Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
$1USD or more
about
Coal miners have captured the hearts and imaginations of Americans for decades with tragedies like black lung, fires, explosions, and violent labor strikes. Many a songwriter has ventured into their world, paying homage. Now Brian Granse has released his modern version, reminiscent of classics like Loretta Lynn’s Coal Miner’s Daughter, but with less twang and a mixture of compassion, skepticism, and foreboding. Granse wrote Blue Mountain Haze in 2016 as an appropriately titled response to Donald Trump’s election, but he’s only getting around to releasing it now as impeachment proceedings and a potential conflict in the Middle East further reveal the deep divisions in America.
Granse sings “A preacher knows to speak to the empty eye in the room/ a desperate heart will fall for you/ don’t matter if you’re true,” suggesting that President Trump’s promises to coal miners can’t be trusted, and that many voters, especially those who are just trying to make ends meet, are vulnerable to the kinds of promises that Trump and other politicians make.
Granse references campaigning on empty promises in the line “Knocking on plywood doors/ in a town on government checks/ lining the side of the highway/ with letters and lies in the ditch.” Granse implies that the collapse of coal towns is sadly inevitable, and that it’s been coming for years, singing in the chorus that “The writing was on the longwall/ before the company’s letterhead,” a reference to longwall mining and termination letters that are mailed home to workers who’ve been laid off.
In "Blue Mountain Haze," Granse honors the history of coal miners and the communities they built, exploring their sense of place and the profound loss they’ve experienced as their towns have faded, singing “There ain’t no God, no love, no president/ to bring you anything but heartbreak/ to the still of your town’s breath.” It’s a somber yet resolute line, and a reminder that politicians such as President Trump will not fix it.
Verse
The sun’s coming up over the ridge.
Blue Mountain haze burning thin.
There's a tragedy on the horizon.
And that's how it's always been.
You sat there watching the dust,
Just cover your town.
Now nothing shines and the walls are peeling thin.
A union sticker fades upon an empty tin.
Gone the black streaks under your eyes,
Still a scar across your chin.
Your father left each night for the winding hills,
Sports radio hummin’ beneath the road.
The owl shift turns the night,
Into someone else's gold.
Burned for steel at the end of a rail,
In some town you’ll never know.
Chorus
Scraping the long wall,
No sun upon your back.
Kerosene life lost in a sea of black.
You can push hard,
When you're bound to protect.
When everything’s gone you let it all to heck.
Verse
The campaign signs have you looking for ghosts.
In four more years they’ll come ‘round again.
Knockin’ on plywood doors in a town on government checks.
Lining the sides of the highway,
With letters and lies in the ditch.
Ghost and myth hang all around us.
We lean to faith in the days we limp.
A preacher knows to speak,
To the empty eye in the room.
A desperate heart will fall for you,
Don't matter if you're true.
Chorus
The writing was on the long wall,
Before the company’s letterhead.
A midnight drive and then you never went back.
There ain’t no God, no love, no president,
To give you any more but heartbreak,
To the still of your town’s breath.
Verse
The sun’s going down over the ridge.
Blue Mountain haze closing in.
There’s a tragedy on the horizon,
Comin’ round again.
credits
released January 10, 2020
Brian Granse: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric guitar, Bass guitar; piano
Kyleen King: Violin
Cover photo by Bee Portillo Soria
Engineering:
Recorded and mixed by Brian Granse
Mastered by Ryan Foster at Foster Mastering in Portland, Oregon
Brian Granse is a singer and songwriter in Portland, Oregon. He released his first EP,” 0.5,” in 2001, and then Earthrise
(2004) and American Nobody (2006). After touring and piecing together construction jobs, Granse performed full-time from 2007- 2010. Granse now teaches beat production, audio engineering, and Social Studies at an alternative high school, producing Hip-Hop with Portland youth....more
Crafting powerful songs about commitment and love, the Nashville singer-songwriter channels and subverts ’70s country and folk tropes. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 7, 2022
A vibrant vision of "Central Americana" from the Costa Rica-based artist, blending heartland devotionals with playful Tropicália grooves. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 27, 2022
