Steel Winds

LYRICS

Cranes reach the clouds with dangling hooks
Boxcars lie waiting by tar-filled brooks
In that rail and bar mills if only they’d known
Like statues awaiting their turn to go home.

Gone are the memories of all hands on deck
No lunch pails are packed from Dutch Brook to Baddeck
Conscience upended I left it behind
The poisonous gas and a tormented mind

A river of gold blood it conceals
A hearth that once breathed fire and steel
Days fill with night but their ovens still rage
Merely a beacon to these men of old age

This hand me down sludge they pretend its ok
They truck it and bury it and wish it away
Now all that’s left are pillars of rust
And these warm Steel Winds that choke in the dust

A river of gold blood it conceals
A hearth that once breathed fire and steel
Days fill with night but their ovens still rage
Merely a beacon to these men of old age

A river of gold blood it conceals
A hearth that once breathed fire and steel
Days fill with night but their ovens still rage
Merely a beacon to these men of old age

By Tom Mills

About Tom Mills

Tom Mills is a singer / songwriter / multi-instrumentalist from Cape Breton who has been involved in the local music scene for over 30+ years. While playing halls and pubs all over the Island in many cover bands through the 80’s and 90’s, Tom began writing original material and recording around 2007 with a band called The Mizzen Men “Folk Songs & Sea Shanties”. Songs like “Steel Winds” and “That Maritime Song” were recorded on that project and garnished a fair amount of airplay on local radio stations in Cape Breton.

Following that up, Tom recorded a new CD in 2012 “Crossin That Bridge” with his roots band Wills Addiction (http://willsaddiction.com/our-music/) featuring such original songs as “The Old Wishing Well”, “The Giant Fiddle”, and “Crossin That Bridge”. One song on the album “I Like Girls” was featured in the soundtrack for a local Comedy Horror Flick “The Legend of the Psychotic Forest Ranger”. With hard driving rock riffs and satirical lyrics that poke fun at the 80’s, the movie was written and directed by Brad Mills (Bradmills.ca) and filmed by his sister Jacquelyn Mills (Jacquelynmills.ca), both born and raised in Cape Breton (Tom’s children).

Tom is still actively writing, recording, and playing various pubs and festivals around the Maritimes. He is currently working on an original open-tuning instrumental guitar CD which should be released later in 2016. For more information check out http://tommills.ca 

Favorite Artists:

Tony Rice

Tim O’Brien

Stan Rogers

Dave Gunning