Welcome Back, Youngblood!

Our good friend and Floodster Emeritus Jacob Scarr is pretty busy with his new life -- college in Colorado and at home right now working a 40-hour-a-week summer job in Charleston -- but Youngblood's still got time for his old buddies. He sat in with us last night. AND Jacob's going to be on hand as a guest performer at all three of the free concerts next month in our Joe Dobbs Book Tour. Oh, wait a minute -- you didn't know fiddlin' Joe Dobbs has written a book?!  Well, we'll be telling you all about it in the weeks ahead. For now, though, just mark your calendar for the days between July 12 and July 14 when The Flood will be playing shows in Boyd County, Ky., and Cabell and Kanawha counties in West Virginia to help spread the word about Joe's new book.

Happy Birthday, West Virginia!

Yesterday was West Virginia Day, the 149th anniversary of our state's birth, and that was much on their minds last night as Michelle, Randy and Charlie got together for one of The Flood's occasional vocals-only practices. They found ourselves thinking of little-known West Virginia tunes, like this rare gem from the great singer/songwriter Holly Near. Now, obviously, this arrangement is nowhere near ready for general consumption -- we're eager to hear what Joe and Doug, Dave and Sam bring to it in the weeks ahead -- but one of the things we'd like to do with these little podcasts is to sometimes document the evolution of an arrangement. So, with that mind and for the record, here's our first take on "West Virginia Friend."

The Flood Heads to Romney, WV, with Guest Artist Paul Martin

The city of Romney -- population 5,873 -- is West Virginia's oldest town, celebrating its 250th anniversary this year. In fact, the Hampshire County community's main week of celebration kicks off this Sunday and The Flood is honored that we're invited to be part of it. We head to Romney this weekend to play a free concert at The Potomac Center at No. 1 Blue Street at 5 p.m. this Sunday. Check out our web site -- 1937flood.com -- for the details. Oh, we're so pleased that our old buddy, singer/songwriter Paul Martin, is joining us for the trip and will be a guest artist at the concert. Here's a sample -- at a recent Flood rehearsal, Paul led us on a moving rendition of a great Bob Dylan standard.

We're Heading Back to Tamarack This Sunday !

Tamarack is a West Virginia treasure. Based in Beckley, W.Va., it is a rich deposit of Appalachian crafts, food, music and just plain pure joy. And The Flood is honored to regularly be invited to perform there in the Gov. Hulett C. Smith Theatre, one of our all-time favorite venues. We're heading back there this Sunday, June 10. At 2 p.m., The Flood will be back on stage for our 8th performance at Tamarack. And we're especially happy that our long-time buddy, guitarist Jacob Scarr -- home from college in Colorado -- will on hand to sit in with us for this very special show. Come on out and party with us at Tamarack, this Sunday afternoon! Visit us on the web at 1937flood.com for the details. Meanwhile, here's a tune from last night's rehearsal as we prepared the set for Sunday's show.