Folklorist and singer Ellen Stekert has released a new single, “High Floods & Low Waters”, a long-lost Woody Guthrie song that has remained unheard and undocumented for more than six decades. Originally recorded in 1959 on the CBS television program Camera Three, this release marks the first time the song has ever been made publicly available. 

Performed alongside American folk luminaries Jean Ritchie, Dave Sear, Oscar Brand, and The New Lost City Ramblers (Mike Seeger, Tom Paley, and John Cohen), “High Floods & Low Waters” was part of a special Camera Three episode exploring folksongs as a form of news, titled “Ballads Are News”. Narrated by legendary broadcaster Harry Reasoner, the episode aired on September 13, 1959.

The song, written by Woody Guthrie in the 1940s, addresses the devastating droughts and water shortages affecting New York City at the time. “I was assigned the solo verses, with the group singing the refrain,” recalls Stekert. “The problem was that I had never heard the song before. John Cohen sang it for me and recorded it on Oscar Brand’s tape machine so I could learn it.” That recording—and the performance it inspired—survived only on private tapes and in the memories of those involved. Until now.

Remarkably, “High Floods & Low Waters” was never published, and to the knowledge of Stekert’s team, no other lyrics or recordings of it have surfaced publicly. Aside from a mention of its title in the catalog of the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the song has remained completely unknown. This release is a cultural excavation—an essential rediscovery of Guthrie’s lesser-known work.

“When Ellen told me it was a Guthrie song, I didn’t believe it at first,” says Ross Wylde, Stekert’s producer. “I had looked up every line in the song and couldn’t find any record of it. The fact that any Woody Guthrie song would have zero digital footprint was baffling to me.”

The single is now available on all major streaming platforms. The complete Camera Three recording will be released May 16th on Bandcamp. To purchase a download of this song or any of Ellen’s other recent music releases, visit Ellen’s BandCamp page at ellenstekert.bandcamp.com. For updates about further new releases, please follow Ellen’s Spotify or Apple Music profiles, or check back on the Music & Performing page here at her website. Also, follow @ellenstekert on Instagram and Facebook for updates and interesting stories about Ellen’s life.

About the song

Here is Ellen’s commentary on the recording:

Early in the summer of 1959, a number of New York City singers involved in the growing urban “folksong Revival” were asked to do a program for CBS network TV. I was one of them.

The program was part of an hour-long anthology CBS carried on Sunday mornings called Camera Three. It was a network program that ran from 1954-1980—the predecessor to the current Sunday Night news magazine. It highlighted matters of interest to “intellectuals,” and it often strayed from recognized genres to more arcane ones. As one reviewer put it:

Camera Three did not discriminate… One week might be an examination of torch songs, and the next would be Shakespeare, and the week after that would be Japanese films. Examples were given, and experts were brought in. There were no ads. It was done as a service for people who felt ignored by the television industry. Remember, this was at a time when TV was acknowledged to be a cultural wasteland…

The program we were being asked to do was a focus on folksongs as purveyors of news. It was scheduled to air on September 13, 1959. John Cohen, my friend from high school in Great Neck and my initial contact with the Greenwich Village folk music scene, had called and asked me to take part in the program. He had already rounded up Jean Ritchie, Dave Sears, and Oscar Brand, as well as his own new old-timey group, The New Lost City Ramblers. We were all from the New York City area, so there would be no problem with logistics.

John and Oscar had already mapped out the program with the director and the studio personnel. It was to be narrated by the well-known news broadcaster, Harry Reasoner, a favorite broadcaster of mine. In addition to the song we all sang together (‘Wasn’t That a Mighty Day’), I was assigned a song with Jean Ritchie about the Santa Barbara earthquake as well as the solo verses of a song by Woody Guthrie, with the group singing the refrain. The song was called “High Floods & Low Waters”, and it was about the then-contemporary droughts that caused serious water shortages in New York City. The problem was that I had never heard the song.

So, a few weeks before the program, I met with John Cohen at Oscar Brand’s home on Long Island. John sang the song into Oscar’s tape machine and gave me the tape to listen to and learn the song. John’s style of singing was similar to Woody’s, and I was at first somewhat concerned since my singing presentation was closer to an understated urban pop singer than to either of them. I knew I could not become an old-timey singer in a few weeks. But I practiced, and when I now listen to my first attempts to sing the song, which I still have on the original tape that John made for me at Oscar’s, I don’t think I did a bad job learning it.”

Lyrics

I stand on a high marble place and look down
See the wild rushing waters flood city and town
High floods and low waters all around, all around
High floods and low waters all around

Now New York City is stony-bone dry
While down in Georgia, it pours from the sky
High floods and low waters all around, all around
High floods and low waters all around

At the hospital blaze, well, the fireman said, “Yes, sir”
“I’d save more people if I had the pressure”
High floods and low waters all around, all around
High floods and low waters all around

Now, New York City is a devil of a place, sir
Drinking hot, burning whisky without any chaser
High floods and low waters all around, all around
High floods and low waters all around

Bow down with your neighbor and ask yourselves why
Some cities are flooded while others bone-dry
High floods and low waters all around, all around
High floods and low waters all around

Credits

Released May 9, 2025
Performers: Ellen Stekert, Jean Ritchie, Oscar Brand, The New Lost City Ramblers, Dave Sear
Composer: Woody Guthrie
Producer: Ross Wylde
Production Assistant: Bates Detwiler
Editorial & Publicity Manager: Christopher Bahn
Cover art: Multiple-exposure photograph from Camera Three by Ellen’s brother, Jim Stekert