About Us

Dozens of musicians been members of The 1937 Flood of Huntington, WV, over the years since it stumbled into existence back in the hippy-dippy mid 1970s.

As writer Dave Lavender of the Herald-Dispatch has noted, "The Flood doesn't rest on its laurels as West Virginia's most eclectic string band. Born in the 1970s when fiddler Joe Dobbs met Dave Peyton and Charlie Bowen, the Flood has played recent gigs with everyone from the Huntington Symphony Orchestra to Marshall University tailgate parties.

The band, which also features Doug Chaffin, Sam St. Clair, Dave Ball and Jacob Scarr, plays everything from folk classics of John Prine and Bob Dylan to the blues of Mississippi John Hurt.

"Throw in some Dixieland jazz, some Irish fiddle tunes, a great sense of humor, some pure mountain melodies from the likes of such state treasured songwriters as Hazel Dickens and yes by God, the best kazoo playing between here and say Kalamazoo, and you got the 1937 Flood," adds Lavender.

 

How the Flood Got Its Name

"Why do you guys call yourself 'The '37 Flood'? Wasn't that a...?"

Yes. Why, yes, it was a disaster, as a matter of fact. So, where did the band get its peculiar name?

Like much about this organization, The 1937 Flood's name came about as a fluke. And thereby hangs a tale.

Picture it: The mid-1970s. Charlie and his wife, Pamela, have just bought a new house in Huntington and are invited to a party by their new neighbors. Throughout the evening, people drop by to say hello to the Bowens and, for some reason, to tell them how high the waters of the 1937 flood (uh, the real one) reached at their particular houses.

Charlie later tells this story to Joe and Dave. Now time passes. The guys are on stage for their first gig somewhere in Kentucky and suddenly realize their group has no name.

Without hesitation, Joe walks to the mike and tells the audience: "They calls us 'The 1937 Flood,' because back in Huntington, they're still talkin' about us!"

The name sticks.