The 1937 Flood Watch Podcast

Of all the tunes we do, none is more evocative than “Autumn Leaves.”

Joseph Kosma’s post World War II composition quickly became a jazz standard in America from the 1950s right up to today.

“Autumn Le…

We tend to think of Duke Ellington and his orchestra as the epitome of cool, sophisticated jazz. “Mood Indigo.” “Caravan.” “Black And Tan Fantasy.” “Sophisticated Lady.”

But Duke and the guys also cou…

Americans know “Pretty Polly” as the short, tragic story of a young woman who is lured into the forest and murdered by her brutal lover, who then buries her in a shallow grave and runs away.

Actually,…

The only blue moon of 2023 appears later this month, so it’s high time we dusted off our latest rendition of the world’s best-loved anthem to this particular astronomical event.

“Blue Moon” came into …

Our version of this traditional tune originated with Roger Samples and the quiet picking sessions he and Charlie Bowen had back in the mid-1970s.

They had been listening to David Bromberg’s then-new …

When we roll into Sal’s Speakeasy tomorrow night for The Flood’s monthly gig, we’ll bring with us a tune that has been rocking audiences for more than eight decades. And that, brothers and sisters, i…

Looking for songs to play in our nightly pre-show set as Alchemy Theater’s wonderful Bright Star musical enters its final weekend tonight, we hit on one of the oldest tunes in The Flood’s repertoire,…

The Flood is honored and thrilled to be invited by Mike Murdock and Nora Ankrom to be part of their Alchemy Theater’s new production of the musical, Bright Star. This evening is opening night!

The sho…

Okay, up front let’s just get this out of the way. We don’t know what “sugaree” is, or why you would want to shake it, or what’d happen if you did.

And apparently nobody else knows either.

Our Story Be…

Sixty years ago this summer, Ironton, Ohio, native son Bobby Bare started work on his debut album for RCA Victor. The LP’s title track — “500 Miles Away from Home” — would turn out to be one of the b…

Guitarists Jerry Reed and Chet Atkins had a special, productive musical bond.

Reed rather famously lived in the moment, often writing wonderfully tasty riffs and licks only to forget them the next day…

Barefoot Days have arrived, a season so sweet and easy that it has its own anthem.

“Summertime,” from George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, is perhaps the perfect jazz standard. Unforgettable lyrics. A me…

“You’re No Good,” the opening song on Bob Dylan’s 1962 eponymous debut album, was written, not by the 19-year-old genius, but by one of his heroes, Jesse “Lone Cat” Fuller.

Legend has it that Dylan sa…

Our story begins nearly 200 years ago on an Irish hillside overlooking the Kenmare River in County Kerry, where a massive manor house was to be built for the Mahony family.

The Mahonys had long wanted…

Among the tunes we’ve got on tap to share at Sal’s Speakeasy this weekend is one with a curious history. A monster AM radio hit in the early 1960s, it actually was originally a jug band tune recorded…

What is probably America’s best-known song about the Netherlands — “The Dutchman” — was written by a man who had never been there.

“The song has in it almost everything I'd ever read or heard, in scho…

When Joel and Ethan Coen needed help with the soundtrack for their fabulous 2000 film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? they turned to respected artist/producer T-Bone Burnett, a famous champion of long-f…

It’s a song that has just never gotten the respect it deserves. It was back in 1967 that Washington State folkster Danny O’Keefe wrote “Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues.”

O’Keefe waited four years to…

For more than a hundred years, the Deep Ellum section of Dallas has been known for music. Well, that and, in its raucous youth, uh, S-I-N…

Today that lively entertainment district also vibrates with s…

This is the story of a song’s evolution from ragtime composition to folk song, then from blues to bluegrass.

We begin in 1900. Danish-born American violinist/composer Jens Bodewalt Lampe, inspired by …