FloodStages

From This Week's Flood Jam Session

2012-01-26T08:49:00.001-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a shout-out to the real flood.

Seventy-five years ago this week, most of the streets of downtown Huntington -- and many other cities along the Ohio River -- were under water, devastated by the great 1937 flood. So, if you're a band named after that natural disaster and you have a jam session on its poignant anniversary, what do you play? Why, one of the fine flood songs of Bob Dylan, of course. Take it away, boys. Hear the audio.

Finally, remember that the 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

2012-01-19T15:26:00.002-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a couple of very diverse numbers from newcomers to or weekly gathering.

At the recommendation of Joe Dobbs, bluesman Chris Sutton and his buddy Mike Lyzenga dropped in to share a few tunes.

And from Princeton, W.Va., singer/songwriter Albert Perrone came with his friend and jam session regular Doug Imbrogno.

Finally, in the spirit of all things new, The Flood introduced its new band mate. Bassist/guitarist/singer Randy Hamilton of Willow Wood, Ohio, has become our newest member. Randy's been sitting in with us since late last summer, and we figured it was high time we made an honest Floodster out of him. You'll hear him on both of these tracks from last night's do.

First up is Chris with a bluesy original called "Elevator." Then come Doug and Albert with a wild and woolly rendition of that 1940s standard, "Enjoy Yourself." Doug calls our jam sessions the region's only weekly Irish caili. Well, thank to you guys, we certainly did enjoy yourselves! Hear the two tunes.

Finally, remember that the 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.

Our first VIDEO podcast, featuring a track from the New CD!

2012-01-12T09:18:00.002-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood features a VIDEO from the band's new CD, "Wade in the Water."

Since we started this podcast three years ago, it's always been an audio affair, but with the start of a new year, we thought we'd try something different -- our first VIDEO podcast. And we got a great one to start with.

Last August, when we went in the studio to record our new "Wade in the Water" CD, Michael Valentine, Adam Harris and the good folks with Live at Trackside made videos of us recording a number of the tunes. This week Michael released a video of us doing this great old Hokum Boys song, "Somebody Been Usin' That Thing." click here to watch it. Hope you enjoy it.

And if you're interested in getting your hands on the new CD, come by the web site at 1937flood.com -- we'll tell you how you can order right online! -- click here to read all about it.

Come to Our Party This Friday Night, Dec. 30!

2011-12-29T10:19:00.002-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood features another track from the band's new CD, "Wade in the Water."

If you're in the Huntington area, we sure hope you'll drop by to party with us this Friday night, Dec. 30, at the Ballroom of the Renaissance Center at 900 8th Street. We'll be playing tunes from "Wade in the Water," our first new CD in nearly eight years. The whole band will be on stage and the new CD will be available for purchase.

Oh, and if you can't attend our New Year's Eve Eve do, remember you can also buy the CD online through our web site -- click here to read all about it.

Meanwhile, to get you in the mood, here's another sample track from the new disc -- fiddlin' Joe Dobbs and "Whisky Before Breakfast" -- bad idea, but a great tune. Click here to hear the audio.

Oh and by the way, our friend Dave Lavender gave us a great shout-out in this morning's Herald-Dispatch. Click here to see his report.

Sample The Flood's 1st New CD in 8 Years!

2011-12-22T08:49:00.003-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood features the title track of the band's new CD, "Wade in the Water."

This is the 150th episode of this podcast. Three years ago this week we started these weekly installments of our ongoing digital jam session. But that's not the only thing we're celebrating.

This week The Flood rolls out its first new CD in almost eight years. We unveiled it at last night's jam session and now, so that our online family can be part of the festivities too, we're devoting this week's podcast to a sample track from the new album. Click here to come to the web site to read all about it and to hear the audio.

Finally, remember that the 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

2011-12-15T09:06:00.002-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam sessions features The Flood's spin on a traditional theme.

There must be a million versions of the song "Pretty Polly." You can trace it all the way back to the British Isles and ballads like "The Gosport Tragedy" and "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter." We've always played a little fast and loose with the traditional Appalachian melody and lyrics, particularly late at night, as with last night's version when it was the final tune of the jam session. Hear the audio.

Finally, remember that the 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.

This Week from The Flood Jam Sessions

2011-12-08T09:02:00.002-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam sessions features an old friend doing a great old Utah Phillips standard.

Our weekly jam sessions are often blessed with extraordinary instrumentalists -- guitarists, fiddlers, banjo pickers and more -- but occasionally we're also joined by an excellent song stylist.

Such a singer is Dan Cowan, who hails from the little town of Pinch, W.Va., in Kanawha County. Dan's work schedule doesn't allow him to drop by very often, but when he does it's always a special moment. In this track, it's late in the evening. Doug Chaffin brings out his fiddle and he and Dan duet on"Rock Salt & Nails." Hear the audio.

Finally, remember that the 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

2011-12-01T09:56:00.001-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a new spin of an old, old song.

The jam session seldom starts with the same tune week after week, but often ends with one. After several hours of music, after the voices are spent and fingers are sore, someone's calling for the old folk music chestnut "House of the Rising Sun" usually signals that the collective is finished for another week.

But that doesn't mean the assembly will play the song the same way each time. Sometimes it's fast and furious, other times it's slow and bluesy. Sometimes it's a serious ballad, other times, new, just for laughs. Last night? Well, it wasn't a first -- but it has been a while since we've done it in waltz time… Hear the audio.

Finally, remember that the 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

2011-11-24T08:50:00.001-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a moment for last night's pre-Thanksgiving bash.

For many around here, Thanksgiving isn't so much about travel. Instead, we're the home that people come back to for the holiday.

On the eve of Thanksgiving 2011, we had our dear friend Jacob Scarr home from college in Colorado. And New Yorker Matt Parker was in the town visiting his grandparents. Well, we had to get these two young guitarists trading licks on an old blues, the way they have on Thanksgiving jam sessions in previous years.

Oh, and if you listen closely toward the end of the track, that's jam session newcomer Sonny Sumner with a tasteful little ride on his electric. Yes, it was a guitaroarious evening. Hear the audio.

Finally, remember that the 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

2011-11-17T10:17:00.001-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam sessions features a favorite swing standard.

Bassist Randy Hamilton nailed it last night. As he was packing up at the end of the evening, he said, "Boy, there sure is a lot of energy in the room when the chick singer's here. She just radiates it!"

So true! Our Michelle Walker can't make it to the jam session every week, but when she does, the room lights up. Here's her last number of the evening -- "Sunny Side of the Street" -- and it's just as powerful as her first two hours earlier. Hear the audio.

Finally, remember that the 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

2011-11-10T09:15:00.003-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features an old tune with a new friend!

Pittsburgh harmonica sensation Mark Keen actually grew up in our town. In fact, he and one of our jam session regulars, guitarist Randy Brown, went all through school together here back in the '70s.

Well, Mark was back home in Huntington this week. Last night Randy brought him to his first Flood jam session, and, good golly, we had a ball. Mark limbered up his harps as soon as he hit door and we didn't stop for more than two hours. Now, we understand Mark doesn't get home very often but we hoping that from now when he does, he puts The Flood on his "to-do" list! Hear the audio.

By the way, remember that the 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.

This Week from The Flood Jam Sessions

2011-11-03T09:49:00.003-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam sessions features our revisiting a tune we started playing more than a decade ago.

Not long ago, Joe Dobbs added a fifth string to one of his fiddles which gives him a lovely new lower register to play with. Sometimes it's like having another instrument in the band, a cross between a violin and viola.

Late in the evening at a recent jam session, Joe demonstrated how this innovation can give a whole new voice to tune like "Down by the Sally Gardens," which The Flood's been playing since its first CD more than 10 years ago.

Oh, and by the way, that's our buddy Jim Rumbaugh playing that beautiful harmonica solo. Hear the audio.

Finally, remember that the 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

2011-10-27T09:47:00.002-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam sessions features a great old 1930s fiddle tune.

Sometimes one tune sets the mood for the whole evening. Last night I said to Joe Dobbs, "How about a fiddle tune?" Out came "Cincinnati Rag," a great old Byrd Moore - Clarence Green piece from 1930 that we haven't really done much with in years.

Well, it got everybody grinning. And if you listen closely, that Randy Brown in the middle of things, taking a break on a borrowed guitar. It was just that kind of night. Hear the audio.

