"COAL", the Grasstime new single, is out everywhere you find music October 16
COAL
“” COAL” resonated with me the moment I heard it. My family has been in Appalachia and SW Virginia since the 1700’s. All of those alive during the era of this song were tough people. They made their way through life, hard times and many struggles. Some were working in the mines during the Coal Wars of West Virginia. Those were dangerous times that led to a huge escalation. This became the largest armed labor uprising in US history until the government intervened and sent troops, machine guns and bombs. Miners stood up against corporate oppression because they were tired and mistreated. There was interracial solidarity and those legends banded together. They stood up for themselves and for the mistreatment of others and changed history. ”
Robbie Morris
Grasstime’s latest single, “COAL,” is more than just a piece of music; it is a journey into the dark, blood-stained history of the Appalachian mine wars. Through driving acoustic instrumentation and poignant lyrics penned by Gary Boevers and Mike Richards, Grasstime’s “COAL” hopes to channel the unbreakable spirit of the Mingo County miners. To ensure that the heavy price they paid will never be forgotten.
At the center of this true story lies the infamous Battle of Matewan, a defining and tragic moment in American labor history that took place on May 19, 1920, deep in the rugged hills of Mingo County, West Virginia. For the coal miners of that era, life was notoriously hard, and the labor was physically devastating. Brutal corporate expendability drove desperate workers to seek safety and shelter through unionization. They aligned with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) District 17, demanding a living wage, safer working conditions, and basic human dignity.
Coal companies, fiercely opposed what they viewed as a threat to profits and absolute control, retaliated with brutal force. To crush organizing efforts, they hired the notorious Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, a private police force historically described as “gunmen of capitalism.” One spring morning, a heavily armed group of company men arrived in the independent town of Matewan, West Virginia. With a mission to illegally evict miners and their families from company-owned housing, heartlessly throwing familie and their meager belongings into the streets in the rain.
Coal companies severely underestimated the resolve of Matewan’s local leadership. Unlike other company-owned towns, Matewan had elected officials who refused to bow to corporate henchmen.
Mayor Cabell Testerman and Police Chief Sid Hatfield stood as an immovable force for local miners. When the Baldwin-Felts agents returned to the train depot after their cruel campaign of evictions, Hatfield, the Mayor and a group of armed miners, intercepted them. Hatfield attempted to arrest the lead detective for executing the illegal evictions. Who in turn produce a fraudulent warrant for Hatfield's own arrest. Tempers flared, and in an instant, a deafening fatal gunfight erupted on the streets.
History can't onfirm who fired the first shot, but the carnage was absolute. The brief but catastrophic skirmish left ten men dead in the dirt: detectives, courageous union miners, and Mayor Testerman.
The Battle of Matewan—frequently referred to as the Matewan Massacre—was a watershed event. While Sid Hatfield and his men were subsequently acquitted of murder charges, the bloodshed was far from over. Hatfield was later assassinated in a brazen act of corporate retribution, that ignited a powder keg of fury across Appalachia.
Ensuing violence escalated into a guerrilla war between the workers and the industrialists, culminating in the historic Battle of Blair Mountain, West Virginia. Federal troops were eventually called in with machine guns and bombs leftover from World War I to suppress the rebellion of an estimated 15,000 armed miners.
This story of Matewan is a testament to the steep, deadly price of worker solidarity and the unending fight against corporate tyranny.