Powerful Music Video Captures Poignant Moments for Recent Flood Victims
As the rest of America was focused on the celebrity indictment of Bill Cosby and New Years festivities, the American Heartland was suffering some of the worst flooding some areas have ever seen. The Mississippi, Meramac and Missouri rivers, along with many other tributaries and creeks, have inundated areas of Illinois and Missouri, and the flooding has been linked to at least 24 deaths. Major Interstates were closed to due to water over the roadway, and now folks in the South are bracing for the worst as the water makes its way downstream.
Meanwhile a country band by the name of Evan Webb and the Rural Route Ramblers has released a song and video that delicately, yet accurately portrays the devastation river communities face in times like these, and how even when the flood waters subside, things are never the same. From the small community of McClure, Illinois, right on the banks of the Mississippi, Even Webb looked to capture the despondency of living in a dying town in the song “Dry Up or Drown.” When the Mississippi overran its banks once again, life imitated art.
The video for “Dry Up or Drown” was shot in McLure (pop. 400) and the greater Alexander County area, and takes real life footage of the recent flooding to match with Evan Webb’s poignant portrayal of life in a flood plain.
The images are powerful enough. Shot by Reginald, it shows the true life destruction floods can cause, with homes surrounded by water, and the double yellow lines of roads descending into swamped out landscapes where little hope seems to remain. Yet it’s the true life lines of the song like “Hope left here on a prison bus. Guess this town ain’t good enough for the worst of us” about the recent closing of the nearby Tamms Correctional Facility, that really set the loss of community the song and video look to portray into stark perspective.
As soon as the video was posted on January 1st, folks in the communities affected by the flooding began to share it. But Evan Webb and the Rural Route Ramblers weren’t celebrating, they were out sandbagging to help save what’s left of their community.
It appears 2016 already has a leader in the clubhouse for Song and Video of the Year.
January 3, 2016 @ 7:38 pm
Wow! Great song. I live in Southern Illinois, on the border with Indiana, in a small river town. We know all to well what the folks on the Mississippi River side of the state are going through. These communities are not only hit by the devastation of flooding, but also the cultural detestation of a state that’s lost its way. Businesses and people are flocking from this state. I think this song really hits on the sorrow that many people here feel.
January 3, 2016 @ 7:46 pm
Dadgum country music about loss of life & property. Great songwriting, arrangement & performance. Two .357 Vaqueros up.
January 3, 2016 @ 8:21 pm
I also live in Southern Illinois and it breaks my heart to see the devastation. The song is awesome and it brings some much needed attention to the devastation.
January 3, 2016 @ 9:15 pm
Trigger, do you have info as to how we purchase this song or and album?
January 3, 2016 @ 9:48 pm
The song is not available for purchase, but they should get it up ASAP. As soon as it’s available, I’ll try to let folks know. From what I understand, they have an album upcoming very soon, and they sort of rushed this out because it was appropriate for this time. I have a sense we’re not done hearing from these guys.
January 4, 2016 @ 12:03 am
I also live in Southern Illinois, not too far from the flood. I have been in McClure and the surrounding areas in Alexander County several times, but have never seen anything like this. This video and reports from local news stations are all I have seen of this devastating flood, and I have never seen anything like this. I have several family members that live along the banks of the Mississippi River that have lost their homes, and some that are just a few feet from it. I just never in my life could have ever imagined that this could ever happen.
January 4, 2016 @ 2:42 am
THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL I SAY ITS A NUMBER 1 SONG YOU ALL DID A GREAT JOB ON EVERY BIT OF IT I LOVED IT MADE ME CRY THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS <3 <3 <3
January 4, 2016 @ 8:34 am
I live in Central Illinois. My town among many others experienced some bad flooding. There’s a small creek that runs through the back part of my farm, and during the flooding I could’ve swore that I had the Mississippi River at my back door. I had Johnny Cash’s song “Five Feet High and Rising” stuck in my head during all of the rain.
January 4, 2016 @ 10:01 am
I grew up in Charleston, SC. Seeing that made me want to cry. It was never that bad, even when I was living there, after Hugo!
This flooding is a sign that Mother Nature has had enough pillaging and raping of her soils, destruction of her trees, and killing her animals needlessly. It’s time we all listen, and heed her warnings. We may not get many more, if any!
This video was amazingly done, showe the town at its worst, so when the time comes, they can be shown at their best again. Everything old shall be new again, some day. Reminds me of a song I wrote, “This Old House”…greed is destroying our once-beautiful country. It’s all relative. Too many politicians not putting the money into the cities and states, and this is just one result! The other results are people who no longer care, so they just leave, and turn and look away.
This guy is good. I could actually hear this being covered by a mainstream artist. I woukd love to hear it on my radio.
January 5, 2016 @ 4:52 pm
I agree with you Jen.
Once in twenty five hundred year floods happen every two years now.
it is a great song and video. heartfelt.
Thanks Trigger.
January 4, 2016 @ 12:28 pm
Wow, this is a real gem and what country music is all about. The mournful steel drives home the emotion like a gut punch. Heartbreaking and beautiful.
January 4, 2016 @ 3:08 pm
I am an aun to Brian and Derek Winans and am concerned about their mother who lives in McClure. Does anyone know if she is safe?
January 4, 2016 @ 5:23 pm
Great discovery, my friend. That’s what sites like this one are all about.
January 5, 2016 @ 11:52 am
Whoa there.. that’s some good stuff. I guess I’ve been living under a rock ’cause this is the first I’ve heard of them. Can’t wait to get out and see these guys while they are still playing the roadside bars.. Thanks Trigger for getting this up on the site to get the word out. I’ve witnessed the pain the floods cause our region, but the people that live in bottoms are tough as they come. Keep up the good fight.
January 7, 2016 @ 6:50 am
Most of the shots was in Thebes Illinois, great video!
January 13, 2016 @ 10:12 am
I have a place on the Arkansas River in South Central Arkansas, and so does a lot of friends and family. This past year, we were hit twice, and this last was worse. This song and video was awesome, and we can relate for sure. Drying out and cleaning up will take some time. However, once a river rat, always a river rat. It is in my life and blood, as this is where I was bred and raised!
December 7, 2016 @ 12:07 pm
Love this song!!!!!!! It makes me sad and happy… I reminisce and long for the “Good Old Days”… It truly touches my heart…
December 8, 2016 @ 8:04 pm
Damn. Having recently happened upon SCM, I just found this from the EOY “Best Songs” list. This is why I fell in love with country music. Despair and hardship have a way of producing artistic gold.
December 28, 2016 @ 8:05 pm
I know the area and have family there and across the river in Cape G. I’ve known McClure for 70 years and have driven Hwy 3 too many times to count. I’ve been through Cairo, Thebes, Vienna, you name it. In fact, Evan is family. The song captures so much about the area that I wish more people could see. Go through a graveyard there and you’ll see on the tombstones the service record of every man there. The ones in the ground are the ones who answered the call in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and now on the newer graves, the Middle East. They are the backbone of the country and the region is the breadbasket. And they’re mostly taken for granted and forgotten. Left to dry up or drown.
January 4, 2023 @ 2:59 pm
even today Jan.4,2023