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Boom Town

from Boom Town by Steel City Sue

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    CD with artwork by the wonderful Trevor Dickinson on nice-feeling recycled paper.
    11 Tracks.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Boom Town via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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about

From the first days of the Anglo settlement of Newcastle boatloads of convicts were turfed out at Coal River* to dig coal. In the following centuries coal has dominated the landscape. But looking at rundown downtown Newcastle, Singleton or Muswellbrook in recent decades... show us the money!

I started writing this song a few years ago when Hunter Street reached peak dereliction. A catch-up verse was added before recording to account for more recent goings on.

*now the Hunter River - or for millennia before that 'Coquun'

lyrics

BOOM TOWN - Lyrics

Our town, is a boom town
but you’d never know it was a boom town ‘cause
the main street is empty and the shops have all closed down
There are squatters in The Empire. That old seedy late night bunker
and though I barely went there
I sill miss that pub like all the ghosts
of our town.

Our town, is a boom town
but you’d never know it was a boom town when
the old Palais dance hall just got run into the ground
And I can still remember seeing Screaming Jay Hawkins there.
Everybody’s parents met there.
So much for the old icons
of our town.

When over at our harbour a mystery remains...
How so many millions worth of black coal can be hauled out every day
while our town decays…?

'cause after they’ve had their day all the money goes
out through the heads and far away.
Not a cent is left to pay for a beautiful building or anything
in our town.

Our town, is a boom town
but you’d never know it was a boom town when we’re
going to the wall just trying to fix the city hall
We could use a dollar. We could use ten cents
Even just a penny every tonne of coal could help us out
in our town

Our town, is a boom town
but you’d never know it was a boom town like those
old gold rush avenues so elegant and proud…
Brick for brick that money stayed to build the place where it was made.
Bendigo and Melbourne hold a candle to the robbery
of our town.

There are bankers at their barbecues laughing at what they made
plundering our sweet rural Valley….
while our leaders are weak and vain

'cause after they’ve had their day all the money goes
out through the heads and far away.
Not a cent is left to pay for a beautiful building or anything
in our town.

Our town is a boom town
but you’d never know it was a boom town when they
sold off our port and all the land that goes around it.
They said the windfall would be spent resuscitating Hunter Street
but most went down to Sydney town
and just like that!
they stole the jewel from our crown

and the only change that I can see is strangers buying property
our seaside home will soon be just a memory with nothing left to save
A speculators’ game…

'cause after they’ve had their day
all the money goes out through the heads and far away.
Not a cent is left to pay for a beautiful building or anything in
our town.

'cause after they’ve had their day
all the money goes out through the heads and far away
Not a cent is left to pay
for a beautiful building,
or a footy field
a surf lifesaver
or homeless meal
a railway line or a ferry or bus
or an ambulance
or anything in
our town
our town
our town


Bendigo….
Your streets were paved with gold.
But our town Newcastle never
saw a cent from coal.

credits

from Boom Town, released September 1, 2018
Su Morley - vocals, piano
Mike West - banjo, guitar, backing vocals
Katie West - double bass
Colby Earleywine - drums

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about

Steel City Sue image

Steel City Sue Newcastle, Australia

Steel City Sue is a musician based in Newcastle, Australia.

She plays trad fiddle, and follows it around the world to where the tunes are cranking and the dance floor's busy.

She also writes songs - about her life and her town.

Boom Town is her debut album and was recorded with Truckstop Honeymoon in Lawrence Kansas
at Mike West's 9th Ward Pickin' Parlor.
It will be released 1st Sept 2018. ... more

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