2 songs, written by 2 Kentucky miner's wives, during the Harlan County War, became labor movement classics: "Which Side Are You On?" and "I Am a Union Woman".
In 1931, in Kentucky coal-mining country, at the height of the bloody strikes and union organizing drives of the period, a miner's wife, Mrs. Florence Reece, wrote what became one of the great labor song classics "Which Side Are You On?". For her stirring and powerful song, Mrs. Reece borrowed the tune of an old broadside, "Lay the Lily Low". At the same time, in the same place, Aunt Molly Jackson wrote the song "I Am a Union Woman" to the identical tune. Whether she was inspired by Florence Reece or vice versa - or whether it should just be chalked up as a folk coincidence, we'll never know.
Which Side Are You On? - Coal and Blood, Part 2 - Sing Out!
Fact is, in 1937 Aunt Molly was more than familar with Florence Reece's "Which Side Are You On?", because that year she went from Kentucky to New York City, where Alan Lomax recorded her singing a version of her song "I Am a Union Woman" (or "Join the C.I.O.") and at the same date and location Lomax also recorded her cousin Jim Garland singing a version of Reece's "Which Side Are You On?". (SEE FURTHER ON IN THIS POST)
Florence Reece was the wife of Sam Reece, a union organizer for the United Mine Workers in Harlan County, Kentucky. In 1931, the miners and the mine owners in southeastern Kentucky were locked in a bitter and violent struggle called the Harlan County War. In an attempt to intimidate the family of union leader Sam Reece, Sheriff J. H. Blair and his men, hired by the mining company, illegally entered their home in search of Reece. Reece had been warned in advance and escaped but his wife, Florence, and their children were terrorized. That night, after the men had gone, Florence wrote the lyrics to "Which Side Are You On?" on a calendar that hung in their kitchen. She took the melody from an old broadside, "Lay the Lily Low" (or "Lily Munroe") which tells of a young lady who dresses in man's clothing so that she may join her true love in battle. "Lay the Lily Low" (or "Lily Munroe") is a variation of the broadside ''Jack Munroe" or ''Jackaro''.
The song was immediately picked up by the striking miners after it had been sung at the union hall by Mrs. Reece's two little daughters. From Harlan County, it spread throughout the entire labor movement.
In 1937 the Reece family visited Tillman Cadle in Middlesboro, KY and one evening after supper the 2 Reece daughters sang Cadle a version of "Which Side Are You On?"
In the same year, Alan Lomax recorded Tillman Cadle, singing "Which Side Are You On?" on location in Middlesboro, Bell County, KY
(o) Tillman Cadle (1937) (as "Which Side are You On?")
Recorded September 1937 in Middlesboro, Bell County, KY
Listen here: afc1937001_afs1402A2.mp3
“Which Side Are You On?” began its travels out of Kentucky, when Jim Garland and his cousin Aunt Molly Jackson took the song to New York City, where they held concerts to raise funds for the striking miners and their starving families.
On November 13, 1937 Jim Garland recorded "Which Side Are You On?" in New York City, under the supervision of Alan Lomax.
(c) Jim Garland (1937) (as "Which Side Are You On?")
Recorded November 13, 1937 in New York City.
Produced by Alan Lomax
Listen here: afc1938008_afs1951B1.mp3
Pete Seeger, collecting labor union songs, learned "Which Side Are You On?" in 1940 from Tillman Cadle. The following year, it was recorded by the Almanac Singers in a version that gained a wide audience.
(c) The Almanac Singers (1941) (as "Which Side are You On?")
Recorded May 1941 in New York
Released on Keynote 302
Listen here:
In 1963 Seeger also recorded "Which Side Are You On?" with The Weavers.
(c) The Weavers (1963) (as "Which Side Are You On?")
Listen here:
And in 1967 he recorded a solo-version.
(c) Pete Seeger (1963) (as "Which Side Are You On?")
Listen here:
More versions of "Which Side Are You On?" on the link below:
Around 1931 Aunt Molly Jackson is well-known for writing a song during Bloody Harlan to the same tune as Florence Reece's “Which Side Are You On?”.
Her song "I Am a Union Woman" (or "Join the C.I.O.") is not about workers choosing sides, but the picture it paints is every bit as stark as Reece’s.
Aunt Molly: "I was organizing the miners around Bell and Harlan Counties in 19 and 31, I sang this song. I used it in my organizational work; I always sung this before giving my speech. In those days it was "Join the NMU." But later on, John L. Lewis started a real democratic organization, so I changed it to "Join the C.I.O."
Aunt Molly Jackson recorded "Join the C.I.O." in 1937, on the exact same day and on the same location in New York City, where her cousin Jim Garland recorded "Which Side Are You On?".
Also under the supervision of Alan Lomax.