In other Flood news, we have a new video for you to check out! Last August, The Flood visited the studios of theTrackside Live, Adam Harris's newly developed live performance video shoot that captures high quality video and audio recordings of unique bands performing in a relaxed atmosphere. We spent a great evening with Adam, Bud Carroll, Michael Valentine and the rest of the guys, and some exciting things are in the works that we'll be able to tell you about in the months ahead. In the meantime, for a 4-minute YouTube teaser, CLICK HERE!.

Finally, remember that the 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

2011-10-20T09:57:00.003-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam sessions features an original by a jam session first-timer.

Tom Norman has been playing in rock 'n' roll bands around here for decades, occasionally dipping into rockabilly. For instance, back in the '90s, he was on Joe Dobbs's old "Music from the Mountains" radio show on West Virginia Public Radio show.

Well, last night Tom finally made it to a Flood jam session and before the evening was out, we had him singing an original. Hear the audio.

In other Flood news, this just in -- we have a new video for you to check out! Last August, The Flood visited the studios of Trackside Live, a newly developed live performance video shoot that captures high quality video and audio recordings of bands performing in a relaxed atmosphere. We spent a great evening with Adam Harris, Bud Carroll, Michael Valentine and the rest of the Trackside team. Some exciting things are in the works that we'll be able to tell you about in the months ahead. In the meantime, to view a 4-minute YouTube teaser, CLICK HERE!

Finally, remember that the 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.

This Week from The Flood Jam Sessions

2011-10-13T09:39:00.003-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam sessions features a little known Bob Dylan tune performed by one of our favorite jam session guests.

Many of us think we know a lot of Dylan tunes. And then we think again of our good friend Rob McNurlin, who really knows a lot of Dylan tunes.

One night last summer when Rob was home from Nashville and sitting in with us, our old buddy Zoe Brewer was in the room and she said, "Hey, Rob, do that Willie McTell song!" Rob thought for a moment and then out came this beautiful, little-known song that Dylan wrote in the early 1980s and didn't release until almost a decade later. Rob's rendition of "Blind Willie McTell" was the hit of the evening. Hear the audio.

By the way, if you'd like see video of Rob doing this and other songs at the Flood jam sessions, CLICK HERE!

Finally, remember that the 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

2011-10-06T09:01:00.002-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a version of a blues standard that we learned from vinyl: a 1961 Folkways recording by the late giant Eric Von Schmidt.

The jam session's always better when there's a harmonica in the room. Twice the fun when there's two of them! Last night The Flood's regular harmonicat, Sam St. Clair, was joined by Flood buddy Jim Rumbaugh, happily a frequent visitor to our Wednesday nights.

Here we turned Sam and Jim loose on Eric's version of "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor." Hear the audio.

Finally, remember that the 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

2011-09-29T09:32:00.001-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a revisit with a wonderful jazz standard.

It's always a sweeter evening when The Chick Singer's on hand. We'd not seen our Michelle Walker for a month or more. She's been busy with personal, non-musical business. But last night she rolled into town and cranked Wednesday night up a couple of notches.

You know, there are tunes we never play except when Michelle is in the room, like this great old Duke Ellington number. Hear the audio.

In other news, be sure to check out our new web page at http://www.1937flood.com/pages/aa-guestvideos.html where you can see videos of guest performers at our weekly jam sessions. The videos feature Rob McNurlin, Phyllis Dale, Jesse Smith, Wendell Dobbs, Bill Hoke, Doug Imbrogno, Dale Jones, Rob and Judy Jones, Nerf Brown, Paul Martin, Jim Rumbaugh, Roger Samples, Kathy Castner, Randy Brown, Mike Smith and more. And watch this space -- we'll be regularly adding to this new spin on our ongoing digital jam session. Enjoy!

Finally, remember that the 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.

This Week from The Flood Jam Sessions

2011-09-22T09:16:00.003-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam sessions features a special moment with a tune from 1978.

Our old buddy Paul Martin doesn't join us on Wednesday night nearly often enough, but when he does, he makes memories. Recently Paul came with his mandolin and sat in for the entire evening, producing smiles all around the room.

Here he and his old Sheldon Road bandmate Randy Hamilton team up on the 1978 tune, "Ready for the Times to Get Better." The song was originally recorded by country crooner Crystal Gayle, but it's perhaps better known in the folkie world for the Doc Watson version of a few years back. Hear the audio.

In other news, be sure to check out our new web page at http://www.1937flood.com/pages/aa-guestvideos.html where you can see videos of guest performers at our weekly jam sessions. The videos feature Rob McNurlin, Phyllis Dale, Jesse Smith, Wendell Dobbs, Bill Hoke, Doug Imbrogno, Dale Jones, Rob and Judy Jones, Nerf Brown, Paul Martin, Jim Rumbaugh, Roger Samples, Kathy Castner, Randy Brown, Mike Smith and more. Enjoy!

Also, remember that the 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.

This Week from The Flood Jam Sessions

2011-09-14T09:15:00.002-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam sessions features the guys kicking back on a comfortable old blues standard.

Pamela, The Flood's manager, occasionally reminds us that the weekly jam session is social as well as musical, a gathering of friends, regular listeners as well as players. We thought of that again as we listened to this track, which seems to capture the feeling of this particular evening. The end of a long, hot summer. Folks coming in happy … happy to be out of the heat, happy to see old friends again, happy to settle into this old Mississippi Sheiks tune that's as comfortable as a soft hat and a cool breeze… Hear the audio. (Incidentally, we're posting this week's podcast a day earlier than usual, because the Bowens are leaving on vacation tomorrow.)

In other news, be sure to check out our new web page at http://www.1937flood.com/pages/aa-guestvideos.html where you can see videos of guest performers at our weekly jam sessions. The videos feature Rob McNurlin, Phyllis Dale, Jesse Smith, Wendell Dobbs, Bill Hoke, Doug Imbrogno, Dale Jones, Rob and Judy Jones, Nerf Brown, Paul Martin, Jim Rumbaugh, Roger Samples, Kathy Castner, Randy Brown, Mike Smith and more. And watch this space -- we'll be regularly adding to this new spin on our ongoing digital jam session. Enjoy!

Finally, remember that the 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.

2011-09-13T08:27:00.002-04:00

The Flood loves it when friends come to sit in at the weekly jam sessions. Pamela has made hours of videos and we've now created a special section of the web site for them.

Check out the new page at http://www.1937flood.com/pages/aa-guestvideos.html where you can see videos featuring Rob McNurlin, Phyllis Dale, Jesse Smith, Wendell Dobbs, Bill Hoke, Doug Imbrogno, Dale Jones, Rob and Judy Jones, Nerf Brown, Paul Martin, Jim Rumbaugh, Roger Samples, Kathy Castner, Randy Brown, Mike Smith and more.

And watch this space -- we'll be regularly adding to this new spin on our ongoing digital jam session. Enjoy!

From This Week's Flood Jam Session

2011-09-08T10:01:00.002-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features the guys kicking off with an old swing tune.

What we love about the Wednesday night jam sessions is that each one's different, depending on who's in the mix. It's like a good soup made from whatever ingredients just happen to be in the kitchen at the time. Some Wednesdays are all about blues, others are country or folk.

Last night was a swinging evening, with the main ingredients being Doug Chaffin on bass, Joe Dobbs on fiddle, Jim Rumbaugh on harmonica, Randy Brown on guitar, and the rest of us just reaching out and holding on for the ride… Hear 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

2011-09-01T09:46:00.002-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a couple of fiddle and guitar duets.

Randy Brown is a jazz guitar player who regularly sits in with us and just classes up the joint! And whenever he starts playing great handfuls of what our Doug Chaffin calls "those Louisville chords," it's fun to watch the jaws drop around the room.

Randy has known Joe Dobbs almost as long as The Flood has, with shared musical memories reaching back to the 1970s. These days, our Wednesday night jam sessions have become all the richer now that Randy has become a regular. Hear 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

2011-08-25T10:23:00.003-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a funny ballad from old friend, along with some storytelling!

We've not seen our great friend, Mike Smith, for months and months. In fact, since our last get-together, Mike went back home to England to visit with family and friends for three weeks or so. But now he's back in the States and last night he came back to his Flood family.

