“West Terre Haute Blues”

[dhanners623]

Granted, it isn’t everyday you hear a song about a trash dump fire, but here ya go….

Been toying with this one for awhile. One of my strongest memories growing up was when we’d drive through West Terre Haute, IN, and there, along the main road (the Old National Road) was a giant trash dump that was always smoldering. It stunk to high heaven. I always wondered how people could live near it, but they did.

West Terre Haute — just across the Wabash from Terre Haute — had been a coal mining town and when the mines were running, it had a pretty good economy. When the coal played out, though, things went downhill. Fast. Today, it is pretty much low-income. Lots of meth labs until cooks went to the “one pot” method of manufacturing it.

I’m contemplating doing a dreaded concept record on West Terre Haute. Got about eight songs written for it. I may just wind up doing an EP, though.

 

[Murph]

Fantastic rust belt groove.

Dig  it, David.

Great stuff.

[Gibson29]

Playing upside down that nice is hard work, well, it would be for me..next one right hand!

[kelly campbell]

Nice song!  Great job!  Thanks.  

[dhanners623]

Thanks, all.

There’s a concept known as “environmental racism.” Wikipedia defines it as “a form of institutional racism leading to landfills, incinerators, and hazardous waste disposal being disproportionally placed in communities of color.” Its existence is pretty well documented, as are the health impacts. But in the case of places like West Terre Haute, it is based more on economic status than ethnicity. When the mines played out or were closed, it just seemed like the landfill got bigger.

In the 1980s, it was declared a Superfund site and cleaned up. I last saw it in 2019 or so. It’s just a big, barren triangle of land with a few trees. Last I heard, they would have flea markets there on weekends.

 

 

[AnneS]

Well done!! 

[Gibson29]

7 hours ago, dhanners623 said:

Thanks, all.

There’s a concept known as “environmental racism.” Wikipedia defines it as “a form of institutional racism leading to landfills, incinerators, and hazardous waste disposal being disproportionally placed in communities of color.” Its existence is pretty well documented, as are the health impacts. But in the case of places like West Terre Haute, it is based more on economic status than ethnicity. When the mines played out or were closed, it just seemed like the landfill got bigger.

In the 1980s, it was declared a Superfund site and cleaned up. I last saw it in 2019 or so. It’s just a big, barren triangle of land with a few trees. Last I heard, they would have flea markets there on weekends.

 

 

Like “Paradise” by John Prine.

Edited March 24, 2023 by Gibson29
Prime?

[Lars68]

I remember hearing this one before. Have you reworked it perhaps? Either way, very, very good!

Lars

[G Man]

Great song very well executed, nice work.

[dhanners623]

1 hour ago, Lars68 said:

I remember hearing this one before. Have you reworked it perhaps? Either way, very, very good!

Lars

Good memory. It’s been reworked quite a bit. Aside from the line about the trash dump fire, it only includes half a verse from the previous version (“That fire burned years, land and air were corrupt/Then the feds made them clean it all up”) and even those two lines were rewritten.

As the late Tom T. Hall said, any song worth writing is worth rewriting.