[1] The two met at an open mic session in their hometown of Wichita, Kansas in 2001 and they quickly bonded and formed an acoustic duo playing traditional and delta blues.

The trio's sound continued to evolve on this recording with Moreland adding a handmade electric cigar box guitar to his arsenal.

Blurt Magazine noted that "Moreland & Arbuckle put the edge back in blues-rock with their big league debut album, 1861".

"[5] After the release of Flood, Moreland & Arbuckle hit the road supporting acts such as ZZ Top, George Thorogood, Jonny Lang, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Los Lonely Boys and other blues and rock veterans.

Upon its release, The New York Post named it Album of the Week, proclaiming it is "the band’s best record to date... there’s a raw, dirt-under-the fingernails garage-band attack in almost every song that flips between Stax-style soul, stinging Chicago Blues and Allman-style Jams."

It tells the story of Spanish explorer Coronado and his fabled search for the seven cities of gold in the Kansas plains, not far from where the band lived.

[11] In a radio interview[12] in 2018, Aaron Moreland explained that the breakup of the band about a year earlier was caused by his dissatisfaction with life as a touring musician.