"Here in Gastonia" (pre-release single for my new cd "We Go On")

Thanks to Bob Weiser of “The Old Songs Home” on WFMR 91.3 radio in Orleans, Massachusetts for being the first dj to play a song on air (November 30, 2020) from my new cd (We Go On: Si Kahn’s Songs of Hope in Hard Times). “Here in Gastonia” is being released as a single ahead of the full album release on January 29, 2021. Bob saw the video premiere on “The Bluegrass Situation” and recognized The Loray Mill in Gastonia from when he used to visit the Firestone plant there in the 1980s. (Bob also grew up near mill towns in the Northeast). I have many past blog posts about this song and a song I wrote for the Mill Mother’s Lament cd. (This post is a good place to start). Lyrics for the song are reprinted here with permission from Si Kahn. Copyright is held by Si and Joe Hill Music, LLC.

“Here in Gastonia” by Si Kahn

Where are the bobbins/ Where are the cards
Where are the boys/ Telling jokes in the yard
Where are the spindles/ Where are the looms
The white cotton bales/ In the opening room

            Here in Gastonia/ Here in Gastonia/ Here in Gastonia/ Here in Gastonia

No one walks to their shift/ From a house on Mill Hill
There’s condos for sale/ At the Old Loray Mill
Listen hard as you can/ By the brick weave room wall
Where the din made you deaf/ Now there’s sound at all

But on a warm September night/ If you stop on the street
You can feel the ground shake/ From their proud marching feet
Hear those young women’s voices/ So scared and so bold
Who risked all they had/ In that strike long ago

Do you spin for your children/ Those tales of pure gold
How they stood up so strong/ Like your grandmother told
Do you give thanks/ For the price that they paid
To leave us the good lives/ We lead today

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