Break the Line

from In The Ruins They've Left Us, We'll Plant Gardens Still by Wooden Shoe Ramblers

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$1 USD or more
Buy the Full Digital Album

about

This is a fight song against Enbridge Line 3. The song’s perspective is that of a water protector carrying on the legacy of their father, a “Bolt Weevil”- one of the farmers in Minnesota that used sabotage to fight the CU Powerline project, which was built across farmland by planning agencies that did not see value in farms. The song urges us to take direct action and resist the Northern Lights task force, a police fusion center created specifically to help push through the pipeline. For more information and to help, visit www.stopline3.org

lyrics

Chorus:
Break the line, break the line, ‘cause we’re running out of time
make them fight for every mile, make them fight for every dime
they’re building pipes over the water, every summer’s getting hotter
there’s no compromise, we gotta break the line

From the arctic to the Amazon’s a global climate war
First Nations on the front line won’t take it anymore
Standing Rock was the beginning- if they want to build Line 3
Before they put it in the ground they’ll have to get through you and me

Chorus

My daddy was a Bolt Weevil, he fought the big CU
And made the towers crumble when the power line came through
He raised me right and proper, so I learned my lesson well
If you want to stop a line you’ve got to blow it straight to hell

chorus

From Duluth to the Red River, the crackdown’s being laid
Northern Lights will be the iron fist for Enbridge’s crusade
But North woods is our battle ground, the path ahead is clear
Let our bodies on the line become the spanner in the gears

chorus
repeated: Break the line, break the line, break the line

credits

from In The Ruins They've Left Us, We'll Plant Gardens Still, released December 23, 2020
Vocals: Whole Band
Banjo and Songwriting: Emmett Doyle
Bass and Guitar: R Young
Accordion: Sam Adams

license

some rights reserved

about

Wooden Shoe Ramblers Minneapolis, Minnesota

contact / help

Contact Wooden Shoe Ramblers

Streaming and
Download help

Report this track or account

If you like Wooden Shoe Ramblers, you may also like:

Rust Belt Ballads
by Emmett Doyle

supported by 6 fans who also own “Break the Line”

This album has been a powerful mix of hitting home and expanding my horizons. This is great music, both from and for the ongoing fight for universal human dignity. I don't know how he does it, but Emmett has a way of saturating each story he tells - even the ones far removed from his own experience - with a rich feeling of authenticity. Two thumbs up! jwberns
go to album
Meanwhile In Afghanistan (double album)
by David Rovics

supported by 6 fans who also own “Break the Line”
go to album
1939
by David Rovics

supported by 6 fans who also own “Break the Line”
go to album
Spider Tales
by Jake Blount

This album speaks to the continuum of African diasporic culture that is central to the vibrant canon of Americana folk music. Bandcamp Album of the Day May 29, 2020
go to album
Wealth of Sorrow
by Cahalen Morrison

Bright and skipping songs that foreground the sound of the banjo and fingerstyle guitar in music that feels timeless. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 5, 2020
go to album
LEFT/FOLK VI: The World As It Is
by LEFT/FOLK

Proceeds from this excellent new darkambient/neofolk comp from LEFT/FOLK goes to benefit American Near East Refugee Aid. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 10, 2024
go to album
Songs For Today
by David Rovics

supported by 5 fans who also own “Break the Line”
go to album