“You’ve got to build up your levees, you’ve got to build up your dikes … the mighty Red River is going to crest tonight.”

That’s the opening line of “Fargo-Moorhead Flood Song ’09,” written by 59-year-old John Kurkosky, an excavation business owner in the Twin Cities area.

The ditty about flooding in the Red River Valley isn’t his only tune. Kurkosky is largely known for his fishing songs, but singing he says is strictly a hobby.

Kurkosky has taken special note of the flooding situation up here, in 2009 and now watching the Red rise on inforum.com’s bridge floodcam this year.

His song (click to listen) Fargo-Moorhead Flood Song ’09, is catchy. For me, he sounds a bit like Gordon Lightfoot on a Ray Stevens song.

“That’s why I did it that way. I had to make it entertaining. You don’t have to be reminded of gloom and doom,” Kurkosky said.

And, Kurkosky says, his main reason for allowing his song to be freely listened to is to show his support for the thousands of volunteers in the Red River Valley.

“It’s really hard to watch people lose everything. This was dedicated to everyone busting their butts sandbagging,” he says.

“Our politicans and our leaders should really take note of what happens when people work together.”

While the song, recorded in St. Cloud, Minn., has been out for two years, Kurkosky says he’s receiving more and more visitors from all over the world to his website www.johnkurkosky.com.

“I’m getting hits from all over the world. I’m not sure if its because of the Fargo-Moorhead song or what,” he says.

Performing on the song are three studio musicians, including guitarist Paul Diethelm, who worked for several years with Fargo’s own Jonny Lang.

Kurkosky has considered changing the ’09 version for this year’s flood fight. However, the last thing he wants to do, he says, is to jinx successful flood fights.

“Maybe there’s a little luck with it,” he says of his ’09 version. “I don’t think I want to change it.”