(c) Aunt Molly Jackson (1937) (as "Join the C.I.O.")
Recorded November 13, 1937 in New York City.
Produced by Alan Lomax
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In a few interviews, Florence Reece, didn't exactly remember where she got the tune for "Which Side Are You On?"
In a 1971 interview with Ron Stanford, published in "Sing Out!" magazine vol 20 # 6, Reece related, "I've heard different people's ideas on where I got the tune for "Which Side Are You On?", but I think I got it from a hymn called "I'm Going To Land On That Shore". The first verse starts out, "I'm going to land on that shore / And be saved forever more", but I don't remember more, and I've looked everywhere".
The same year a flexi-disc accompanying the Sing Out magazine vol 20 # 6 was released.
In Kathy Kahn's "Hillbilly Women", published in 1973, Reece said, "The music to the song is an old hymn. I can't remember what was the hymn, but I've got to look in the songbooks and find out what that was a tune to".
In a 1978 interview, Reece also talks about her inspiration to write the song:
But already in 1953 John Greenway in his songbook "American Folksongs of Protest", pointed to the correct source of the tune: "Lay the Lily Low".
And in the liner notes to They'll Never Keep Us Down: Women's Coal Mining Songs (Rounder Records 4012, 1984), "Lay the Lily Low" is also given as the source for the tune. .
In 1940 Pearl Jacobs Borusky recorded "Sing Lay, Sing Lay, sing Lay The Lily Low" (or "My Jack Has Gone a'Sailing" (with a tune very similar to "Which Side Are You On").
(c) Pearl Jacobs Borusky (1940) (as "Sing Lay, Sing Lay, sing Lay The Lily Low")
Recorded August 1940 in Antigo, Wisconsin.
My Jack has gone a'sailing - UWDC - UW-Madison Libraries
Listen here:
A few years earlier, Uncle Alec Dunford recorded "Lily Munroe", with that same tune Florence Reece had used to write "Which Side Are You On?".
This version was produced by John and Elizabeth Lomax, the parents of Alan Lomax
(c) Uncle Alec Dunford (1937) (as "Lily Munroe")
Recorded by John and Elizabeth Lomax
Recorded October 22, 1937 in Galax, Virginia
AFS 1340 B2
Listen here:
"Lay the Lily Low" or Lily Monroe" is in fact an American variation of the British broadside ballad "Jack Munro" or "Jackie Frazier".
The Lomax connection with this traditional is emphasized again by the fact it is included in 1910 in John Lomax's songbook Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads
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There are 5 versions of "Jack Munro" in the Bodleian Library all dated early 18th century
This one from the Bodleian library is dated between 1812 and 1825
"Jack Monroe" (Roud 268 and Laws N7), also known as "Jack Munro", "Jack-A-Roe", "Jackaro", "Jacky Robinson", "Jackie Frazier" and "Jack the Sailor", is a traditional ballad which describes the journey of a woman who disguises herself as the eponymous character to board a sailing ship and save her lover, a soldier.
Here are a few early field recordings of "Jack Monroe"/"Jack the Sailor"/"Jack Went A-Sailing"
(c) Mrs. Victoria Morris (1932) (as "Jack Went A-Sailing")
Sung by Mrs. Victoria Morris of Mount Fair, Albemarle County, Virginia.
Recorded by Arthur Kyle Davis Jr. on November 1932.
Listen here (it's the second song)
In 1950 Maud Karpeles also recorded Victoria Morris singing this song
(c) Elmer George (1934) (as "Jack Monroe")
Recorded 1934 in North Montpelier, Vermont USA
Listen here at 5 min and 42 sec on the next link:
(c) Nora Begley (1937) (as "Jackie Frazier")
Recorded on September, 7, 1937 by Alan and Bess Lomax in Harlan County, KE
Listen here:
(c) John McCready (1939) (as "Sailor Jack" or "Sing low, lowly low and sing low, low, low")
Collected by Sidney Robertson Cowell in Groveland, California on July 31, 1939.
Listen here:
(c) Asa Davis (1945) (as "Jack the Sailor")
Recorded October 24, 1945 in Milton, Vermont USA
Listen here at 33 min and 36 sec on the next link:
(c) Willie Mathieson (1952) (as "Jack the Sailor")
Recorded January 1952 by Hamish Henderson.
Text and music transcribed in School of Scottish Studies. 12 verses with refrain. Willie Mathieson learned the song from Jimmy Jaffray, the third horseman at Drakemyre when Willie was in his teens.
