Where the Allegheny Flows
Listen
Peter Gray
Run Johnnie Run
The Johnstown Flood
Hard Times
The Homestead Strike
Where the Allegheny Flows
Pittsburgh Town
Dark as a Dungeon
Copper Kettle
Monongahela Sal
The NewLanders CD "Where the Allegheny Flows" has songs about Pittsburgh steel, the Johnstown Flood, coal mining, our rivers, the Homestead strike, songs of Western Pennsylvania. Also on the CD, the printed lyrics and historical information that can be viewed on your computer. Featured artists include Doug Wilkin, Paula Purnell, Gerard Rohlf and Art Gazdik.
Their new album Where the Allegheny Flows includes the following songs.
“Peter Gray", written over the often used melody of the English marching song, "The Baffled Knight," the song is about a broken hearted man who travels west and is killed by Indians. “Hard Times", one of the most popular songs by Pittsburgh songwriter Stephen Foster, it was inspired by his difficult life and the hard times Pittsburghers faced just before the Civil War.
“The Johnstown Flood", on Friday, May 31, 1889, 2,000 people were killed in one of America's most infamous disasters. The song follows the ride of John G. Parker, who galloped his horse ahead of the 40-foot wave and tried to warn the people of Johnstown. NewLanders’ guitarist Gerard Rohlf's great-grandparents were killed in the flood.
“The Homestead Strike", believed to have been sung during the epic battle of July 6, 1892, when Pinkerton militiamen tried to quell a revolt by locked out steelworkers. Singer Paula Purnell's great-great uncle was shot, but not killed, during the battle.
“In the Valley Where the Allegheny Flows”, a love song written in and about New Kensington, Pa., in 1912.
“Monongahela Sal", a 20th-century, “done her wrong” ballad inspired by the rough-edged steel town just upriver of Pittsburgh.
“Pittsburgh Town (Is a Smoky Ol' Town)”, Pete Seeger retold the story about the hard and dirty work that was done in Pittsburgh.
“Run Johnnie Run”, songwriter Jimmy Driftwood wrote this 1950s rocker about the stubborn Scotch-Irish whiskey-producing farmers of western Pennsylvania who refused to pay a whiskey tax levied by President George Washington. The predominance of the federal government was enforced for the first time when Washington sent 15,000 troops to quell the rebellion.
“Dark as a Dungeon”, A coal-mining song written by Merle Travis, who also wrote the classic "Sixteen Tons."
“Copper Kettle”, Another 1950s song about the Whiskey Rebellion of the 1790s. [Text from Westsylvania Web Site]
Our CD "Where the Allegheny Flows" was voted a Top 10 CDs of 2003 FROM THE CD PLAYERS OF THE STAFF OF CALLIOPE, THE PITTSBURGH FOLK MUSIC SOCIETY (As Published in the Pittsburgh City Paper December 31, 2003)
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2.) Or email Doug at djwaudio@comcast.net or call him at 412.871.5325
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Born of Fire
About the Songs
Twenty-Inch Mill The lyrics of this song were passed between rolling-mill men for decades before they were published in the April 26, 1894 issue of the National Labor Tribune. Pittsburgh steelworkers created the ballad. It's a proud anthem to Carnegie's twenty-inch mill on Thirty-Third Street, which produced the first Pittsburgh-rolled beams around 1870.
