Artist & Tune
About the Song
You can tell them in the country, tell them in the town
Miners down in Mingo laid their shovels down
we won't pull another pillar, load another ton
or lift another finger until the union we have won
Stand up boys, let the bosses know
Turn your buckets over, turn your lanterns low
There's fire in our hearts and fire in our soul
but there ain't gonna be no fire in the hole
Daddy died a miner and grandpa he did too,
I'll bet this coal will kill me before my working days is through
And a hole this dark and dirty an early grave I find
And I plan to make a union for the ones I leave behind
Stand up boys, let the bosses know
Turn you buckets over, turn your lanterns low
There's fire in our hearts and fire in our soul
but there ain't gonna be no fire in the hole
There ain't gonna be no fire in the hole"
—lyrics & music by Hazel Dickens
(c) author. All rights reserved.
Info: https://www.hipmuseum.com/fire.html
Hazel Dickens' recording of this song was used as part of the soundtrack of the John Sayles' film "Matewan", a 1987 independent film about the 1920 coal miners' strike in Matewan, West Virginia.