Mike's quite a musician. In addition to playing a lyrical fiddle, he also stops us in our tracks with his a cappella ballads. Here he takes along on Christy Moore's wonderful song, "A Stitch in Time."

Oh, and stay tuned when the singing's done, because the lyrics inspire Doug Chaffin to tell us a story. Hear 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.

This Week from The Flood Jam Sessions

2011-08-18T09:24:00.004-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features the legendary Phyllis Dale with an original composition dedicated to the beautiful Ohio River.

Regular listeners know that a few weeks ago, our dear friend Phyllis came by for a long-overdue visit with The Flood, and on the podcast the next day, we featured a couple of Phyllis's good-time tunes, the kind of numbers with which she used to rock The Delta Queen steamboat, where she was an on-board entertainer for 10 years.

But there's another side to Phyllis Dale too -- the ballad singer and songwriter. Here's another track from that evening. This time Phyllis does her wonderful composition, "She's the Ohio." And listen closely -- that's our good friend Wendell Dobbs sitting in on flute for a lovely solo. Hear 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.

This Week from The Flood Jam Sessions

2011-08-11T06:37:00.003-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam sessions features a great old Mississippi John Hurt standard, "Payday."

The Flood has been doing this song for years now. In fact, it's featured on the first CD we recorded a decade ago this summer. But it is still a favorite at the weekly jam sessions, where the tune takes on a different personality, depending on who's sitting in that night.

On this version, we were especially energized because the great guitarist Jesse Smith was on hand, and his stellar finger-pickin' solos took "Payday" to a whole 'nother level! Hear 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

2011-08-04T20:03:00.002-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features two hot tunes from a wild and wonderful jam session with the legendary Phyllis Dale, the original Red Hot Mama of the Delta Queen riverboat.

It was more than 15 years ago when we met singer/pianist Phyllis Dale. For more than a decade, every night Phyllis played whatever the crowd wanted when the passengers gathered for the after-hour parties in the Delta Queen steamboat' great old Texas Lounge. Phyllis is an original, a born entertainer and we've been waiting for years to get her up here for one of our Wednesday night jam sessions. Well, last night was our night, and The Flood's own crowd was enthralled.

These days Phyllis is a world-class travel agent and consultant, on the road all the time with tour groups and adventures. We don't know when we'll get her back this way. But hey, girl -- you've got a standing invitation with party with The Flood. Hear 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

2011-07-28T13:34:00.003-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a wonderful duet on a beautiful ballad from the British Isles.

Joe Dobbs and Dr. Wendell Dobbs are not related, but when you hear Joe's fiddle and Wendell's flute together, you'd swear these Dobbses were brothers. Or at least, they ought to be.

Wendell, a music professor at Marshall University and a section leader of the Huntington Symphony Orchestra, is an old friend. (And he and his wife, Linda, live only a few blocks from where The Flood has its weekly jam session, so, honestly, Wendell, you have very little excuse for not dropping in more often!)

Here, he and Joe put their special touch on "The Water is Wide." Hear 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

2011-07-21T11:15:00.002-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features several tunes from our friend Jesse Smith, the phenomenal, nationally known fingerpicker.

Jesse came down from his home in Wadsworth, Ohio, near Akron, to sit in with us last night for one sweet evening. Jesse makes everything sing -- just listen to his solo near the end of our trot through a 1918 Leo Wood standard, "Somebody Stole My Gal." Then stayed tuned as Jesse leads the guys on a tear through "Little Rock Getaway." Hear 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

2011-07-14T11:34:00.002-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a grand tune in the tradition of 1920s and '30 stringbands.

It's always a good summer when our friends Rod and Judy Jones arrive on one of their regular visits from their native Australia. And now 2011 is officially a good summer. The Aussies have landed again!

The Flood first met Rod and Judy, expert players of old-time stringband music of the 1920s and '30s, more than three decades ago, during the couple's first visit to The States. Then, as now, whenever they sit in with us, we all get back to our roots. Hear 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

2011-07-07T13:14:00.002-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a favorite tune from old friend.

One of our favorite local bands used to be Sheldon Road, a trio of great singers and pickers named Paul Martin, Randy Hamilton and Kenny Adams. Alas, the group disbanded a few years ago, but we've stayed in touch with all the guys. In fact, Randy Hamilton has been sitting in with us on bass for several weeks now.

And last night, Randy's old compatriot Paul Martin dropped in with his sweet mandolin. We even got Paul singing some -- here he leads us through a great old Bob Dylan standard. Hear 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

2011-06-30T11:00:00.003-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features three tracks from last night's special reunion with one of The Flood's first members.

When someone says The Flood is an eclectic string band, they're actually paying tribute to one of our founders, Roger Samples. And whenever Roger stops by to sit in again with his old partners, as he did recently, we're reminded all over again of just how wide and deep our dear friend's musical tastes run, from folk and blues and The Beatles to a sweet old Jimmy Rodgers tune.

Here are three tracks from Roger's Flood Homecoming. Hear 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

2011-06-23T09:15:00.003-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a great old Jean Ritchie composition.

Doug Chaffin has played with us for more than a dozen years now. Most nights he's busy driving the band on his big upright bass, but last night our buddy Randy Hamilton came by to sit in with his sweet acoustic electric bass, so Doug switched off to other instruments -- and he plays a bunch of them.

On this tune, you hear him take the first solo on guitar, but by the end of the song, Doug's switched to his fiddle. Oh, and if you listen closely, you'll hear Randy also singing that high harmony with us on the choruses. Hear 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

2011-06-16T09:18:00.002-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a couple of gospel tunes from our old friend Rob McNurlin.

We don't get to see Rob nearly often enough. But last night the Ashland, Ky., singer-songwriter was home from Nashville and waiting on the doorstep before the jam session even got started. The whole evening was shaped around Rob's tunes, and our favorite part was when we got him into a mood for some of his gospel tunes. Hear 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

2011-06-09T09:48:00.003-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a couple of tunes from a special going-away party.

Jacob Scarr started sitting in with us when he was 14 years old, and has played lead guitar as a regular member of The Flood for the past three years. Well, now Jacob's 18 and at the end of this summer, he'll be heading off to college in Colorado.

Last night we moved the regular Wednesday night jam session to Jacob's house, where neighbors, family, friends and Flood fans all came together for a huge send-off party in Jacob's honor. And of course, on this, the morning-after, we've got to share with our podcast family a couple of tunes from that special night. Hear 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

2011-06-02T09:28:00.003-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features an old jug band standard, but with lots of new contributors.

One of the things we love about our Wednesday nights is that the weekly jam session is a kind of crossroads where old and new friends get to meet.

Last night, our old buddy percussionist Dan Trout dropped by on a trip from Athens, Ohio, and got to meet fellow drummer John Smith, who lately has been sitting in with us with his brushes and snare. Meanwhile, it was the first jam session for Paula Stewart, a talented member of Jim Rumbaugh's wonderful Huntington Harmonica Club. Here's a tune that features all our visitors. Hear 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

2011-05-19T10:07:00.003-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features our take on a great 1933 Ethel Waters standard.

Michelle Walker, the chick singer, can't make it to the jam session every week, but it's always a special night when she arrives early and stays late. Last night was such a night. Michelle came in out of the rain with a song in mind that we could do as a little anthem for the stormy week we've had here in the valley. Hear 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

2011-05-12T09:44:00.000-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a little history lesson, hokum style.

Every May, The Flood plays one of its favorite gigs of the year. It's the annual Coon Sanders Nighthawks Fans Bash, a gathering here in our hometown of Huntington, West Virginia, that celebrates the early days of jazz and Dixieland.

For seven or eight years now, The Flood has come to the bash's Saturday morning session with a "Jug Band Breakfast," an hour or so of bacon and eggs with a liberal side of hokum tunes. In preparation for the day, we focused on our jug band repertoire at last night's jam session. Hear 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

2011-05-05T08:32:00.001-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a tune from fiddler Joe Dobbs' diverse musical background.

Spending his early years in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, Joe was exposed a wide variety of musical styles, from Cajun to country, blues to bluegrass, pop to polka. Forty years ago when he came north and east and helped us form The Flood, Joe brought us a huge song bag.

Here's one that was always popular with the sizable German population of Joe's old stomping grounds. And incidentally, this also is a substantial answer to anyone who thinks traditional fiddlers just want to plop down in plain D and stay there. "Clarinet Polka" makes three key changes each time through the melody. Hear 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.

