Fire, Fire, Fire

from Texas Farewell by D. W. Wallach

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about

An original song about the "1913 Massacre" sung about by Woody Guthrie. It is a story of one of the most horrific acts against organization among workers in American history, where in Calumet, Michigan, 73 miners were trampled at a Christmas Eve party being held at the "Italian Hall". It is widely understood to have been caused by a false alert by a company worker yelling "Fire" in the hall, causing the party-goers to rush to the doors that were locked on the outside by other company men. This is one of my attempts to use a more modern, sort of alt-folk sound to reinvigorate life into a very important story in the folk and labor canon.

lyrics

It’s christmas eve and they’re having a party
We’ve worked so damn hard this year
For what we think is true to ourselves
Instead of what they shout in our soot filled ears

And the man yells fire fire fire
and the people rushed to the door
and the man yells fire fire fire
Crushing us like before

13 years into the century
and in this one we’ve become strong
But the men holding those doors closed
Want Calumet to know we were wrong

And the man yells fire fire fire
and the people rushed to the door
and the man yells fire fire fire
Crushing us like before

They had the funeral on a Sunday
cries in every language one could hear
73 bodies the miners mourned, saying
we’ll work damn hard this year

credits

from Texas Farewell, released July 10, 2015

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about

D. W. Wallach Austin, Texas

“Daniel Ward Wallach is a banjo player from Austin, Texas. He enjoys playing in the clawhammer style as well as early folk picking styles.” - 2014

Daniel now uses they them pronouns and is a weird mess

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