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White Tail

from Rust Belt Ballads by Emmett Doyle

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about

As the Farm Crisis and Rust Belting have hit our communities hard, the far right has tried to exploit people's frustration and the weakness of the working class movement to push authoritarian nationalism, white supremacy, the entrenchment of male dominance and the oppression of queers, and religious fundamentalism. I have had to face down far right militants both in the Cities and in the sticks, as part of community self defense against this rising tide of hate. This song is a meditation on the ways in which fascism grows in a crumbling social fabric, and where the chain of escalation can lead.

lyrics

Dm
That old barn lasted longer
D
than anyone could give it use
C D
Since the crisis in the 80s hit the town
And those old pine planks, like walls of stone
Clung rotting on the stubborn bones
of timber, ‘til the storm brought them down
When the sky is light as painted glass,
and lifts the fog off of the grass
B7
I’ll be there with a rifle in my hands
Em C D
And if I can shoot a white tail (x3)
Em
I can keep us on the land

The day the bank called in the loan
The old man watched the fields he’d grown
Snatched up into the new supply chain’s hands
Your seed, your land, your sun, your water
fat the birds up for the slaughter
Keep the lines rolling at the plant
And they brought in workers, keep ‘em packed
In the trailer park down by the track
And the smack burns through this town like gasoline
And if I can shoot a white tail (x3)
Then I’ll keep living clean

Every year the radio’s
More crowded with the outrage show
Preaching hatred for a paycheck from the Coast
Now a northern boys with stars and bars,
And Three Percent slapped on their cars
Play dress up as soldiers or as ghosts
But there’s people now who I’ve come to know
From Africa or Mexico
And I know who my friends are in this town
And if I can shoot a white tail (x3)
We won’t take it lying down

Good old boys came into town,
Kicked some Somali kid around
Hey mama, ain’t you proud of your boy?
Now they buzz the trailer park at night
High-beams on and armalites,
F-150 whips and milspec toys
Now that old barn will be my blind
They come down here and they will find
we know to make a killin’ on the land
And I can shoot a white tail (x3)
I can shoot down the Klan

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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