This Week from The Flood Jam Sessions

2011-04-28T10:04:00.002-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a late-night ride in the neighborhood of "The House of the Rising Sun."

Sometimes the magic happens at the tail-end of the evening, after the voices are strained and the fingers are tender from all that picking. On this particular track, half the band had already packed gone home. Jacob Scarr and Joe Dobbs were fixing to do same, when our buddy Jim Rumbaugh came in late from the cold and limbered up his harmonicas, so they decided to stick around for a couple more tunes. Hear 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

2011-04-21T08:58:00.002-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a newcomer with an old tune. One of our favorite parts of the weekly confabs is getting to sit in with musicians from all over the country who stop in for one of our Wednesday nights.

Last night was the first time for fiddler Susan Staton of the Central-Florida-based Streak of Lean old-time string band. Susan grew up in our area, but went to work for the railroad and transferred to various cities, from Richmond to Jacksonville. But she obviously never forgot her Appalachian roots. Here Susan leads us on a raucous romp through "Soldier Joy."

And if you listen closely, you'll hear that Joe Dobbs, the Flood's regular fiddler, switches to mandolin for the occasion. And Dave Peyton does some nice Autoharp work before passing it back to the visiting violinist. Hear 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

2011-04-14T09:42:00.002-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features an old tune from a new friend.

From Chesapeake, Ohio, N.F. Brown -- everybody calls him "Nerf" -- first dropped by the jam session a few weeks ago and for most of that evening, he just sat quietly in the corner strumming his Taylor guitar. It was only near the end of the night, after many of the regulars had already gone home, that Nerf offered a tune -- and blew the doors off the place with his big, beautiful voice.

Right then and there we told him he had to come back and next time sing earlier so more folks would get to hear him. Well, last night was the night -- here Mr. Brown leads The Flood through a great old Josh White standard. Good times, Nerf -- come back any time, buddy! Hear 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

2011-04-07T09:14:00.003-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features an old Charlie Poole standard, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down."

We had so many pickers at the jam session last night, it was more like The 1937 Flood orchestra, with guest artists.

Jim Rumbaugh came in with a belt full of harmonicas. Randy Brown was there with his big beautiful f-cut Gibson and Floodster emeritus Chuck Romine dropped by with that sweet little tenor guitar that we've always loved so much. With all that extra string and wind power, we rocked the neighborhood Hear 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

2011-03-31T09:14:00.002-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a typical Wednesday night moment.

If you've ever been to one of our Wednesday night jam sessions, you know that people -- players and listeners -- are always coming and going. The music evolves, depending on who's on hand at the time that a particular tune is being played.

Here's a case in point. Last night, our lead guitarist, Jacob Scarr, had just arrived and tuned up as we were launching into this old Sonny Terry-Brownie McGhee number. Then midway through, harmonicat Sam St. Clair came in, took his seat, grabbed a harp and hopped onboard before the song was done. Hear 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.

Picking with Rog

2011-03-25T09:50:00.002-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam sessions features a couple of tunes with one of The Flood's earliest members.

Roger Samples, one of the founders of The Flood, is a bit under the weather these days, so yesterday The Flood made a house call. Joe Dobbs and Charlie Bowen hit the road, hooking up with Buddy Griffin and Rog's brother Mack for a few hours of music in Roger's Mount Sterling, Ky., home.

During the more than 10 years he played regularly with The Flood, Rog brought in so many tunes for us to do, from beautiful Michael Peter Smith ballads to crazy jugband numbers. Click to hear two tunes from the visit.

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.

This Week from The Flood Jam Sessions

2011-03-17T09:16:00.003-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam sessions features a couple of rounds on the great old tune, "Dinah."

Folks who regularly drop in to our Wednesday night jam sessions are privy to a pretty badly kept secret: namely, that we don't really have arrangements for our music. A tune for The Flood is like a pair of comfortable old shoes that's been worn in just right by slipping them and dancing around.

Jam session regulars listen as new tunes come into the mix and get softened up by repetition each week. Here's a case in point -- we've just started playing with this great old 1926 Ethel Waters standard and in this track, you can hear we're still experimenting with it. Click to hear the tune.

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.

Come See the New Flood Videos!

2011-03-10T14:20:00.003-05:00

We've got a little something different this week. Instead of our regular audio podcast, we're inviting you to come over to our website and check out a few new videos.

Our good friends Norman and Shirley Davis invited us to a party last night at The Wyngate, their new retirement home in Barboursville, West Virginia -- just us and 30 or 40 of their closest friends. We had a ball playing for this bunch, and Pamela captured some cool video.

Come take a look -- visit our web site at www.1937flood.com and click the banner at the top of the front page.

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

2011-03-03T10:03:00.003-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features some fancy picking by a visitor to our Wednesday night gathering.

Joe Dobbs has been knowing guitar player Jesse Smith of Wadsworth, Ohio, near Akron, for five or six years now, but last night was the first time some of the rest of us got to meet him. On his way to the Cabin Fever Pickin' Party in Hampton, Va., Jesse came with Joe to sit with us and the finger-picking phenom sweetened up everything we played.

Here are a couple of samples, starting with one of The Flood's jugband standards. Then, later in the evening, Joe and Jesse launched into an especially fine version of "When You're Smiling." Hey, you had us smiling all evening, Jesse. Hurry back! Hear the two tunes.

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

2011-02-24T09:35:00.002-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session reaches way back for a tune from the group's earliest days.

It was a mainstay for The Flood when the band started back in the mid-1970s, but until last night's jam session, we'd not played it in literally several decades. It's a blues standard from the 1920s by the great Leroy Carr. Hear 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

2011-02-17T10:15:00.002-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features some fancy fiddling on an old tune called "Rachel."

Norman and Shirley Davis have become our most loyal Wednesday night listeners. Lately they've been little disappointed that one of their favorites -- fiddler Joe Dobbs -- couldn't make the jam sessions.

Well, last night, when Joe blew back in on a warm spring-like February evening, one look at the Davises told you how pleased they were to see and hear him again. And Joe played a couple of special fiddle tunes just for Shirley and Norman. Here's a sample.

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

2011-02-10T10:16:00.003-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a new sound from Randy Brown.

We never really know what direction our Wednesday night jam sessions will take. It all depends on who shows up and what they bring to play.

Jazz guitarist Randy Brown has been sitting in with us most Wednesdays for more than a year now, playing great solos on his Gibson L5. But last night, Randy came to the door with his plectrum banjo, a beautiful 50-year-old Vega, and suddenly an evening of quiet folk songs took a decidedly raucous turn. Here's a sample.

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

2011-02-03T11:39:00.003-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a bit of our birthday celebration for our youngest Floodster, guitarist Jacob Scarr.

Jacob turned 18 last night, and that struck us as a pretty darn good reason to celebrate. Our gift to him? Multiple solos on just about every tune we played, including all the solos on this little blues number. And Jacob's gift to us? Well, besides years of tasty music every Wednesday night, last night his mom, P.J., sent over cannoli, making it a pretty sweet evening all the way around! 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.

Freebie from The Flood

2011-01-27T10:11:00.003-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood features a tune for last weekend's reunion with our buddy Roger Samples, one of the founding members of The Flood.

From its first days in the 1970s through the mid-1980s, Rog played and sang with us, and his guitar styling, vocals and song selection have set the standard for The Flood ever since. Even after Roger and his family moved to Kentucky, we stayed in touch.

Last weekend, on a bright, crisp January day, a bunch of us headed to Mount Sterling, Ky., for a little reunion with Roger and his brothers, Mack and Ted, who form the legendary Samples Brothers Band. Here's a tune for that grand day, with Mack and Rog doing the vocals and that's Ted on the five-string. Click here for the audio. Oh, and there's video of this tune and others from the session on our web site. Click here for the moving pictures.

By the way, tunes like this 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

2011-01-06T09:17:00.002-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a Tin Pan Alley special from more than nine decades ago.

1919 was an amazing year in music. With The Great War over, Tin Pan Alley was pumping out the hits again. "12th Street Rag" and "Royal Garden Blues," "Swanee" and "I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate."

Meanwhile, on the other end of the block, a trio of composers -- Charles McCarron, Casey Morgan and Arthur Swanstrom -- were writing "The Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me" ... just so The Flood could flirt with it 90 years later. 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

2010-12-30T09:22:00.003-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features an oh-so-beautiful Roy Harvey ballad called… uh, "We've Got Moonshine in Those West Virginia Hills."

