh. Well, now, that was news. The board member certainly hadn't mentioned anything about contracts during her lengthy conversation with Charlie the night before. And honestly? You got to question just when these performance contracts actually came into being. We're betting that West Virginia jazz great Bob Thompson didn't signed such a contract before his performance with the symphony. Hey, come to think of it, The Flood itself didn't sign anything like that when we played with the symphony orchestra on the riverfront several years ago. So, you just have to wonder if these restrictions were only now being brought up.

Anyhoo....

In advance of yesterday morning's monthly orchestra board meeting, we asked a longtime Flood fan who is also on the orchestra board to make our case to her fellow board members. We wanted her to at least make sure they understood The Flood's good intentions in all of this. Alas, despite her efforts, she reported afterward that the board discussed the issue but in the end would not remove the "60 days, 60 miles" contract provision.

So, there you have it. After consultation with Jazzou, we've reluctantly canceled the June 14 event. We're sad, of course, but also we can't help marveling at the ironies of this week. ...

That someone would work so hard to bring beloved steamboat musicians to town, then work just as hard to keep them from perhaps doubling their income while they're here. ...

That the city would open its arms to steamboat and ragtime fans from all over the country to come hear these musical giants, then systematically cut in half the opportunity to visit with them in our town. ...

That a mighty orchestra all of a sudden would turn protectionist and worry about losing money because of the efforts of a quirky little string band that was simply trying to donate its services and make memories for friends.

But then, on a brighter note, who'd've thought The Flood would ever get to scare a whole symphony orchestra?

Nice Words from Br'er Lavender

Our friend Dave Lavender gave us a nice shoutout in the Herald-Dispatch last week about the "Hip Boots" CD. Heading a section of his column with the title "The Soggy Basement Boys," Dave wrote:

It was a long winter. So long that everyone and their cousin has a new CD out and so long that The 1937 Flood said the heck with it and finally released their own bootleg tape.

With an obvious homage to Dylan's infamous "The Basement Tapes," one of the state's best known string bands, The 1937 Flood has scoured the dusty and even the digital archives to put out the new CD "Hip Boots: The Flooded Basement Tapes."

It's a clever "then" and "now" collection of nearly two dozen songs that showcases the long and wonderful kazoo-and-fiddle-powered trip that's been 30 years of The Flood.

Step in The Flood's time machine (i.e. recordings made from everything from digital recorders to reel-to-reel machines) to hear the family-esque band that's featured a ton of musicians including Rog Samples and Chuck Romine, Stewart Schneider, Bill Hoke, Randy Nuckols, Michelle Walker, Kathy Castner and many other folks who have played with the band that was started and still driven by former H-D'ers Dave Peyton and Charlie Bowen and fiddling Joe Dobbs.