"Gold Rush Goddess" - Melody Walker on writing an eco-feminist old-time folk song with an Afro-Cuban twist

Song Story #1: Gold Rush Goddess

by Melody Walker

About a year ago, after a long night of art-walk busking with my lady-folk trio the Vintners Daughters, we found ourselves looking for refreshment with some friends in the form of a downtown Eureka, California bar. The ever popular Shanty was packed to the gills so, with some apprehension, we dared to venture next door to the Schooner, a much seedier establishment with advertised topless dancing in the back room. The Schooner smelled like piss and urinal pucks, and the walls were coated in stuck-on dollar bills defaced by patrons. Nevertheless we bought a round and chatted up “Whitey” (the infamous owner and alleged local Klan leader) for a spell.

Just as we were about to get the hell out of there, an old friend from the Menstrual Mondays open mic we used to host, walked up in a white trenchcoat and invited us to come back and watch her dance. We had no idea she did any such thing, so we were of course curious. We haggled with Whitey for a while, and he finally let us all in the back for a reasonable group price.

Our homegirl Jess, a.k.a. “Cherry”, was not your average stripper. She had her darkness, but she was also an excellent songwriter and singer, so we weren’t too surprised when she put on Tom Waits as her first dance. She was way better than we expected and she completely enchanted us, with her swirling long dirty-blond hair and seasoned undulations. Since we were only one of two groups in the back room, we got more than enough attention, and in some kind of strange transference, all of our hard-earned busking tips wound up tangled in her thong after just a few songs.

At a certain point I couldn’t help but notice the bouncer started rudely chastising Jess for making too much contact with us, the customers. “That’s five!” he’d say, “That’s another five. You’re up to $20 now Cherry!” (apparently docking her pay with every infraction). She would mouth back at him and try to keep it funny, but we could tell it wasn’t all good. We knew the kind of tips she was making that night, and that Whitey wasn’t exactly giving her minimum wage on top of that, so we decided to leave before we got her into any more trouble.

On the way home, still a little stunned, we reflected on the plight of our friend and the poetic irony of us turning all of our tips into her tips by the end of the night. After some more lively discussion of sex-worker history with the lovely Vintners Daughters, this song idea started to emerge and I said it: “Wouldn’t it be rad if there was a song about an gold rush stripper who is really an apparition of mother nature wooing all the gold back from the miners?” I went home to my newest instrument, the tenor banjo, and began writing.

Listen to Gold Rush Goddess

by Melody Walker

Come down off that mountain

Come down all you men

But don’t you come knockin’

Without money in your hand

I was born a full-grown woman

With this gold dust in my hair

I’m just shakin’ what God gave me

So feel free to stare

Did you take that gold from my mama’s riverbed?

Did you dynamite the mountain and then leave her for dead?

Did you think that you could keep it and be rich beyond your dreams?

Well, look deep into my eyes boy and give it all to me

Come down off that mountain

Come down and watch me dance

You can love me with your eyes

Just don’t use your hands

I’ll sparkle like pyrite

Flashin’ in your pan

But I ain’t fool enough

To bet my money on no man

Did you take…

Come down off that mountain

You ain’t nobody’s king

You may think you’ve seen it all, boys

But I’ll show you something

Keep watchin’ my body

While I put you in a trance

I’m the goddess of the gold rush

And you don’t stand a chance

Did you take…

Oro yeo

Yeye oro yeo yeye

The ending “holler” is actually a folkloric Yoruba chant for “Oshun”, the Afro-Cuban goddess of gold, rivers and flirtation. My global vocal group AkaBella had done an arrangement of a series of songs for her, and we had learned them directly from our Cuban song teacher Reynaldo Gonzales. I guess I didn’t realize until the song was written that my Gold Rush Goddess was not a new archetype at all, but an incarnation of many mischevious seductresses that came before her. Maybe that’s subconsciously why I decided to be Kali-ma for Halloween that year!

"Gold Rush Goddess" will be on the upcoming "III EP" to be officially released in February 2011.

Let me know what you think and I'll send you the mp3 for free!

Originally posted on www.MelodyWalkerMusic.com