Coal Miner's Blues

by Jawbone

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about

I saw the movie 'Harlan County, USA' a little while back, about the 1973 United Mine Workers strike at the Brookside mine in Harlan County, Kentucky, and the John Sayles movie 'Matewan', about a more violent struggle for unionization in the West Virginia town of Matewan back in 1920. Though don't think I've ever even seen a coal mine, let alone been inside one, it did impress me how similar those strikes were to all the United Auto Workers strikes that I'd see on the news growing up in the Detroit area. Different industries, different times, same problems. Maybe because the name Harlan County makes me think of famed country songwriter Harlan Howard (born in Detroit, by the way - the Detroit-Nashville connection is strong) it somehow all made its way into a country blues piano song that came to me one cold winter day. Probably where all the reverb comes from too.

lyrics

LYRICS

Well you wake up in the morning
Coal miner's blues
Well you wake up in the morning
Coal miner's blues
Funny how you ain't got
That much to lose

Well you go down in the morning
Coal miner's blues
Back in the hole you were born in
Coal miner's blues
First I set the charges
Coal miner

Coal miner, coal miner
Coal miner, coal miner
ohh, ohhhh
You gotta pay the company
And pay those union dues
Coal miner

Well you don't worry 'bout the weather
Coal miner's blues
Anything is better
Coal miner's blues
Warm sun above so yellow
The blue sky oh so blue
Coal miner

Coal miner, coal miner
Coal miner, coal miner
ohh, ohhhh
So cold and dank
Oh man it stank
The cutting wheels would roar
Nobody digs there anymore

credits

released March 25, 2022
Bob Zabor: piano, vocals, drum loops, tambourine

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about

Jawbone Detroit, Michigan

JAWBONE. IS OVER-DRIVEN, 12 VOLT. ENHANCED. NON-OSCILLATING. SIX STRING. HARMONICANIZED. SLIDE-BLUES. HOLLER STOMPS. OF 2- HEADED DOGS. HANDS WITH 6 FINGERS. TOMBSTONE CHEVYS. JAPANESE ZEROES. HOLY. COCA-COLA. DONKEY OIL. THE GERMAN. FLU. DEATHBED REDEMPTION. RUSSIAN. COAL MINES. AMEN. ... more

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