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PODCAST

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast

Each week The 1937 Flood, West Virginia"s most eclectic string band, offers a free tune from a recent rehearsal, show or jam session. Music styles range from blues and jazz to folk, hokum, ballad and old-time. All the podcasts, dating back to 2008, are archived on our website; you and use the archive for free at: http://1937flood.com/pages/bb-podcastarchives.html 1937flood.substack.com

music music history

All Episodes

3:53

"Take Me Home, Country Roads"

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/06/20

There are few sure things nowadays, but one thing we can guarantee is that today somewhere in the Mountain State this song is being sung, whistled, hummed or at least thought of about every 15 minutes.The truth is that The Flood has avoided doing ”Take Me Home, Country Roads” for about a half century now. It’s not that the guys don’t like it; on the contrary, just the opening line (Al-most heeeeaven, West Virginnnnia….) will always tease out a smile in our band room.But, well, gee, it just seemed

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5:40

"Backwater Blues"

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/06/13

People began to think Bessie Smith must be some kind of witchy woman. After all, they said, how else could she have recorded a song about the devastating Great Mississippi River Flood weeks before it even started?The lyrics of Smith’s 1927 “Backwater Blues” certainly described perfectly the kind of misery that was being reported in the newspapers across the country that spring: It rained five days and the sky turned dark as night Then trouble's takin' place in the lowlands at night… When

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5:57

Summertime Blues

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/06/06

Summer is wonderful, of course — and much appreciated after that seeming endless winter — but it brings a bit of blues to the band room. That’s because when the temperature’s rising and the livin’ is easy, Floodsters tend to scurry away in many different directions. New Orleans, Orlando, even France have been among the far-away places that lately temporarily scattered the old gang.In fact, the last time the Bowen House had a full boat for the band’s weekly rehearsal was more than three weeks ago

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3:23

"Green Rocky Road"

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/05/30

If you were ever lucky enough to catch one of the late Dave Van Ronk’s shows, you almost certainly heard “Green Rocky Road,” which became sort of his theme song over the years.He’d perform it in a variety of ways, sometimes at a lively clip, a tribute to its roots as a children’s play party tune. Other times it would be slow and meditative, making you wonder if you were missing some secret tucked away in those seemingly simple lyrics.Dave’s tune inspired an eclectic slew of followers, ranging from

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4:29

Many Moods in a Single Night

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/05/23

The mood can change very quickly in The Flood band room, often depending on whatever is the next song that crosses Charlie Bowen’s rattlin’ brain.For instance, in the first few seconds of this week’s podcast, you’ll hear the guys still laughing from the inside jokes and joys of the previous tune, while Bowen is ready to conjure up a more somber mood with some opening chords.Almost at once, Danny Cox and Randy Hamilton recognize the lead-in and join in on the 1950s torch song, “Cry Me a River.”

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3:52

Songs from the Circle

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/05/16

Whenever The Flood appears in public — as it did at Bahnhof WVrsthaus & Biergarten earlier this month — it positions itself the way most bands do at gigs: in a simple straight line politely facing the audience.Nothing novel in that, of course, just the time-honored way of letting players and listeners make eye contact, feeding off each other’s reactions as the music rolls along.However, an entirely different geometry — a circle, not a line — frames the music that has always been featured in The

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2:20

"Moscow Nights"

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/05/09

A relic of the Cold War, this tune was composed in 1955 by Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy under the title “Leningrad Nights,” but later at the request of the Soviet Ministry of Culture was renamed "Moscow Nights" with corresponding changes to poet Mikhail Matusovsky’s lyrics.For the first half dozen years of its life, the song was known primarily in the Soviet Union, where a young actor named Vladimire Troshin recorded it in 1956 for a scene in a documentary about Soviet athletic competition. Honestly, the

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11:00

Banner Night at Bahnhof's

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/05/03

Roving thunderstorms did not deter a roomful of diehard Flood fans from coming out to party at Huntington’s good ol’ Bahnhof WVrsthau & Biergarten on Thursday night. And as usual, band manager Pamela Bowen was faithfully at a ringside table to capture some video. These three tunes illustrate the diversity of the evening’s fare, opening with a century-old number that your sassy Grandpa probably sang, followed by a swinging instrumental on a 1940s jazz standard and wrapping up with a 1920s Charlie

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4:53

The Answer, M'Frien'

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/05/02

If you grew up in the 1960s or ‘70s, it seemed like many of the songs on the radio were answering other songs on the radio.Roger Miller sang, “King of the Road,” and Jody Miller answered it with “Queen of the House.” Barry McGuire sang “Eve of Destruction,” only to be called out by a group named The Spokesmen with their "Dawn of Correction.” Merle Haggard sang of the “Okie from Muskogee” and drew a prompt reply from The Youngbloods’ “Hippie from Olema.”Big NamesSome famous songsmiths also penned

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3:29

Diversity Delights

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/04/25

Whenever we have fresh ears in The Flood’s band room, as we did last week, the newcomer’s first question often is, “What kind of music do you fellas play?”No single easy answer is available, of course, but it is an opportunity for a show-and-tell — well, more show than tell, probably — demonstrating the storied diversity of band’s repertoire. At last week’s gathering, for instance, in the first dozen minutes of the evening, the guys played across a spectrum, starting with an Irving Berlin tune,

