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Ballad of Big Mountain

by Diane Patterson

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Recorded in 2021 for a new video, this 20-yr-old song still tells a bit of the mighty Diné/Navajo people, their beautiful homeland and ways. Their struggle and forced relocation/genocide due to the ravaging coal mine continue to this day.

lyrics

Up on Big Mountain, lyrics
by Diane Patterson

Did you ever wonder what happened to the old coal mines
And to the mighty miners, with their hard hats and their sooty faces
Oh, I’ve seen traces, in the legends and the places,
Where they worked until they died, or they lived among the side effects
Of all the angry land that lay misplaced inside a man
And grew a bigger rage than coal could ever power

But the coal mines look so different, It’s all on the surface now,
It’s even bigger now, somehow, and the mine I’ve seen
Can now be seen from space
What a disgrace they’ve made, these modern day coal miners
Oh their ivory towers, they’re getting richer by the hour
And they’re tearing up the land for coal power

For the power we must pay, but some just piss it all away
To light Las Vegas and a million LA billboards
I’ve seen their coal hoards, in giant piles all around,
Moving in tunnels on the ground,
They slurry coal with water stolen from the people
Yes, there are people.
They’re living out on a vast land, they build their homes with their own hands
They’re making prayers for their dead, some by uranium mined there years ago

Where does the time go?
Now it’s coal the man is after, and the People forced to scatter
To the four winds, some resisting relocation.
They’ve built a nation. Call themselves the Diné people
Herding sheep and weaving freedom,
They sing their songs around the ancient altar, the Diné altar,
It’s the land where they’ve lived for a thousand years,
Still giving up their blessings, and their Sundance up on Big Mountain

And that’s not countin, the Anasazi there before them, their ancestors’ dreams before them
Still live on though the land is slowly dying
The earth is crying, say the elders on that land
They say the coal mine’s greedy hand is stealing the water and the land
From the people who were born there to guard it
And they’ll guard it with their lives, planting the corn now it still thrives
For all humanity they pray up on Big Mountain
Up on Big Mountain

credits

released January 1, 2022
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Alice DiMicele
Bass by Rob Kohler
Piano by Sam Kohler
Guitar and voice, Diane Patterson

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Diane Patterson Ashland, Oregon

Folkgoddess Diane Patterson sings the world awake with powerful voice and revolutionary lyrics. Her sincere spirit and roots storytelling plant seeds of respect and justice. She’s fueled by music-as-activism and love-as-revolution. Made in New Orleans, Diane’s new 2018 album features Mike Napolitano and Ani DiFranco. ... more

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