Flood buddy Rose Marie Riter, a regular at our Wednesday night jam sessions, heads up our ministry of laughter and general tomfoolery. Miz Rose brought her brother and niece to last night's jam session and, at one point in the evening she requested this number, perhaps as a kind of instruction for the uninitiated. Brother Dave Peyton was on hand and happy to do the honors. 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

2010-12-23T17:11:00.003-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a pair of tunes for the Christmas season.

First we turn it over to Dave Ball -- to us, he's known as "Bub" -- for a seasonal chuckle: a twisted Christmas parody from the great Bob Rivers. Bub even came prepared for his tune with a few visual aids he could pull from his pockets at key moments. Of course, you can't see them on an audio podcast, but you can hear our reaction, so, hey, let your imagination take over.

Later in the evening, The Flood's good buddy, Mike Smith, dropped in to favor us with a beautiful a cappella rendition of one of our all-time favorite carols of the season. Happy holidays, everybody! 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.

This Week from The Flood Jam Sessions

2010-12-09T09:11:00.002-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a tune reborn because of Michelle Walker's new harmony part.

One of the fun things about our weekly jam sessions is that there are often surprises. For instance, for years The Flood has used a Jimmy Reed piece from 1959 -- "You Got Me Runnin'" -- as a simple little warm-up tune, without thinking much about it. However, recently, Michelle came up with an interesting harmony part for the vocals and suddenly it's like a new brand new tune for us. 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

2010-12-02T09:30:00.001-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a fiddle tune that became an international hit.

New Yorker Jay Ungar wrote "Ashokan Farewell" in 1982 and for nearly a decade, the sweet waltz, written in the style of a Scottish lament, was known mainly only to Jay's fellow fiddlers. But then in 1990s, filmmaker Ken Burns used it as the title theme of his Civil War series on PBS and suddenly the tune was known around the world.

The song's always been a late-night favorite at the Flood jam sessions, especially when, like last night, Doug Chaffin moves over to guitar to partner with Joe Dobbs' beautiful fiddle. 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

2010-11-25T08:34:00.003-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a Thanksgiving Eve kazoo free-for-all.

Twenty-seven people in one room. Pamela comes in with a baggie of kazoos. Orchestrated chaos ensues.

That was last night at the jam session. It being the night before Thanksgiving, the crowd included friends coming from as far away as New York and Washington and as near as across town and from down around the block. Good friends… always something to be thankful for. 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

2010-11-18T09:15:00.002-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features Michelle Walker on a Erroll Garner standard.

Flood co-founder Dave Peyton is bit under the weather right now and has not been able to attend the weekly jam sessions lately, and last night the guys were especially missing him.

So, knowing how Dave's always been such a fan the great Johnny Mathis, Michelle Walker led us on a special musical get-well card for our old spiritual leader and kazoo guru. Hurry back, Brother Dave -- without you we get all, uh, misty... 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

2010-11-11T10:32:00.003-05:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a great old Hoagy Carmichael tune.

The Flood has an abiding love for Carmichael's work. Sometimes nothing fits the mood better than one of Hoagy's ballads, and last night was such a night.

At a lull in the usual rowdy jugband action, Joe Dobbs eased into "Georgia on My Mind." On the break, we turned it over to Jacob Scarr for a couple of sweet choruses on the guitar before handing it back to Joe's fiddle, and in the process, made a memory.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.

This Week from The Flood Jam Sessions

2010-11-04T08:23:00.003-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam sessions features a re-polarized jugband tune from the '30s.

Our hero, Hudson Woodbridge -- known to millions as Tampa Red -- recorded his tune called "No Matter How She Done" in Chicago in 1932.

Sixty or 70 years, The Flood picked it up and flipped the polarity on the old number, doing it as "Any Way She Done," but, hey, that don't matter. Any way you do it, it's still Tampa Red's baby! 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.

This Week from The Flood Jam Sessions

2010-10-28T09:31:00.003-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam sessions features a tune from our visit last summer with our Missouri buddies, Dave Para and Cathy Barton.

Because of travel and then, more recently, illness, we've not had a jam session for a couple of weeks. So this is a chance to reach back in the archives for a tune from an earlier session.

This was last August when Dave and Cathy dropped in and, at the end of the evening, they took a ride on "Got the Kansas City Blues," the first number ever recorded by the great Delmore Brothers in 1931. 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.

This Week from The Flood Jam Sessions

2010-10-14T09:21:00.002-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features our revisiting of a Leadbelly tune.

Our weekly jam sessions often let us get reacquainted with old friends. And sometimes the old friends are old tunes. We hadn't played that great old Leadbelly standard "Midnight Special" for five or six years, but one autumn evening recently it just sort of felt like the right song for the right night. Oh, it took us a minute or two to remember how we used to do it, but after a chorus or two, it drop right back into the groove. 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

2010-10-07T09:56:00.003-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a special guest, classic bluegrass fiddler Ron Eldridge on two tunes, in two different styles.

It's always interesting when dye-in-the-wool bluegrassers wander into one of our jam sessions. There's usually one of two possible reactions when they get a whiff of The Flood's thick jumbo of blues, swing and jugband music. They either about-face and head back to the door or they grin and grab a seat at the table. (The good ones even bring their own spoon.)

You'd be hard-pressed to find a better bluegrass player today than Ron Eldridge. Ronnie grew in our area, started playing his daddy's fiddle in the late 1960s and by the mid-'70s was playing with the locally legendary Sweeney Brothers band. In the 1980s, Eldridge struck out for Nashville and has been there ever since, a solid citizen in that famed music scene and a frequent performer on The Grand Ole Opry.

But last night it was The Flood's turn and Ron showed us he could put the BLUE(S) in bluegrass. Ron was such a good sport to sample our music and in the end gave us a treat. Flying back into more familiar territory, he capped the evening with a few choruses of Bob Wills' classic, "Maiden's Prayer." Thanks, Ronnie! 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

2010-09-30T09:29:00.002-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features Joe Dobbs and a gorgeous Welch melody.

Last weekend, Joe and Charlie traveled to Cincinnati to play in the wedding of Charlie's cousin, Andy Dronberger. Andy and his new bride, Melissa, wanted something different than the usual wedding music fare for their big day, so for the bride's entrance at the ceremony, we played a traditional melody, "The Ash Grove."

That haunting, beautiful old tune was still very much on our minds at last night's regular Flood jam session, when Joe shared it with the guys. 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.

This Week from The Flood Jam Session

2010-09-13T05:47:00.007-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a classic from the annals of kazoory.

The first time we ever heard the kazoo played on the radio was in the mid-'60s when Peter, Paul and Mary took a kazoo break on "San Francisco Bay Blues." And it turns out the kazoo is generally associated with this great old tune. One-man band Jesse Fuller, who wrote the song, took a kazoo solo on his original 1962 recording of it. And then, 30 years later, super-cool Eric Clapton even took a kazoo break when he recorded it.

Of course, in The Flood, it's Brother Dave Peyton who's our hoodoo kazoo guru, and last night he spun a little of that old kazoo magic on the tune when it popped up at the 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.

This Week from The Flood Jam Session

2010-08-26T10:19:00.003-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a rollicking rendition of a great old tune from the 1930s.

Our good friend Richard Cobb says our weekly jam session reminds him of an old-fashioned "happening." Every week, the music that happens is solely determined by who walks through the door that night.

And last night was a good example. About a third of The Flood couldn't make the session, but those of us who did were joined by buddies who came just to sit in for the evening, good folks like Jim Rumbaugh on harmonica and Randy Brown on guitar. All that music got stirred up and the next thing you know, we were whipping up a new batch of "Somebody Stole My Girl." 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.

This Week from The Flood Jam Session

2010-08-19T13:08:00.003-04:00

This week's freebie from The 1937 Flood jam session features a great old riverboating tune by our fine Missouri friends Cathy Barton and Dave Para.

It was on the good old steamboat Delta Queen that we first met Dave and Cathy. Most recently, they shared the stage with us at a concert in Fairmont, W.Va. (In case you missed it, we recently posted a pair of videos from that show -- check here for that).

