Swallowed By The Hole
from Journey Home by Tom Smith
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about
A true story that took place in Port Griffith, Pennsylvania, near my home when I was nine years old. Thanks to Robert Wolensky for many details. "Dead work" is nonproductive, exploratory mining. "Robbing the pillars" is the removal of the coal pillars that were left to support the tunnel ceiling - the final step before abandoning that area of the mine.
Thanks to Dan Cloutier who suggested I write a "disaster song," and to Ewan MacColl for inspiration.
Thanks to Dan Cloutier who suggested I write a "disaster song," and to Ewan MacColl for inspiration.
lyrics
Swallowed by the Hole
by Tom Smith, TomSmithMusic.com
In January fifty nine
I kissed my Marianna
Rode down the throat of the Knox coal mine
To a place that never saw sun nor shine
Under the Susquehanna
The boss sent me to the river vein
No arguments, no sobbing
It’s not for dead work, don’t complain
Ignore the wet, the coal black rain
The pillars you’ll be robbing.
Robert Groves called down on the company line
Get out! Get out, all miners!
No reason given, take your time
We don’t want panic in the mine
Go home and have your dinner
But the water rushed above my waist
My mind and body shivered.
Dodging props and ice, no hiding place
My thoughts of Mary’s last embrace
No exit through the river
I saw Joe Stella on higher ground
With five others on the landing
To the Eagle air shaft they were bound
My choice, that shaft or to be drowned
Though the shaft was long abandoned
Eighty one souls in the mine that day
To navigate the hazard.
Eighty one prayers in the dark were prayed,
Sixty nine prayers were heard that day
Twelve prayers left unanswered
Twelve mining men at Knox were lost
Twelve thousand jobs soon followed
All lie buried. Who paid the cost?
Our lives, our jobs, our hope were tossed
By the hole they all were swallowed.
By the hole we all were swallowed.
by Tom Smith, TomSmithMusic.com
In January fifty nine
I kissed my Marianna
Rode down the throat of the Knox coal mine
To a place that never saw sun nor shine
Under the Susquehanna
The boss sent me to the river vein
No arguments, no sobbing
It’s not for dead work, don’t complain
Ignore the wet, the coal black rain
The pillars you’ll be robbing.
Robert Groves called down on the company line
Get out! Get out, all miners!
No reason given, take your time
We don’t want panic in the mine
Go home and have your dinner
But the water rushed above my waist
My mind and body shivered.
Dodging props and ice, no hiding place
My thoughts of Mary’s last embrace
No exit through the river
I saw Joe Stella on higher ground
With five others on the landing
To the Eagle air shaft they were bound
My choice, that shaft or to be drowned
Though the shaft was long abandoned
Eighty one souls in the mine that day
To navigate the hazard.
Eighty one prayers in the dark were prayed,
Sixty nine prayers were heard that day
Twelve prayers left unanswered
Twelve mining men at Knox were lost
Twelve thousand jobs soon followed
All lie buried. Who paid the cost?
Our lives, our jobs, our hope were tossed
By the hole they all were swallowed.
By the hole we all were swallowed.
credits
from Journey Home,
released November 6, 2011
by Tom Smith
(c) 2008, 2011 Peabody Hill Publishing
Tom Smith: vocals, banjo
Joyce Andersen: fiddle
Seth Connelly: bouzouki
by Tom Smith
(c) 2008, 2011 Peabody Hill Publishing
Tom Smith: vocals, banjo
Joyce Andersen: fiddle
Seth Connelly: bouzouki
license
all rights reserved
tags
about
Tom Smith Boston, Massachusetts
“Folk music is still a living tradition that feeds on new songs that speak of people’s wants, needs, struggles and triumphs. Tom Smith is a man who writes songs that seem like they’ve always been there. There are very few songwriters working today that I would call folksingers, but I would call Tom Smith a true folksinger.” – Dave Palmeter, WUMB-FM Boston ... more
discography
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Dec 2020 -
Mar 2020 -
Nov 2011 -
Jan 2019
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