'31 Depression Blues

DESCRIPTION: Coal miner tells of hard times in the Depression. Miners go to work hungry, ragged and shoeless and are cheated of their pay. The Supreme Court rules the National Recovery Act unconstitutional. The singer urges listeners to join the U.M.W.
AUTHOR: Credited to Ed Sturgill
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (recording, New Lost City Ramblers)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a coal miner, tells of hard times in the Great Depression of the 1930s. Miners go to work hungry, ragged and shoeless; when they go to the office for scrip, they're told they're behind and owe the company as the scale boss cheats them of their pay. The National Recovery Act offers hope, but the Supreme Court rules it unconstitutional. Roosevelt declares a bank holiday; John L. Lewis wins the miners' battle; the singer urges listeners to join the U.M.W., saying the Depression is now gone
KEYWORDS: strike mining work hardtimes labor-movement
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "'31 Depression Blues" (on NLCR15, NLCRCD2)
Ed Sturgill, "'31 Depression Blues" (Big Pine 677M-7157, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bright Sunny South" (tune)
cf. "Sixteen Tons" (lyrics)
NOTES [84 words]: Sturgill's last verse incorporates lines from Merle Travis's "Sixteen Tons." - PJS
The title of this song produces a confusion. There is a recoding by the Three Stripped Gears, "1931 Depression Blues" (OKeh 45553, 1931). Paul Stamler, before it was possible to find the song on the internet, speculated that it was the source for '31 Depression Blues. But Jim Dixon tracked it down and found that it was an instrumental that doesn't sound like the Ed Sturgill tune. So it's just a coincidence of names. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Rc31DB

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