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Black Rock Bootlegger Lament

from Sound Luck by Lora Galora

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about

This song came about while reading the zine Coal, Corn & Country. There was a piece about the coal bootleggers of the 1930's and their predecessors, the Molly Maguires.The second half of the song comes entirely from quotes of people who lived through the ordeal.

lyrics

Bechya never heard of the Molly Maguires or the black rock bootleggers, outlaw coal miners. They fought the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company, and then swinging on a rope, the company set them free. Black Tuesday came, Black Tuesday spent, and everybody knows money always wins. Company owned the mines, trains and the land. They hung those miners who worked for them with their dirty hands. One struggle ends where another one begins. That's just the way it goes when 6 out of 7 coal mines close. (Now let's hear it from the people who were there to tell the tale) The company came in they raped the land and they pulled out. We thought the end of the world was coming. They shut everything down. There was no such thing as money. It was people helping people. There was no such thing as money. People who had cows shared the milk, people who had pigs shared the meat. There was no such thing as money, we bartered. The company came in they raped the land and they pulled out. That's when the bootlegging started, the coal was in the ground. People started digging their own coal holes. We all knew where it was at. We all knew where it was at. The company came in they raped the land and they pulled out. I traded flour or potatoes for coal, sold the coal in the town. Bootlegger cash supplanted barter, but the ethics that governed the exchange, mutual obligation, sharing, and solidarity remained deeply ingrained in the practices of the illegal industry. Mutual obligation, sharing and solidarity.

credits

from Sound Luck, released December 13, 2017

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Lora Galora Carbondale, Colorado

Lora Galora, a member of the Rail Yard Ghosts, is most inspired by traveling, exploring the world for over ten years now. Lora lives by the DIY ethos, writing and recording everything on their own (cover songs excluded...). Other bands they've played with include One Monster After Another, Sin Nombre, and Nomad Mountain Outlaws. ... more

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