Anyway, a couple of weeks later, on the way home to Boonville, Mo., from Virginia, Cathy and Dave stopped to spend the evening with us and shared a few tunes at the Wednesday night jam session. The two know a passel of riverboat songs. Here's a sweet one called "The Bayou Sara" from Mary Wheeler's 1944 collection of roustabout songs, "Steamboatin' Days."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.

Hear The Flood Nov. 18 -- and Help a Good Cause

2009-11-10T07:53:00.003-05:00

The Flood comes to the Renaissance Arts Center (the old Huntington High), 900 8th Street, Huntington, WV, on Wednesday evening, Nov. 18, to help off-set a tragedy that has befallen the family of our very good friend Dale Jones, who is, of course, the heart and soul of the joyous annual Coon Sanders Nighthawks Reunion Fan Bash here.

Dale's daughter Kathy, recently had to have her left arm amputated because of complications from a blood clot. As if that were not horrible enough, this misfortune has resulted in serious financial difficulties for Kathy and her family because of the hospital bills.

Now Dale's musical family is coming together to try to assist. The Nov. 18 concert -- which will feature four local groups, including The Flood -- will be FREE, but donations will be gratefully accepted throughout the event to help with Kathy's considerable medical expenses.

Here are the groups and the schedule for the benefit concert:

-- The Shims, 7 - 7:30 p.m.

-- The 1937 Flood, 7:35 - 8:30 p.m.

-- The Huntington Federal Band, 8:35 - 9 p.m.

-- The Backyard Dixie Jazz Stompers, 9:05 - 10 p.m.

Please mark your calendar and come join us for a fun and important event. And, if you can, forward this message to others you think would like to attend.

How to Listen to Flood Radio

2009-11-01T07:10:00.002-05:00

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!

2009-10-25T08:28:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-17T06:20:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-02T11:28:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-14T18:25:00.005-04:00

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

2009-04-17T09:35:00.005-04:00

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

2009-04-05T08:39:00.008-04:00

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.

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

2009-03-28T09:21:00.003-04:00

As everybody's mother always said (usually with a pretty heavy sigh), if you want something Done Right, do it yourself.

Well, in our case, the real truth is that after more than three decades of making music, we just got flat-out tired of waiting for someone else to produce The 1937 Flood bootleg album, and (with a pretty heavy sigh) we decided that if it was going to happen, it looked like we'd have to make it so.

So... meet Hip Boots: The Flooded Basement Tapes. It's a collection of nearly two dozen cuts from various drop-in points during the 30-year-plus history of The Flood, a band deeply rooted in the foggy (some more foggy than others) years of The Hippy Culture.

In the finest tradition of bootlegs, the recording quality on this disc isn't always the greatest. These field recordings were made on the fly at coffeehouses and parties, clubs and concerts and in people's living rooms, using whatever equipment was available, from cheap cassette recorders to reel-to-reel machines that were pretty nice for the day to (later still) digital recorders of all stripes. Setting aside the sometimes suckiness of the recording quality, the tracks do capture the spirit and madness that brought The 1937 Flood together in the first place and has kept it together today.

Hip Boots also gives the current Family Flood a chance to send a huge shoutout to earlier Floodsters, great friends and brothers like Rog Samples and Chuck Romine, Stewart Schneider and Bill Hoke, Randy Nuckols and others. They're all still with us in the flow. The disc also feature some of the beautiful ladies who brighten our lives with their tunes, including Michelle Walker and Kathy Castner.

The CD is divided right down the middle between "Then," with the recordings from the 1970s and '80s, and "Now," with live concert recordings and studio out-takes made between 2001 through 2006. (We're keeping the 1990s to ourselves. The Flood: The Missing Years. Yeah, right. Let's just wait for the movie.)

Highlights on the new/old CD? Well, that's like trying to decide on your favorite baby pictures, but we'll try.

You gotta love Dave Peyton and Rog Samples' Spike Jones-ish rendering of "Unchanged Melody" from some obviously well lubricated evening in 1981. And then there's more recent track that finds the guys teaching the Huntington Symphony Orchestra to play kazoos at the Flood's performance with the orchestra at Huntington's Harris Riverfront Park in July 2002. And from the night before that concert, there's Chuck Romine's wonderful vocal and banjo lead on a rollicking version of "Bill Bailey" recorded in Morehead State University in Kentucky. And you gotten hear Joe Dobbs' sail through "June Apple," and Charlie Bowen in preacher mode as he shouts out "Samson and Delilah." Oo oo, and we smile every time we hear Randy Nuckols' spoons playing and Stew Schneider's great harmonica work on "Mama Don't Allow" from 1979. Then there's Bill Hoke trying out a dobro on an Eagles tune...

Well, okay, you see. We really can't really decide on favorites. But the good news is that you can sample for yourself every track of the CD -- and if you're so inclined, even buy it -- online with this link.

By the way, none of the 22 performances on Hip Boots appears on any other Flood CD -- in fact, 90 percent of the tunes themselves are exclusive to this disc -- so it could make a nice addition to the Flood shelf, especially if you know somebody who's on a mission to collect them all! We love people with a plan.

Come to the Jam Session (From The Cybersphere)

2009-03-22T06:48:00.002-04:00

During the spring and summer, Flood buddies JoAnn and Bob McCoy are regulars at the Wednesday night jam sessions, and the band always plays better in the presence of those smiling, loving faces.

In the colder months, though, the McCoys are gone from the Ohio Valley, staying in Florida. But that doesn't mean they're not getting their Wednesday night Flood fix.

JoAnn said in email last week that she and Bob listened to the Flood's Red Barn radio show online, even tuning into it "about the time you would have been having your practice. And we felt like we were there. You may have seen us bilocating there. :-)

'We may have to listen to that every Wednesday night till we come up," JoAnn added. "The sound was so clear, the songs and music were just great, and everyone seemed to be having such a good time. It was just like in your music room with everyone there. I'm so glad they put it on the Internet where everyone can listen to it. It was just great. Thanks for letting everyone know about it."

If you have friends currently elsewhere and in need of a little Flood infusion, tell them how they can use The 1937 Flood web site to party with the band -- and, of course, in cyberspace they don't even have to wait until a Wednesday night.

Remember, too, that besides the Radio Barn radio show, you also should visit our Digital Jam Session page. So far we have about an hour's worth of music there, all recorded informally (okay, QUITE informally) at the jam sessions, with a new tune added every week. Of course, the tracks there aren't anything like "studio quality" -- it's just a single recorder in the middle of the room, after all -- but they do capture the spirit of our Wednesdays.

Oh, and finally, if you've not seen it yet, be sure to check out Tim Irr's wonderful video report for WSAZ-TV of a typical jam session night.

Now Hear The Flood Radio Show Online

2009-03-17T21:44:00.002-04:00

Last January, Floodsters were the guests of the Red Barn Radio program in Lexington, Ky. The show, which aired on various radio public radio stations in February, now can be heard online. Audio of the hour-long show has been posted on the web. For the show, the guys played a lot of music and were interviewed by host Brad Becker.

Want to hear it all? Start with this link:

www.wgad.net

When you reach the WGADNET page, scroll down to the Red Barn Radio logo, the click on the "Flash" button on the right side.

This should load a media player. On this screen, click on "4. RED BARN RADIO SHOW 07-14 - 1937 FLOOD" and the audio begins. (Note you also can use this player to listen to other recent Re Barn shows, including one by The Flood's old buddy, Rob McNurlin, who appeared the week after the Flood.)

Now in its seventh season, Red Barn Radio is a syndicated weekly broadcast started by Ed Commons and Marilyn Myers and produced with Becker. In-depth interview with the performers are conducted during the performance and incorporated into the final edit for airplay by affiliate stations, including Public Radio in several states and Canada.

Meanwhile, speaking of free Floodishness, be sure to also check out 1937flood.com for more audios and videos, including a nice 4-minute TV feature, and visit our online store, where you'll find all sorts of goodies.

Filming the Flood

2009-03-04T07:11:00.002-05:00

Anchorman Tim Irr of Huntington's WSAZ-TV dropped by one of the Flood's weekly jam sessions last month and produced a feature story that beautifully captures the fun and foolishness of a Wednesday night at the Bowen Bower. We have the video on the web site.

