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James McGovern

from One Town Over by G.F. Patrick

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about

As we get ready to close the history books on coal mining in the United States, it’s worth taking a moment to honestly recognize the incredible human cost of the industry, without ignoring the many ways in which the mines were and still are the lifeblood of whole communities.

lyrics

My name is James McGovern. I’m an old hard-working man
I’ll tell to you my story, hope that you can understand
That I was born into this life; this life I did not choose
Followed my father down into those caves, thought there that I might prove
That I was made of harder stuff than skin and flesh and bone
But the first time that I breathed the dark I knew that I was home.

When I was a young man carried tools into that hole
Spent summers cool and winters warm on my labour digging coal
The dust piled up around me until my skin would not come clean
But in the evening when the workbell rang, oh see how my eyes gleam
There’s a solomn brotherhood among those who dig so deep
into the mountains that you find the secrets nature tried to keep

Once I loved a woman and she said that she loved me
She bore two children to me and two children bore my need
They followed me into those pits to work and there they stay
I lost my eldest son to whisky, my youngest to the cave

So when the black lung comes and the world goes dim
If I see my child will I recognize him
Will he know his father though his frame is bent and old
His face grown gray and cold from a life spent underground

You ask me, "James McGovern, why do you stay this place?
Don’t you miss a sunlit valley? Don’t you miss a friendly face?"
But there’s a thing that gets beneath your skin when you’re down here.
Makes the sunlight unfamiliar and familiar the sound of steel
Backbreaking labour all my life is all I’ve known
From my grandfather on down, we’re a family digging coal so tell me

When the black lung comes and the world goes dim
If I see my child will I recognize him
Will he know his father though his frame is bent and old
His face grown gray and cold from a life spent underground
Your car may run on oil, but your house stays warm on coal

credits

from One Town Over, released May 30, 2020

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G.F. Patrick image

G.F. Patrick Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia-based guitarist and songwriter G.F. Patrick uses a Georgia-born post-country voice to examine the lives of everyday people and the way their unique pressure points have brought them to the given moment. While staying true to the folk and country idioms, he deftly repurposes song styles to attack outdated archetypes, putting music to the narratives of the overlooked and forgotten. ... more

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