Celebrated Working Man Miner minstrel Ed Foley composed this song in 1892 after listening to an off-hours miner brag about how he could "cut more coal than any man from Pittsburgh to New York." RJ Heid: Drums, Les Getchel: Bodhran
Where the Old Allegheny and Monongahela Flow There is some question as to where this song originated, but it was a very popular tune in Pittsburgh around 1910. The Smoky City Quartet sang it in four-part harmony, and impromptu versions could be heard in the pubs around Sarah Street on the South Side. It is reminiscent of Pittsburgh in a bygone era, but this ode to Pittsburgh still touches those of us who love "the city that is built among the hills." RJ Heid: Drums
The Altoona Freight Wreck (Fred Tait-Douglas, Carson Robison) This song was found in a collection titled, Scalded to Death by the Steam, Authentic Stories of Railroad Disasters and the Ballads that Were Written About Them by Katie Letcher Lyle. The wreck occurred on November 29, 1925. Freight No. 1262 was hauling fifty-eight freight cars, running east from Kittanning Point, at the topmost spot on the Horseshoe Curve. The engineer lost brake power as the tracks followed a sharp descent for five miles down the mountainside. Picking up speed all along the way, the train finally smashed into the Altoona train yard, sending bystanders leaping for safety. Two men were killed in the accident and five thousand spectators came to view the wreckage. Vernon Dalhart originally recorded the song in January 1926. RJ Heid: Drums, Dan Kaplan: Harmonica
Draglines (Deborah Silverstein) Johnstown native Deborah Silverstein wrote Draglines in the late 70's, when she was living in Boston and performing with five other women in a leftist/feminist string band called "New Harmony Sisterhood." On a visit home she was on a drive with her younger sister in the area near Coalport when she saw strip mining for the first time. She writes: As I was already immersed in a world of leftist politics, it wasn't hard for me to create the storyline for the song. People responded with great intensity to Draglines from the very beginning and the song has gone on to have a life of it's own, traveling around the world and still, occasionally, returning back to me in interesting ways. It's been recorded, among others, by Peggy Seeger, Guy and Candy Carawan and Delores Keene, and The Reel World String Band. Nathan Santos: Acoustic Bass
Spike Crain (Gerard Rohlf) When the band first saw the paintings in the Born of Fire collection, they immediately thought of a song written by NewLander Gerard Rohlf. Several paintings depicted the tough little tug boats that push the coal barges up and down Pittsburgh's waterways.Gerard Rohlf remembers: I wrote the song in 1972 while I was working with Henry Koerner, a renowned artist and instructor at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He encouraged his students to find their models in life. He also admired the variety of architectural settings around the city, so he asked me to bring my guitar and meet a group of his students on the Smithfield Street Bridge. Seated there on a girder, singing a song, I noticed a plucky little tugboat, called Spike Crain. It was pushing some barges down the Monongahela River. I waved to the captain, who treated me to a blast of the ship's horn, and this song was born. Twenty years later I met the captain's grandson, Mason, when I sang Spike Crain at a coffee house in Squirrel Hill. RJ Heid: Drums
Hard Traveling (Woody Guthrie) Woody Guthrie, the People's Poet, had deep respect and admiration for America's hardworking people. He often passed through our region, and he wrote these lyrics celebrating railroad workers, hard-rock miners, and Pittsburgh steel workers. RJ Heid: Drums
Coal Diggin' Blues This song was preserved by George Korson in 1940 in a collection of field recordings titled, "Songs and Ballads of the Bituminous Miners." According to Korson, the bituminous coal industry was officially established in Appalachia in 1840 when its first million tons were produced, chiefly by "native white workers and Negro slaves." After the Civil War, African-Americans continued to play an outstanding role in the development of folk music of the bituminous coal fields. He notes, "The blues were more suited than spirituals to the miners' purpose. After the song had been created it was taken over by the folk, Negro and white, as an unquestioned possession." Amy Buchan Baldonieri: Hammer
Bread and Roses (Lyrics by James Oppenheim) The lyrics of this song were written by James Oppenheim and were inspired by banners held by women during the textile industry strike of 1912. Their banners read, "Give us bread, but give us roses!" There is also an Italian song with the same title, "Pan e Rose," written by the Italian-American poet Arturo Giovannitti. Never underestimate the role of women in the fight for fair wages and decent working conditions. Mother Jones, dubbed "the grandmother of all agitators" by the U.S. Senate, came through Pittsburgh many times. Speaking in Homestead on the eve of the great steel strike of 1919 she said, "What we want is a little leisure, time for music, playgrounds, a decent home, books and the things that make life worth while." She was quickly arrested. RJ Heid: Drums