Charlie and Pamela had invited Tim -- who lives nearby with his family in the South Side -- to simply come by and listen to the music some Wednesday night on his dinner break between his 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts. They never meant to suggest that he should come and work, but work he did! He filmed for more than hour, catching a number of tunes and interviewing members of the band and the audience.

We were fortunate that there just happened to be a particularly good turnout that evening. Susie and Ervin Jones were on hand, as were Rose Riter and her friends, Shirley and Norman Davis. From Ashland, Nancy McClellan and Zoe Davis drove in as well as Donna Chaffin, Doug's wife. And Mike Smith was sitting in with Joe on fiddle.

In his report, which aired last night, Tim interviewed Charlie, Dave Peyton and Jacob Scarr from the band, as well as Rose and jam session first-timers, Shirley and Norman.

If you missed the story on either My-Z TV or the regular 11 p.m. WSAZ newscast, you can view it on our web site -- click here -- or on YouTube.

Put the Flood on Your Chest (And Refrigerator!)

2009-03-01T06:48:00.003-05:00

No bobbleheads and Joe Dobbs action figures yet, but The 1937 Flood merchandising department has been kicking into high gear with a new line of Flood shirts, mugs, bumper stickers, magnets, buttons and more. All are available for online ordering through a Merchandise page added to the Flood site.

The new Flood gear is made possible through CafePress, the online retailer of stock and user-customized on-demand products. CafePress.com, headquartered in San Mateo, Calif., with its production facility in Louisville, was started in 1999 and has processed more than a hundred million items to date.

To check out the new online store, come to the Flood site, click the Merchandise option on any page and browse the departments: short-sleeved and long-sleeved shirts, mugs, bags, bumper sticker, buttons and magnets. Clicking any topic will take you to the CafePress installation which will handle orders and delivery. Our experience is products usually arrive within 10 days or two weeks.

We hope to regularly add new items to the lineup. Remember, if it doesn't say "Flood," it's ... uh, well, probably not...

Getting Flooded, By the Pint or By the Gallon

2009-02-17T08:30:00.003-05:00

These days there are lots of ways to get a little Flood in your life, all through the magic that is the Web.

You can order complete CDs and have those little boxes of plastic delivered to your house by mail. Or you can download CDs, song by song, and save them in your computer, cutting the postal service right out of the equation.

But wait -- say you don't want an entire Flood CD. You can say that. Oh, you might break our hearts, but you can say that. In that case, you'll want to sample the tunes on the Flood CDs and then just pick and choose the specific tracks you want and have only those tunes downloaded to your computer.

Here are some ideas for flooding your ears...

iTunes

An easy way to get Flood audio is through the free iTunes software. Go to the iTunes store with this link, which takes you to a display of Flood albums. Click any cover to see (and sample) tracks. Options let you buy and download entire CDs for $9.99 or individual tracks for 99 cents each.

Of course, to use this, you'll need to be an iTunes user. It's great, free software from Apple that runs on Windows machines as well as Macs. Here's the link for a page where you can download and install iTunes software.

Amazon.com

If you want to save a few dimes on your downloads, Amazon.com offers full Floodishness for $6.99 to $8.99 per CD, and individual songs on Amazon can be had for a little as 89 cents per track. Here's the link for Amazon.com's Flood store.

Rhapsody

If you're a user of Rhapsody.com, where individual downloaded tracks are 99 cents and the complete CD downloads range from $10.99 to $12.99, here's your link.

CD Baby

Our CD Baby location enables you to buy CDs to be mailed to you for $15 each or will let you download entire CDs $8 (but provides no facilities for buying individual tracks). Here the CD Baby link.

Getting Discs Directly from the Flood

If you'd rather have discs mailed to you directly from us, we're happy to help. Just use this link to our page.

Getting Flooded for FREE

Finally, while all the above has been about buying Flood CDs or individual tracks, remember, the Original Old Boy Band has a lot of free music available too in the form of online streaming, free weekly podcasts of our "digital jam session" and free .mp3 downloads. Check it all out on our Freebies page on the site.

The Flood Goes Web 2.0 Crazy

2009-02-07T12:53:00.002-05:00

Hey, The 1937 Flood can be as Web 2.0 cyber savant-ish as the next guy. Lately, in fact, the Original Old Boy Band has been expanding its online footprint into the new world of social networking, opening Flood-happy outposts on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and last.fm.

Here's a roundup of our social network connections and the links that will take you to them.

-- Facebook is a primary social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. On Facebook, floodsters Pamela and Charlie Bowen, David and Susie Peyton, and Michelle Walker all have already created their own individual pages. And now to the Flood itself has set up a public Facebook page. Click here to reach it. If you too already have a Facebook account, we urge you to drop in at our public page and sign up as a Flood fan. (We're trying to jazz the numbers.) If you're not Facebook-friendly yet, hey, consider joining -- it's free and it's fun.

-- last.fm is perhaps our favorite Web 2.0 network, because it is all about music and musicians. The Flood uses last.fm to provide full-length samples of tracks and to run the popular Flood Radio feature, which we wrote about in an earlier blog. To reach us on last.fm, click here. You'll find that we also use last.fm as a major distributor of our weekly Digital Jam Session files, in addition to podcasting them, as we've reported earlier.

-- MySpace is one the of the oldest social networking site, offering email, a forum and communities. We're here on MySpace. Now, we're just getting started on this service and, honestly, from what we've seen so far, it doesn't seem as powerful or as interesting as Facebook. However, we're open to persuasion. If you're a MySpace mavin and think we're missing the point, feel free to enlighten us about what we're not seeing in this obviously popular network.

-- Twitter is a free social messaging utility for staying connected by using "mini-blogs" (messages limited to several hundred characters) in real time. To twitter and follow the Flood, click here. Well, like MySpace, Twitter is one of those services whose value seems to elude us. We're guessing we're missing something big here, because twittering has become an obsession with so many folks. OK, so here's the deal: if a lot of people sign up to twit about, oh, when The Flood is stuck in traffic, what the guys are having for lunch and who's having what operation when, we'll start using Twitter religiously. We're like that. And seriously, twitting does seem like it would be useful to report whether the weekly jam session is on schedule, when a gig is coming up and so on. As we say, we can be persuaded.

So, there you have it. Let us know what you think about any of these new net connections. And if you have suggestions for others we might explore, just sing out!

Freebies from The Flood

2009-02-01T06:52:00.002-05:00

There are freebies from The Flood all around the web site. For instance, George Walker, who recorded, produced and mixed the Flood's second and third CDs (Plays Up a Storm and I'd Rather Be Flooded), recently started experimenting with some new recording software and decided to take a fresh listen to some of this older work. The result? Remasters of four flood tracks from 2002. Thanks, George!

Click here to reach the page and then click on a title from the list to hear and/or download the .mp3 for that specific tune. George's collection includes remixes of:

-- Alabama Jubilee. Penned in 1915 during Tin Pan Alley’s love affair with ragtime, this classic good-time tune was written by George L. Cobb, who that same year published his great “Are You From Dixie?”

-- Alberta, Let Your Hair Hang Down. This old folk tune actually is an Ohio River song, sung by the roustabouts who loaded and unloaded the steamboats. Hundreds of contemporary versions exist, including one by The Blues Project back in the late ’60s to a fairly recent Bob Dylan cover.

-- Lulu's Back in Town. Written by Harry Warner and Al Dubin for the 1935 stage show “Broadway Gondolier,” this great old tune was performed by the Ted Fiorito Orchestra, Mel Torme and The Mills Brothers, not to mention a fabulous version by another of our heroes, Leon Redbone.

-- Rag Mama/Gimme Dat Ding. We learned the first part of this medley (“Rag Mama”) from a 1964 recording by David Grisman’s Even Dozen Jug Band. The Flood takes the blame for combining it with “Gimme Dat Ding.” The wonderful old Albert Hammond-Mike Hazelwood novelty tune was first recorded by The Pipkins, but a better known version was the 1970s release by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show.

Don't forget we also have downloadables from the weekly jam sessions. Each Wednesday night, some or all of the folks gather at Charlie & Pamela's house for the Flood jam session. These sessions usually are recorded and these days, we share occasional tracks through a project called Jam Logs, Freebies from The Flood. We stream the Jam Logs tunes on our Digital Jam Session page and we also make them available as free downloads on our last.fm pages.

And speaking of last.fm, we also allow for free listening of the Flood tracks on that site -- click here to visit our albums page on last.fm.

