The Story behind The Mill

In the summer of 2015 I was fortunate to play a festival in a small town on the banks of the Ohio River. The concert was fun, the people were great, the river was beautiful, but I couldn't help but notice that the town appeared to have fallen on hard times. There were many houses for sale for next to nothing, lots of businesses boarded up and closed forever. I asked our host that night what had happened, wondering if it had been the recession. He chuckled softly and said, "Well, that didn't help, but the truth is that what you see here started years ago. See, there used to be a big steel mill right up the river a ways, and you probably saw the old lumber mill as you drove into town. The Mills are where everyone here worked, my Granddad retired after 45 years, my dad did 25 years, but one by one they closed the mills down and we just sort of watched all our jobs go down the river after that." When I woke up in the morning his words were still on my mind. I picked up a cigar box guitar that was lying around, strummed a couple of chords and this song jumped straight out, as if it was determined to be born right there on the banks of the Ohio River. It was the first song I ever recorded on my own, first time I did a music video, and it is first on my album, Scorpio Moon.

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Jesse Boden - ASCAP - Seven Devils Road publisher.