The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast

“They say life begins at 40,” composer W.C. Handy once said, “but I wouldn’t know.” Handy was 40 in 1914 when he wrote “St. Louis Blues,” and, he noted, “ever since, my life has revolved around that composition.” Well, if you’re going to have a single song dominate your life, you could do much worse than have it be “St. Louis Blues.” Sometimes called “the jazzman’s ‘Hamlet,’” this composition is o...

We want your advice, friends. We’re in the early — EARLY! — stages of planning The Flood’s next album, which we hope to record later this year. Right now we’re just starting to figure out what tunes we might want to record in the project, and we would really appreciate your thoughts and suggestions. For instance, here’s a tune we like from last week’s rehearsal that our manager, Pamela Bowen , cap...

This song took a very long road on its journey to Floodlandia. The first time it was played in our band room was more than a dozen years ago on a mellow autumn night when our friends Randy Hamilton and Paul Martin dropped in to jam with us. Neither was a member of The Flood yet — Randy would join the following year and Paul a few years after that — but their song was the hit of the evening. In fac...

If you were sitting around thinking of songs connected to The Mountain State, “Sweet Georgia Brown” probably wouldn’t be on your list. It wasn’t on ours either, even though we had loved and played the song for decades. But then about a dozen years ago, the late Dave Peyton dropped some song news on us at a jam session. “Hey, man,” we remember him saying with a big grin, “it's a West Virginia tune!...

It was 15 years ago when Sam St. Clair brought us this tune, and it quickly became his theme song. Ever since then, “Ain’t No Free” has been a beloved standard in many a Flood show. So, of course, the song had to have a place of honor at our big New Year’s Eve birthday bash at Alchemy Theatre several weeks ago: Click the video above to watch — or re -watch, if you were in the house with us that fu...

This tune has really deep roots in the Floodisphere. About 20 years after our heroes, The Coasters, released this Jerry Leiber / Mike Stoller song in 1957, The Flood started fiddling with it one fun summer night. After that, though, the song went back to sleep for, oh, a half century or so. We told much of that tale in an earlier Flood Watch article that also explored the history of the song. Clic...

A Video Extra: Whenever our old friend Paul Martin is back in the room — or, better still, on the bandstand with us, as he was for our big “Flood at 50” birthday bash on New Year’s Eve — we always get him to take us on a ride on his favorite Bob Dylan tune. Here from that wonderful New Year’s night at Alchemy Theatre is Paul leading the way on “You Ain’t Going Nowhere,” which we have considered ou...

Ever since it came together decades ago , The Flood has always sought a rich diversity in its repertoire. So late last year when Danny Cox asked, “Has the band ever done the song ‘Sunny’?” he heard an invitation in the enthusiasm of the answer: “No!” Danny worked out the chords, Jack took up the rhythm, we turned the vocals over to Randy, and suddenly the song was in the works . In fact, now it’s...

New and old friends made epic memories for us as we celebrated the band’s 50th birthday with a New Year’s Eve bash at Alchemy Theatre , where Nora Ankrom, Mike Murdock, Stephen Vance and the rest made us all feel so very welcome. Obviously, a 20-minute video can’t do justice to almost five hours of near continuous live music, right up to the strike of midnight. However, working with the superb foo...

All this month we’ve been telling you about plans for our big “Flood at 50” Birthday Bash . Well, kids, tonight’s The Night, and, as Cousin Brucie used to say on good ol’ WABC, “Hey, be there or be square!” The fun starts at 7:30 at Alchemy Theatre, 68 Holley Ave. Unfamiliar with the location? No problem. Click here for a Google map . Or you can see it on our “The Venue” page on the web site at Fl...

Here’s a tune we always trot out whenever we feel a party coming on. So you can bet we’ll have it on the set list this weekend for the big “Flood at 50” birthday bash on New Year’s Eve at Alchemy Theatre. In fact, we’re so eager for this weekend that we actually started putting the song through its paces earlier this month. Here’s our take on the tune from a joyous night at Sal’s Speakeasy in Ashl...

WSAZ-TV, which last week featured The Flood and Alchemy Theatre on its “Studio 3” show , invited us all back this afternoon for more information about Sunday night’s big “Flood at 50” New Year’s Eve birthday bash. This time Martina Bills interviewed Charlie Bowen and Danny Cox of The Flood and Nora Ankrom and Mike Murdock of Alchemy for a five-minute spot during the station’s “First Look at 4” pro...

Just one week from tonight we’ll gather at Huntington’s wonderful Alchemy Theatre for the New Year’s Eve bash that will commemorate The Flood’s 50th birthday. Here’s our latest party preview , complete with vintage and current Flood fotos. As the video reports , the Golden Anniversary festivities begin at 7:30 Dec. 31 in the theater at the Geneva Kent Center for the Arts, 68 Holley Ave. The band w...