I Lie in the American Land (by Andrew Kovaly) Andrew Kovaly moved to Pittsburgh from Slovakia in 1899. He worked in the steel mills in McKeesport until his death. He wrote many songs, including this one, which he describes in his own words: I was a young foreman at a Bessemer mill here in McKeesport. A very good friend of mine, a member of my crew, had saved enough money to send for his family in Slovakia. While they were on their way to America he was killed, before my eyes, under an ingot buggy. I tried to grab him but it was too late. It was terrible. I felt so bad that when I went to meet his wife and little children at the railroad station I hardly knew how to break the sad news to them. Then I made this song. My friend was very proud of America and it was with pride and happiness that he looked forward to raising his children as Americans. The song made me feel better, and also my friend's wife. But she cried very hard. I have never forgotten it. (Interviewed by Jacob A. Evanson, 1947) Jim DiSpirito: Percussion
Two Cent Coal Two Cent Coal commemorates a disaster on the Monongahela River in the winter of 1876.It had been a long, cold winter and the ice on the river was frozen to the depth of fourteen inches. Due to bad weather the mines were mostly still, and it was during this time that the operators reduced what they were paying the miners from 3 cents a bushel to 2 cents a bushel - or about fifty cents a ton. With the dearth of work and pay the miners were forced to pull their meager resources in order to survive. An early thaw caused the ice to melt up river, and suddenly massive ice flows came crashing past the shores of Elizabeth Town. The ice swept away the mine's tipples along with the operators' property. The suffering Irish miners saw in this the hand of God and wrote this triumphant song. The introduction is from a collection of field recordings by George Korson. The singer is Mr. David Morrison from Finlayville, PA. He was eighty-one years old when this song was recorded in 1940. Les Getchell: Bodhran
In Soho on Saturday Night This little ditty was written as a satirical response to Pittsburgh's first liquor-license law of 1855. The city was trying to mandate that all saloons close at midnight on Saturday. After all, technically it was Sunday morning and Pittsburgh took its blue laws very seriously. In fact, in a lecture on the folk songs of western Pennsylvania, given by Dr. George Swetnam in 1972, he recalls a time when the entire Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra was arrested for playing a concert on Sunday. And forget about Sunday major-league baseball games - not in Pittsburgh! At the time, Soho, the area where Duquesne University now stands, was considered the rowdiest section of Pittsburgh. It was, according to Dr. Swetnam, "rougher than the pig iron that they used to make there." The city would attempt to close a saloon, and the thirsty steel workers would open it right back up again -raising their glasses and singing this song of defiance. Recorded live at the Map Room in Regent Square; featuring members of St. Bede's Choir; Catey Heaney, tambourine; and friends and family
Our CD "Where the Allegheny Flows" was voted a Top 10 CDs of 2003 FROM THE CD PLAYERS OF THE STAFF OF CALLIOPE, THE PITTSBURGH FOLK MUSIC SOCIETY (As Published in the Pittsburgh City Paper December 31, 2003)
Purchase
Where the Allegheny Flows is now available ($14.00, plus shipping) --
Easy ways to order:
1.) Click the BUY NOW icon below
2.) Or email Doug at djwaudio@comcast.net or call him at 412.871.5325
3. ) Purchase from CD Baby click below
Buy the CD
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Rise Up Steeler Nation
Rise Up Steeler Nation
Featuring the real sounds of Pittsburgh Steel mills
We are the Steeler Nation
Come Listen to our song
Of pride and dedication
Ten million voices strong
Our championships are numerous
Our players brave and bold
We cheer them on from dusk to dawn
The mighty Black and Gold
Rise Up Steeler Nation was inspired by an anthem, titled Twenty Inch Mill, written by the steelworkers of the first rolling mill in Pittsburgh in 1897. When the NewLanders recorded Twenty Inch Mill for their Born of Fire: Songs of Steel and Industry CD (2007), they used sounds recorded at a working steel mill in Pittsburgh as their percussion track. A few months ago the NewLanders were performing the song at Club Café and a fan suggested that the pounding rhythms would make a great Steelers song. The original lyrics were so full of Pittsburgh pride, determination, and grit that it didn’t take long to create a new song celebrating Pittsburgh’s Steelers fans and their six-time Super Bowl Champions.
Rise Up Steeler Nation features:
- The real sound of working Pittsburgh steel mills
- A shout-out to fans in Steeler bars across the country
- A litany of Super Bowl winning Steelers, past and present
FOR CDS AND DOWNLOADS:
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Recorded and produced by Wilkin Audio, www.wilkinaudio.com