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Fire in the Hole

from Gone Boy by Brett Ratliff

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about

Fire in the hole is a mining term that means "the blast used to move rock." Its cry was a way to warn other miners that a dynamite-­‐triggered explosion was about to take place. The lyrics to the song “Fire in the Hole” were written by Mason Daring and John Sayles and performed by Hazel Dickens for Sayles’ film “Matewan,” which dramatized the events of the Battle of Matewan. This battle brought organized miners under fire from the hired company gun thugs in Matewan, West Virginia in 1920. These events led to the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest labor uprising in American history. By running noise guitar behind the string instruments as contrast, I've arranged the song to update Dickens’ use of acoustic high-­‐lonesome vocals for a post-­‐2008 American economy.The song finishes with a voice-­‐over of John L. Lewis calling us toward liberty.

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from Gone Boy, released November 1, 2017

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Brett Ratliff Fayetteville, Arkansas

Brett Ratliff is a 2022 United States Artists Fellow in Traditional Arts. Ratliff teaches and performs traditional Appalachian musical styles and repertoire both at home and abroad, and has contributed to more than a dozen recordings, including for Smithsonian Folkways, June Appal Recordings, The Kentucky Center for Traditional Music, Old Town School of Folk Music, and The Oxford American. ... more

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