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Granite City

from Rust Belt Ballads by Emmett Doyle

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As the first track told about the Farm Crisis, the second track of Rust Belt Ballads explores the process of industrial decline- in this case, of quarry workers' jobs and the identity that came with it. The broad strokes of this song are familiar to people across the Rust Belt; a town was once defined by its core industry, but that industry is now gone or changed beyond recognition.

In Saint Cloud, there is still quarrying. Our jobs didn't get outsourced- granite deposits are not as easy to move as machining tools. But we did take much of the most desirable stone already, causing companies to source more from other sites, and our industry did mechanize, replacing vast teams of workers with a smaller number of equipment operators. Similar processes are among the main causes of job losses in other extractive industries, like coal mining or logging, since the mid-1900s.

I grew up swimming in the old quarry pits of St Cloud.

lyrics

C am
Where the Mississippi Water rolls along to meet the Sauk
Dm F G
And the river bank slopes down over the gray and rosy rock
C Am
Granite City said the sign; granite was the prison wall
Dm F G C
But I scarcely met a quarryman in the city there at all

Chorus:
F C Am
Now the red and broken stone lies along the railroad tracks
Dm F G
The quarry days are gone, boys, they’re never coming back
C Am
Still the pulley gives a groan and the engine gives a roar
Dm F G C
But scarce a soul quarries stone in granite city anymore

Oh the ringing and the blasting used to hammer through the day
Where the men went down into the pits to haul the stone away
And there were barges on the river and the train tracks that led
To the builders in the city hauling off the St Cloud red

Chorus

But that was long ago, and time has rolled along
The best stone’s all been taken, the industry’s moved on
And what we’ve got left here, it isn’t like back then
They’ve got new machines to do the work of fifty men

Chorus

Now the drag lines and conveyers rise up high above the scree
The engineers here working for the Lockheed company
And the big box and the strip mall sprout like weeds out of the ground
The pits are all just swimming holes on the outskirts of town

credits

from Rust Belt Ballads, released September 1, 2023

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Emmett Doyle Minneapolis, Minnesota

Emmett is a working class rebel musician- a union carpenter, former river deckhand, raised on a farm in central Minnesota. With American country and blues and Irish traditional roots, he keeps the Long Memory going while singing about today's struggles. His work is rooted in social movements he's an active part of, from labor to defending the earth to fighting hate. ... more

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