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3:20

"Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine"

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/04/18

Napoleon never heard “Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine,” because, well, it’s not French. The tune might be Scottish. But probably not. Some say it’s an American march. Maybe Irish instead. Or not.One thing is certain: Definitive derivation of old fiddle tunes is not the hill you’ll want to die on. Most of the best-loved melodies have at least a half dozen different names, each usually with its own equally murky history.WhitherThis particular tune is considered traditional, and the first part shows up in

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4:48

A Randy Hamilton Special

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/04/12

Randy Hamilton has brought so much to The Flood’s table in the past dozen years. As the late Joe Dobbs used to say, Randy’s bass is “the heartbeat of the band.”In addition, Randy’s vocals — whether harmonizing or taking the lead — have become a definitive ingredient in The Flood’s sound. And nothing demonstrates that better than a tune from this week’s rehearsal, captured in this video by band manager Pamela Bowen.About the SongAs reported earlier, “When You Say Nothing at All,” the 1988 composition

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4:53

“Un Canadien Errant”

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/04/11

A half century after the United States won its independence from Britain, Canada was rocked by two armed uprising known as the Rebellions of 1837-38.The revolts failed, resulting in many rebels being deported to Australia and Tasmania as political prisoners facing hard labor or hanging. Others escaped such reprisals by going into exile in the US. Sympathy for these disenfranchised French Canadian patriots was the subject of a song written four years later by a young college student named Antoine

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3:08

"Green Rolling Hills of West Virginia"

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/04/04

One of the best songs written about West Virginia in the past half century was created by a man who was nicknamed for a state two time zones away.Bruce “U. Utah” Phillips wrote “The Green Rolling Hills of West Virginia” in 1971 while reflecting on a visit to the Mountain State years earlier."We were driving in an old car that had a bad leak in the radiator,” Phillips recalled in a story on his website. “We stopped every now and then in these hollers to get water and to talk to the people.“In one

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12:09

Spring Saturday Afternoon in Charleston

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/03/30

Whenever Floodster Emerita Michelle Hoge makes one of her rare treks back to West Virginia, it’s a good excuse to try to land a gig somewhere at which the band’s beloved “chick singer” can be the guest star.This time the good folks at Charleston’s Edgewood Summit retirement community accommodated that mission, and yesterday the entire Family Flood rolled into that gorgeous facility for an afternoon of tunes, laughs and stories.Sitting in front row, Flood manager Pamela Bowen shots video. Here are

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4:33

The Original Music of the Streets

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/03/28

Hokum bands of the 1920s and ’30s created a brand of urban folk tunes called “jug band music” that famously blended the sounds of the plantation and the church with those of the swing, swerve and sway of nascent jazz.And no one did it better than those Flood heroes The Memphis Jug Band, formed in 1927 by Beale Street guitar/harmonica player Will Shade. Shade was also known as Son Brimmer, a nickname given to him by his grandmother Annie Brimmer (“son” being short for grandson). The name stuck when

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3:34

"You Don't Know Me"

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/03/21

Texan Cindy Walker already was a well-established songwriter in the fall of 1955 when she attended Nashville’s annual disc jockey convention.By then, she had worked with Bing Crosby, not to mention Gene Autry and Bob Wills. She had even scored her own hit in 1944 with her recording of Wiley Walker and Gene Sullivan’s "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again."But Cindy Walker’s greatest contribution to American pop music was only now about to happen.How the Song Came to BeYears later, Walker would

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4:23

Conjuring Up Summertime

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/03/14

Spring in Appalachia is notoriously fickle. One minute the sun is promising an early wakeup call for the dogwoods and the redbuds; the next minute, snow is mocking our optimism.Last week started, for example, with a lovely, bright preview of April. However, in midweek, The Flood’s weekly rehearsal was greeted by clouds, biting winds and cold rain. By the time the guys packed up to head home, ice would be forming on the back roads in the hills.But inside the band room, the guys have mad skills for

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5:07

Dave Peyton's 'Happy Birthday' Song

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/03/11

For many decades, whenever anyone at a Flood gathering was celebrating a birthday, the guys turned to David Peyton to lead them in a rousing rendition of … no, oh, hell no, not THAT song… (Does this bunch really look like “Happy Birthday to You” people?) No, Br’er Peyton suggested a much more appropriate nativity-observing song for the Flood flock. Not only that, Dave enhanced the tune with his own special touch, the addition of a juicy reference to a sex scandal that was rocking West Virginia

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4:23

"I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound"

The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast ·

2025/03/07

For a half dozen years beginning in the late 1990s, The Flood always greeted March’s arrival with an annual road trip into the mountains. Providing an evening of music, jokes and stories, the band would entertain a roomful of visiting volunteers, kindly students who had come more than 600 miles from Milwaukee’s Marquette University to use their spring break helping with assorted post-winter chores around the little mining town of Rhodell on Tams Mountain about 20 miles south of Beckley.As reported

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