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Aragon Mill (WORD)
Aragon Mill (PDF)
See a cover/adaptation of this song which was retitled "Belfast Mill" on our SONGS page.
Si Kahn wrote: "I wrote it in 1970 after spending several days in the town of Aragon, Georgia, right after the company closed the mill and threw 700 hard working people out of their jobs, some never to work for pay again. I was working with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), the coal miners’ union, at the time, and asked to go there by the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) to see if anything might be done about the mill closing, since I was on that day the closest labor/labour organizer to Aragon. I recorded the song in 1974 for my first album “New Wood,” which was released on New Year’s Day 1974, 40 years ago. Check out also other great versions of this song by Andy Irvine & Planxty; the original Red Clay Ramblers; Hazel Dickens; Otto Groote (in Plattdeutsch); 4 Yn Y Bar (in Welsh); Renaud (in French); Dolores Keene; the Dublin City Ramblers; and Peggy Seeger. Last year I worked with Aragon’s Mayor Ken Suffridge to start the first Aragon Mill JamFest, in the hopes of bringing some attention and maybe even a few jobs to this town that was hit so hard by corporate greed, as are so many places all over the world today. Thanks to all of you who fight back! In solidarity, Si" Si Kahn has also written "I'm real proud of what's happened with this song. It's taken on a life of its own, and traveled around the world and back. My oldest son Simon Kahn was in Dublin, Ireland, a few years back, and heard it coming out of a music store. They told him it was a traditional mill song from North Ireland called "Belfast Mill." Maybe now it is." https://sikahn.com/