Introducing
"Live, In Concert"

In many ways, this album has been a dream of ours for years. In fact, Joe Dobbs would have loved the fact that The Flood finally has a live CD. It was our late fiddlin' friend's favorite comment that the band he helped form 40+ years ago always sounded better at parties and concerts than it did in rehearsals and in studios. “It helps that everybody’s a ham,” Joe would say with a grin.

Dedicated to Joe and Roger

So it's not at all surprising that we sensed Joe was very much among the spirits on hand that magical Friday night last January when we recorded this new CD, our first without Joe.

As you all know, it's been a rough couple of years for the Family Flood. In the space of 22 weeks,we lost two of our founding members, the eldest and youngest. Joe passed away Sept. 21, 2015, at age 81, and Roger Samples died Feb. 12, 2016, at 66.

We got our love of performing from Joe and Rog and, as the new CD testifies, that love of good times carries right on now to the newest generation of the Family Flood. It's fitting, then, that this album is dedicated to Joe and Rog.

Forever Young or At Least New

Also because of Roger and Joe, the Flood has always been hard-wired to harken toward new musical ideas. It was Roger who got us to augment our fiddle tunes and Dylan-cum-Prine folksongs with jugband music back in the '70s, and 20 years later, it was Joe who said, "Hey, think we could try some swing tunes?" Both these friends imbued us with the ideas that the soup you make tomorrow shouldn't taste exactly like what you had yesterday. Not only that, the cooks ought to be as surprised as their guests!

Because we wanted to serve up something extra special for that chilly January night, we designed a show that would feature only material that's not included on any of the band's previous five CDs, but also something that would be just as eclectic as those earlier albums. To do that, we mixed some jugband ("Please Don't Swat a Fly," "Crazy Words, Crazy Tune") with some swing era ballads ("Autumn Leaves," "Wonderful World"), stirred in some railroad tunes ("The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore," "Dusty Boxcar Wall"), some folk ("Wayfarin' Stranger," "Ramblin' Boy," "You Ain't Going Nowhere," "Seven Bridges Road") and a tune or two for the Mountain State ("Green Rolling Hills of West Virginia"), then seasoned heartily with some blues, some country, some classic rock. The resulting stew was a classic Flood Friday night!

Sample the Album!

And This Just In! Two free samples from the new album are avaialble right here online:

-- A portion of Doug and Paul's rendition of the Jay Ungar-Molly Mason composition "Lovers' Waltz" is featured in our weekly podcast. Click here to hear it

-- You can see our new "Autumn Leaves" video, featuring Michelle's gorgeous vocal, along with lovely solos by Doug, Paul and Sam. Click here to watch it!

Thanks to the Wizards

Finally, we had excellent ears on this project. Going in, the sound was captured beautifully by our buddy Bo Sweeney. Himself a musician, Bo knew just how to set and control the mikes to the get the sounds we were hoping for that night. And going out, the sounds was mixed, massaged and maneuvered brilliantly by our newest Floodster, Paul Martin, putting in some long hours in his Ohio mountain hideaway. If you like what you hear here, and we think you will, these two deserve a huge bit of the thanks.