Getting the Picture(s)

2009-01-23T11:29:00.002-05:00

The Family Flood does love its photos. Whether it's snapshots at parties or jam sessions, concert action photos (as much "action" has the old boys can get these days), posed shots or decidedly much UNposed shots, The Flood and its friends collect 'em and trade 'em.

Now, in the revamping of the web site, we've set aside some cyber space just for photo albums. Click here to reach the home base for Flood Fotos. So far, we have half dozen galleries in place:

-- Joe Elbert, long-time assistant managing editor for photography at The Washington Post, took in a Flood concert at Tamarack in Beckley, WV, in October 2008 and gave us some great photos of the guys, pictures that he's allowing us to share online.

-- Larry Kendall, long-time friend of the Flood, was on hand for the band's benefit concert for the ARTS Resources organization of Huntington in December 2008. Larry, who by day works in traffic safety with the City of Huntington, has shared some of the photographs he shot that evening.

-- Ed Strelau -- Cincinnati fiddler, photographer and fine Flood friend -- was working in the Huntington area in 2005 and regularly sitting in with the boys in their Wednesday night jam sessions. Ed also climbed aboard "The Delta Bub" to drive with The Flood to a recording session in the fall of '05 at the Bunker studio at Joe Dobbs' Fret 'n Fiddle in St. Albans. Ed took these pictures, which he gave to the band as a Christmas gift that year. Then later he returned with a beautiful six-pack of classic black and whites that he produced from that very Christmas visit.

-- Pamela, having been The Flood's manager for nearly a decade now, has had many opportunities to shoot the guys -- and to photograph them as well -- and she almost always has at least a camera handy. Her collection includes pictures from a wide variety of settings, from jam sessions to gigs, from parties to recording sessions. Here are some of Pamela's favorite shots over the years. Don't miss the "hulu dancers" she caught at Joe's 70th birthday party that took place in Sam and Joan's backyard.

-- Friends of the Flood. The extended Family Flood includes all the good people who come to listen and/or pick with us, either at the weekly jam sessions, at parties or at the performances. Here is an ever-growing (thankfully!) gallery of the Friends of the Flood.

-- The Old Flood Pix. Think of it as the Flood's baby pictures. Or blackmail... Take a band that's been around for more than 35 years, you've got great opportunities for photographic extortion. And, of course, the band that extorts ITSELF.... Well, we don't know where that thought is going, but, for better or worse, here are some snapshots from the Flood's earliest days, most of them from the 1970s and 1980s, including images of great friends who are former Floodsters, like Rog Samples, Stewart Schneider, Bill Hoke and others.

Enjoy the pictures. And we invite you to contribute to any of albums, or to send us material for new ones.

Come to The Flood Theater !

2009-01-15T20:39:00.002-05:00

There's a rumor going around – okay, well, maybe we started the rumor ourselves – that the boys of The Flood don't show up on film. But we now have online proof to the contrary. The new, improved 1937 Flood web site offers more than an hour of music, film and photos in the form of 18 new music videos that you can view and listen online. Click here to dig into the goodies.

A big hunk of Flood history is covered here. Nearly a third of the videos are built around music and photos from the band's early days -- some from as early as 1979 -- with the sounds and images of Rog Samples, Stewart Schneider, Bill Hoke and other former Floodsters.

Two of the videos feature the great Chuck Romine, whose tenor banjo gave The Flood a new sound for more than five grand years. We even get to hear Chuck singing on a special rendition of “Bill Bailey,” recorded live in concert in the summer of 2002.

Of course, no collection of Flood tunes would be complete without some numbers by The Chick Singer. Michelle Walker's fabulous vocals are heard on “Walking After Midnight” and “Blue Moon.” She also joins in The Flood chorus on other videos in the set.

Speaking of wonderful singers, one video documents Kathy Castner's 2004 visit with the Flood, doing her drop-dead gorgeous version of that great Dobie Gray tune, “Lovin' Arms,” a track that also features Doug's terrific mandolin solo.

Music for these videos come from a wide variety of sources. The older pieces – Dave and Joe's “June Apple,” Charlie's rollicking “Samson & Delilah” and “Mama Don't Allow” -- come from party and coffeehouse tapes that somehow survived the '70s and early '80s.

Other pieces – like “Backwater Blues” and “Hootchie Coochie Man / 7th Son” featuring some hot guitar riffs by Jacob Scarr and Bub's driving bass – comes from tapes made at recent jam sessions.

Others – like Sam's crowd-pleaser, “Ain't No Free” and “Crazy Words, Crazy Tune,” with ragtime piano genius Jazzou Jones – were recorded live at the Flood's annual Coon Sanders Nighthawks Reunion gig last spring.

Some – like Dave and Charlie's “Georgie Buck” and the band rocking on “Jug Music Band” -- were captured by Pamela at recent gigs or practices with a hand-held Flip Video recorder.

Hands down, the best music of the entire collection -- “Down in the Flood,” “Didn't He Ramble?” “No Ash Will Burn,” “Sittin' on Top of the World” -- are the tracks recorded and mixed by long-time Flood pal, Bo Sweeney. Somehow Bo managed to make the practice room at the Bowen Bower sound like an uptown recording studio.

So, pop yourself some popcorn, make yourself comfortable and settle into the Flood Theater!

Come to the Digital Jam Session!

2009-01-08T17:43:00.003-05:00

There are many good reasons why you might not be able to come in person to The Flood's regular weekly jam sessions.

Previous commitments. Great distances. Fear of mysterious infections...

But with the launch of The Flood's Jam Logs, Freebies from The Flood podcast, you can now attend a digital jam session whenever you need a Flood fix. It's free, it's easy and, cyberspatially speaking, it's pretty cool.

Regular FOFs (Friends of the Flood) know that every Wednesday night, some or all of the guys gather at Charlie & Pamela's house for the weekly Flood jam. Often friends and neighbors come round and frequently fellow musicians sit in on the fun too. These days, a recorder is often running as well, just ... oh, in case somebody happens to commit some art. Now that we've created the podcast, we can share occasional tracks from the jams.

If you use the free iTunes software on either a Windows or a Macintosh computer, the easiest way to get Jam Logs is to subscribe through that software, with this link.

Or if you want to use a different podcast listening software machine thing, use this link for a more generic signup screen.

If you sign up the podcast with either of those links, you'll automatically get the latest additions as they are made to the growing Jam Logs collection.

But wait a daggone minute, you say -- can you hear the freebie tracks from the digital jam session without subscribing to the podcast? Of course you can! We're always trying to figure out ways to make your life easier!

We stream the Jam Logs tunes on our Digital Jam Session page. Shoot, you can even download them for free on our last.fm pages.

So far we have four tunes in the Jam Logs file (St. Louis Blues, 4th Street Mess Around, Up a Lazy River and The New Wreck of the Old 97) and we expect to add another one each week or so.

So now, no excuses -- come jam with The Flood!

Come Listen to Flood Radio !

2008-12-29T09:44:00.002-05:00

Here's something you didn't know -- 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 -- West Virginia's most ECLECTIC string band, after all -- that would be a pretty diverse group of artists. The favorite performers group would 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 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 naturally it wouldn't stop there. The favorites would also have to include blues singers like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and Mississippi John Hurt up to Keb Mo' and Guy Davis, and classic bluegrassers from Flatt & Scruggs to the Stanley Brothers and the Coon Creek Girls, 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 -- Rob McNurlin, John Lilly, Jazzou Jones, Cathy Barton and Dave Para, J.P. Fraley, Andy Cohen, Pat Surface and others.

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

Well, guess what? We now HAVE just such a station. Welcome, Flood Radio on the Internet!

It's 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. Just last year, the whole shootin' match was bought by CBS Interactive for about $280 million.

Using last.fm technology, The Flood has just 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 (1937flood.com) and click the "Flood Radio" link on the navigation bar at the left. Then click the circled arrow in the black last.fm player at the bottom of the resulting page. After a moment, you should be listening to Radio Free Flood!

The on-screen player will even give you details of what you're listening to at the moment. As we write this, Champion Jack Dupree's playing "Hometown New Orleans." A minute ago, it was Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys doing "Time Changes Everything," and before that, The Band was doing "Ophelia." On screen, the player even has links for buying the tune you're hearing, if you'd like. Yep, we're hooked.

Now, 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?

Enjoy!