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Change (For Clean Water) Featuring Kathy Mattea

from IMITATION LIFE produced by Tim O'Brien by Todd Burge

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about

A song inspired by the Elk River chemical spill here in WV. Read more below**. After the spill and during its backlash, I found myself wondering what Pete Seeger would do. I knew what he did do years back to help clean up the Hudson. He and hundreds of others, took out their hammers and tools and built a sloop. They sang songs after songs to clean that river on that sloop along the Hudson. Hundreds of WV songwriters wrote tunes about this. Kathy Mattea and Tim O'Brien sing along on the chorus. Join in.

**The Elk River chemical spill occurred on January 9, 2014 when crude 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol (MCHM) was released from a Freedom Industries facility into the Elk River, a tributary of the Kanawha River, in Charleston WV, about 70 miles from my home here in Parkersburg WV.
The chemical spill occurred upstream from the principal West Virginia American Water intake and treatment and distribution center. Following the spill, up to 300,000 residents within nine counties in the Charleston, West Virginia metropolitan area were without access to potable water.
The "do-not-use" advisory for drinking water from West Virginia American Water's system began to be gradually lifted by West Virginia state officials on January 13 based upon "priority zones."
On Tuesday, January 14, the company revealed that the tank, which leaked about 7,500 gallons into the ground by the Elk River, had also contained a mixture of glycol ethers known as PPH, with a similar function as MCHM.
The chemical spill was the third chemical accident to occur in the Kanawha River Valley within the last five years. On June 12, 2014 another spill of containment water occurred at the same site.

lyrics

Change (For Clean Water)
By Todd Burge Jan 17 2014
(c)Bunj Jam BMI

I wonder what the natives thought
As Washington rode their river so pristine
Then forced to follow his direction
Be it Hell or be it Heaven
Made to swim up
His Stream

The story is as old
As the mountains, tall and green
That used to make the skyline
Of a state that once was clean

Change, change
If not it all will stay the
Same same same
Change change
We’ve got to break and make some change

Granddad had a can
From the plant along the river
On his roof (It was 1972)
Issued by some man
To measure how much toxin
That plant was letting lose

Now the numbers are all in
They’ve been crunched and wadded up
They just toss them in the river
And now our children drink them up

Change, change
If not it all will stay the
Same same same
Change change
We’ve got to break and make some change

Short term gain is taking away
Everything our great state has got to gain
And when there’s nothing left to lose
Our kids will just pack up
And simply move away

It’s true what they say
Mountaineers are always free
In their hearts and minds
With freedom to leave
Change, change
If not it all will stay the
Same same same
Change change
We’ve got to break and make some change

“In this light, the Elk River leak could be the future of many American cities -- a future in which systems failures cause local catastrophic events, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill to clean up after polluters.” Angie Rosse - Executive Director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition in Charleston WV.

Learn how to change
www dot wvrivers dot org
http://www.wvrivers.org/

credits

from IMITATION LIFE produced by Tim O'Brien, released March 17, 2015
Produced by Tim O’Brien

Todd Burge – vocals, acoustic guitar, ukulele, banjo & harmonicas
Tim O'Brien –electric & acoustic guitars, Hammond B3 & backing vocals
Kathy Mattea – backing vocals
Larry Atamanuik - drums
Mike Bub - bass

Recorded and mixed at The Butcher Shoppe Studio – Nashville TN
Engineered and mixed by David Ferguson
Additional engineering by Sean Sullivan
Mastered by David K. Shipley at Foxwood Mastering – Nashville TN

Original “wire man” art by Nick Barry
Tim O'Brien appears courtesy of Howdy Skies Records
All songs by Todd Burge ©2015 Bunj Jam Music BMI

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Todd Burge Parkersburg

If it’s been discovered by man, West Virginia’s Todd Burge has written about it. A born ponderer and observer of life, each of his songs tells a story. Whether drawn from personal experience or a tale of poetically woven fiction, you’ll live every second of it through his songs. ... more

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