It’s April, which means the snow is finally melting and the spring rains will be soon be falling and folks along the Mississippi begin to wonder if it’s time to start stockpiling sandbags. Mississippi River floods can be as dramatic as they are destructive, which is probably why floods are the most common theme in the collection of river songs I’m compiling. So for the month of April, I’ll be featuring songs in the theme of floods.
There’s no better place to start than with a song about the epic 1927 flood that submerged 27,000 square miles along the lower Mississippi, displacing nearly a million people and killing hundreds. That one epic flood inspired at least two dozen songs directly and probably two dozen more about high water and flooding generally. The song I’ve selected to represent the 1927 flood is Lonesome Refugee from Laura Smith. Recorded June 2, 1927, Smith sings a mournful tune about the lives, livelihoods, and homes washed away by the flood.
Listen to more songs here!