We have a Christmas confession. Honestly, we don’t really care that much for Christmas music. Oh, we’re not scrooges or anything — well, a few of us are — but mainly it’s just the nature of Christmas songs themselves. The chord patterns are not especially easy to remember, and since you do them only a few days or weeks every year, you don’t get a chance to get real cozy with them. Plus, well, fran...

Susan Nicholas and Taylor Eaton of WSAZ-TV’s Studio 3 hosted a bunch of us this morning to talk about plans for our big “Flood at 50” birthday bash upcoming this New Year’s Eve at Alchemy Theatre . On hand for the spot were Charlie Bowen and Sam St. Clair from The Flood and Nora Ankrom and Mike Murdock from Alchemy. And In Print! Meanwhile, in Ashland, Ky., today, Lee Ward of The Daily Independent...

Returning to Sal’s Speakeasy last night for our latest monthly gig at our favorite Ashland, Ky., venue, we not only had the entire band on stage, but also we were joined by our beloved Floodster Emerita, Michelle Hoge, who drove in from Loveland, Ohio, just to be part of the fun. Band manager Pamela Bowen, our regular videographer, was under the weather and couldn’t make the gig, so we drafted a d...

When we go slippin’ and a-slidin’ into Sal’s Speakeasy in Ashland tomorrow night for our latest gig, we’ll bring with us one of our all-time favorite party tunes . The song that we call “You Got Me Slippin’” is loosely based on a classic Jimmy Reed piece from 65 years ago at the very dawn of rock ’n’ roll. And to further Floodify the fun, we also inject a few old Bob Dylan verses right in the midd...

As we noted last week , highlights of Floodlandia’s Decembers are holiday visits with Charlie Bowen’s cousin Kathy Castner, who usually can be persuaded each time to sit in with the band for a special night. Jam sessions with Kathy are always chances to revisit favorite old tunes, like “Loving Arms” and “The Rose,” but they also can be opportunities to explore some new material too. For years now...

Most of the world heard “My Dear Companion” when it was featured on the 1987 Trio album released by superstars Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, with songwriting credits going to Kentucky balladeer Jean Ritchie. That creation story for the song is accurate, as far as it goes. Ritchie wrote her tune in 1963, and 10 years later it was among the first things The Flood played when the b...

Not many bands that can brag of being active for 50 years, but The 1937 Flood is celebrating its Golden Anniversary this year. And we’re hoping you will come out and join the fun! Alchemy Theatre’s Mike Murdock and Nora Ankrom — the kind folks who brought The Flood in to be part of the wonderful “Bright Star” production last summer — are hosting The Flood's 50th Birthday Party this New Year’s Eve....

Eighty-nine years ago today, one of America’s greatest — though least-known — blues artists died after months of illness. Gaunt and frail, Arthur Blake — known to blues aficionados by his stage name, “Blind Blake” — must have looked much older at the end than his 38 years. It had been a wild and sometimes wonderful decade for him. Starting in mid-1920s, he was celebrated as Paramount Records’ sens...

As an anthem to angst, George and Ira Gershwin’s bittersweet counter-love song “But Not For Me” was well ahead of its time. The brothers penned the song in 1930 for the stage musical “Girl Crazy,” in which it was premiered by Ginger Rogers, who was appearing in the role that led to her film career. Since then, the tune has been recorded many times, though many leading vocalists like Tony Bennett d...

Charlie Bowen played this song for David Peyton on the first night they jammed together at a New Year’s Eve party 50 years ago. “July, You’re a Woman” was the one of the best tunes in the repertoire for their earliest gigs , especially after Roger Samples came along later that year to sing harmony on the chorus and do magic with his guitar solos. Bowen adapted his version of the song after learnin...

In the single year of 1925, Tin Pan Alley composer Ray Henderson wrote three — count ‘em, THREE — classics in the great American songbook: “Bye Bye Blackbird,” “Has Anybody Seen My Girl?” ( “…Five foot two, eyes of blues… ”) and “I’m Sitting on Top of the World.” Then in the next year, maybe just to show that he hadn’t shot his wad, Ray wrote one of his most memorable tunes — “Birth of the Blues”...

In the winter of 1969, Bob Dylan arrived in Tennessee with only four songs completed for his Nashville Skyline recording sessions. Over the next few days at the Columbia studio and in his rooms at the Ramada Inn, he composed another five pieces, including this stunning tune that he used as the album’s closing track. “Tonight I’ll be Staying Here with You” was the third single to be released from N...