Not many bands that can brag of being active for 50 years, but The 1937 Flood is celebrating its Golden Anniversary this year. And we’re hoping you will come out and join the fun!
Alchemy Theatre’s Mike Murdock and Nora Ankrom — the kind folks who brought The Flood in to be part of the wonderful “Bright Star” production last summer — are hosting The Flood's 50th Birthday Party this New Year’s Eve. The fun starts that night at 7:30 at the Geneva Kent Center for the Arts, 80 Holley Ave.
The band will play a couple of full sets and then jam until the toast at midnight to cheer in the new year! Tickets are $20 and include all the live music you can handle, plus finger foods and that midnight toast to 2024!
Memories….
The 1937 Flood traces its roots to a New Year’s Eve party in 1973, when Dave Peyton and Charlie Bowen first started working out some tunes together.
Since that chilly night a half century ago, the band has had dozens of members over the decades, each with his or her own varied musical interests. It’s a devotion to diversity that has inspired people to call The Flood “West Virginia’s most eclectic string band.”
Today the band embraces a repertoire that ranges from folk songs to jazz, from blues to ballads, from songs of Bob Dylan and John Prine to those of Hoagy Carmichael, Fats Waller and George Gershwin, hokum tunes and old rock ’n’ roll and everything in between.
Pickers and Listeners Alike are Welcome!
And born of the hippy parties of the 1970s, The Flood still loves a good time.
That’s why the band invites you to join the jam this New Year’s Eve. If you’ve ever sat in with The Flood — or if you always wanted to — bring your instrument with you. You’ll be as welcome as could be.
But of course, you don’t have to be a picker to part of this party. On the contrary. Listeners will the guests of honor. This bash will be part concert and part jam session, part reunion and part a celebration of the future.
You can read all about it on our new website: FloodAt50.com. Take a look, then come on out to Alchemy Theatre this New Year’s Eve. We’re going share memories and make a whole bunch of new ones!
We’re Gonna Put You in the Movies….
In addition, Sam St. Clair wants us to do a documentary for our golden anniversary year, perhaps something that we can share with the Appalachian Film Festival in the spring.
So we expect to be shooting videos throughout the evening. It’ll be fun if we also can get your Flood yarns recorded, so start remembering your favorites. Here are some random images to get you thinking:
Tickets!
Alchemy Theatre has created a Facebook Event page for the do, with all kinds of additional goodies. Click the graphic below to reach it on Facebook:
You can order tickets online through the page. Tickets also will be available at the door. Note: all proceeds of the ticket sale goes to Alchemy Theatre.
All Set for the Big New Year's Eve Birthday Bash!