Oh Flood from Transmutations by Matthew DeChant

This is a blues-type song I wrote almost four years ago, and it’s gone through various evolutions (you could say, transmutations) since then, like many of the songs on this album. A lot of people don’t realize blues is a type of traditional music just like Irish jigs and reels, and one of the reasons why American traditional music is so fascinating to me is because it has so many of these influences buried deep in its bones. And you might be thinking “accordion? That's not a blues instrument!” Yet Leadbelly, the father of American blues music, played accordion, and it was widespread in the genre before the accordion's PR crisis in the late twentieth century. I’m certainly not a blues musician by any means, but it’s fun to lean into that every once in a while.

Tracklist

4.	Oh Flood	4:52

Lyrics

Oh flood, Oh flood
Oh flood, here I am
You can take my car, flood, take my car
Holy water, carry it far
Take my car, flood, take my car
But don’t take me, oh flood
No don’t take me

Oh flood, oh flood
Oh flood, here I am
You can take my home, flood, take my home
Cast me to the winds to roam
Take my home, flood, take my home
But don’t take me, oh flood
No don’t take me

Oh flood, oh flood
Oh flood, here I am
You can take the crops, flood, take the crops
Every last barrel, crate and box
Take the crops, flood, take the crops
But don’t take me, oh flood
No don’t take me

Oh flood, oh flood
Oh flood, here I am
You can take the cities, flood, take the cities
Holy water, ain’t got no pity
Take the cities, flood, take the cities
But don’t take me, oh flood
No don’t take me

Oh flood, oh flood
Oh flood, here I am
You can take the world, flood, take the world
The great circle, broken, unfurled
Take the world, the whole fucking world
But don’t take me, oh flood
No don’t take me

Credits

from Transmutations, released March 1, 2025

License