Listen here: Tobar an Dualchais Kist O Riches
(c) Frank Steele (1952) (as "The Wealthy Merchant" (or "Jackie Fraser")
Recorded July 8, 1952 by Seamus Ennis in Whitehills, Aberdeenshire
(c) Thomas Moran (1954) (as "Jack Mulroe" or "The Chester Merchant")
Recorded December 1954 by Seamus Ennis, Mohill, Co Leitrim
Listen here (after 15 min and 15 sec in the soundfile in the link below)
The famous version of the song comes from the Ritchie family of Kentucky. Jean Ritchie released "Jackero" on her 1953 album "Songs from Kentucky" and performed it on Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest in 1966.
Her sister Edna Ritchie sang the song on her eponymous 1962 album.
Cecil Sharp had previously collected this version of the song from Jean and Edna's older sister May Ritchie (1896-1982) on August 30, 1917 in Pine Mountain, KY
In 1917 Cecil Sharp also collected 4 versions as "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" and "Jack Went A-Sailing"
But already in 1916 the song had been collected by Howard Brockway and Loraine Wyman.in Knott County, KY
Jean Ritchie (1922-2015), was a Kentucky singer and song writer. She recieved a Fulbright scholarship in 1952 and 1953, to study the links between her family's music traditions and those from England, Ireland, and Scotland. In England she also recorded a version of "Jackaro", which had been collected back in 1917 by Cecil Sharp from Jean's older sister May Ritchie in Pine Mountain, KY.
(c) Jean Ritchie (1953) (as "Jackaro")
Recorded in England in 1952
In 1966 Jean sang a version in Pete Seeger's TV show "Rainbow Quest"
Listen here (at 4 min and 30 sec in the YT below)
(c) Tom Paley (1953) (as "Jackaro")
Listen here:
(c) Sarah Hawkes (1959) (as "Ho Lily Ho")
Recorded October 10, 1959 in Nottingham, PA by Eric H. Davidson
Listen here:
And here's the version by May and Jean Ritchie's sister Edna.
(c) Edna Ritchie (1962) (as "Jackaro")
Listen here:
(c) Joan Baez (1963) (as "Jackaroe")
Listen here:
(c) Pete Seeger (1966) (as "Jackaro")
Listen here:
"Jackaro" was subsequently covered by
Grateful Dead in 1981
And by Bob Dylan in 1993
And here are a few versions of "I Am a Union Woman"
(c) Peggy Seeger (1968) (as "I Am a Union Woman")
(c) Bobbie McGee (1981) (as "I Am a Union Woman")
Listen here:
(c( Rosalie Sorrels (1982) (as "I Am a Union Woman")
Listen here:
In 1985 Dick Gaughan adapted the lyrics of "Which Side Are You On?" as a campaigning song for the UK miners' strike (1984–85).
Listen here:
In the same year Billy Bragg also adapted the lyrics of "Which Side Are You On?"
On the back cover of his EP it says: "This record is dedicated to the work of the Miners' Wives Support Group".
Listen here:
In 1986 Pete Seeger, Si Kahn and Jane Sapp recorded a version which combined "I Am a Union Woman" and "Which Side Are You On?".
(c) Pete Seeger, Si Kahn and Jane Sapp (1986) (as "I Am a Union Woman"/"Which Side Are You On?")
Listen here:
(c) Deborah Holland (1997) (as "I Am a Union Woman")
Listen here:
In 2013 Elvis Costello also adapted the lyrics of "Which Side Are You On?", although Reece is the sole credited writer.
Listen here:
More info and versions on the links below:
Florence Reece supported a second wave of miner strikes circa 1973, as recounted in the documentary Harlan County, USA.
Reece herself, now in her 70s, took the song to the Brookside (KY) strike of 1973, where she was filmed for the first time singing it in Kopples’ award-winning film.
In the documentary she also recalls the miner strikes in Harlan County in 1931, when the mining company intimidated union leader Sam Reece, the husband of Florence.
Whereas in 1931/32, before New Deal legislation secured the right to organize, the miners lost their fight and the union was driven from the coalfields, the Brookside strike ended in a UMWA victory in which local women played a leading role.
Florence speaks and sings after 49 minutes and 49 seconds on the link below:
Harlan Country USA (1976) : Barbara Kopple : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Reece recorded the song later in life, and it can be heard on the next album:
The recording was made by Mr. and Mrs. Carawan in 1980 at Mrs. Reece's home in Fountain City, Tenn.
In 1978 in an interview Florence Reece talks about where she got the inspiration to write 'Which Side Are You On".
And here she's singing her own song:
Here's an interview with Tillman Cadle discussing organizing at Yancy, getting kicked out of the mine, meeting Jim Garland and Sarah Ogan Gunning, starvation in Bell county vs. Harlan county, Aunt Molly Jackson, meeting his wife, Sarah's first song, how John L. Lewis became UMWA president.
And here's a thesis by John Cullen Moran about the events that took place during the Harlan County War of 1931 ---> Moran2021.pdf
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