Mike Smith Comes Home to the Family Flood

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.

She's The Ohio

A few weeks ago, our dear friend Phyllis Dale 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 friend Wendell Dobbs sitting in on flute for the solos.

Payday

The Flood has been doing "Payday," that great old Mississippi John Hurt 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 session, 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!

Phyllis Dale Finally Parties with The Flood

It was more than 15 years ago when we met singer/pianist Phyllis Dale, the original Red Hot Mama of The Delta Queen riverboat. For more than a decade, every night Phyllis played whatever the crowd wanted when the passengers gathered for the after-hour parties in the steamboat's 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, finally we had our night, and The Flood's own crowd was enthralled.