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

If you're in the Huntington area, we sure hope you'll drop by to party with us at 7 o'clock 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. Go to our web site -- 1937flood.com -- and click on the banner at the top. And 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.

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

If you're in the Huntington area, we sure hope you'll drop by to party with us at 7 o'clock 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. Go to our web site -- 1937flood.com -- and click on the banner at the top. And 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.

Pretty Polly

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.

Dan Cowan Sings "Rock Salt & Nails"

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 a great old Utah Phillips standard.

House of the Rising Sun ... uh ... Waltz

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, "The 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, naw, 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…

Thanksgiving Jam 2011

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

Michelle Walker Lights Up the Room

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, and it's just as powerful as her first two hours earlier.