Name: Hell or High Water
Duration: P00H03M49S
Description: For many years the miners were at the companies' sole command. They were overworked, underpayed and employed in dangerous conditions. Not until they were able to organize and gain power with the unions did men of different nationalities come together under a common cause. This is a tale of a company foreman with a strong tie to his fellow employees doing the "dirty" work.

Hell or High Water

from Songs of Mesabi by Greg Tiburzi

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For many years the miners were at the companies' sole command. They were overworked, underpayed and employed in dangerous conditions. Not until they were able to organize and gain power with the unions did men of different nationalities come together under a common cause. This is a tale of a company foreman with a strong tie to his fellow employees doing the "dirty" work.

lyrics

Hell or High Water

I've done some hard diggin', I drilled and I blasted
Ran a power shovel, drove a Euclid and a plow
Took pride in my work, with the fellows there with me
Blew off some steam in the taverns of town

For 26 years, I worked like a dog
and kept to myself, they liked what they found
Then they made me a foreman, and I's told to do nothin'
But drive around pointing fingers and boss men around

(chorus)
But come hell or high water, I'll stand by the worker
and band with my brothers, whatever the deed
and when the Lord comes a-callin' we'll all be together
to pass through the gates of, eternity

When two trains pinned my old friend like a nut in a cracker,
I talked in a whisper, tried keepin' him calm
Til the ambulance arrived and they pulled them apart
and the life left his body and ran out on the ground

I've watched while a track gang got buried alive
As the timbers and the rocks came a-crumbling on down
I'd give my whole life to be back in there with 'em
Instead of out here with the guilt I've been hauling around

(chorus)

When I retired I got me a pension
and bought up some land to take the dead trees
I saw them and I limb 'em, I chop 'em and split 'em
and give 'em all away to my brothers in need

(chorus)

credits

from Songs of Mesabi, released June 14, 2022

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Greg Tiburzi Duluth, Minnesota

Inspired by pop radio, the American songbook, folk and world music, and rock from Chuck Berry on, Greg Tiburzi blends guitar and harmonica to back his compositions of loss, redemption, and fragility of the human condition. He reveres the healing quality of music, the ability to lift and better connect us to each other, our surroundings, and ourselves. ... more

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