Wayne Bledsoe

USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee

When Joan Baez sang the song “I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night” at Woodstock in 1969, there’s a good chance the audience had no idea who the song was actually about. Now it’s been more than 100 years since the songwriter and union activist Joe Hill was executed and even fewer know about Hill’s history.

Nell Levin and Michael August, who perform as The Shelby Bottom Duo, have made it their cause to keep Hill’s history alive with the Joe Hill Roadshow.

“The labor people themselves don’t even know their own history,” says Levin. “We wanted to combine his music with his history.”

A Swedish immigrant, Hill’s given name was Joel Hagglund. After moving to the United States he became a member of the Industrial Workers of the World, which was referred to as “The Wobblies” and intended to create a worldwide union for workers. Hill became an organizer, cartoonist for the organization’s newspaper and a songwriter. The organization, in fact, had many songwriters and artists whose work has endured.

“The Wobblies were the most creative union, ever,” says Levin.

Hill’s songs “There Is Power In a Union,” “Casey Jones – The Union Scab,” “Rebel Girl” and “The Preacher and the Slave” (the latter of which introduced “pie in the sky” into the vernacular), all became standards of the labor movement. The songs were later adapted into the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and ‘60s.

Hill’s place in history was secured by his death. Hill was convicted of murdering two men in Salt Lake City in 1914 and was executed for the crime in 1915. Even at the time it was widely believed that Hill had been wrongly convicted. Researchers since that time have concluded that Hill was probably innocent, even though he didn’t have a good explanation as to where he had been on the night of the murder and had a non-fatal gunshot wound.

“It was sort of like the song ‘The Long Black Veil,’” says Levin. “He was in the arms of another man’s woman and he didn’t want to besmirch her reputation.”

A letter from the woman, revealed many years later, indicates that Hill’s friend and rival suitor Otto Appelquist was responsible for Hill's gunshot wound.

Before his execution, Hill wrote a letter, commonly known as “Joe Hill’s Last Will,” which has been put to music both by popular folk singer and former Knoxvillian John McCutcheon and current Knoxville folk performer Jack Herranen, and possibly others.

Levin and August perform McCutcheon’s version as part of the program. Interest, says Levin, has increased since the 100th anniversary of Hill's death.

“People are really fascinated by it,” says Nell. “We often have discussions afterwards about what relevance his story has for today.”

The Joe Hill Roadshow

When: 5:30 p.m. (dinner), 6:30 p.m. (performance), Saturday, March 18

Where: Knoxville-Oakridge Central Labor Council, 1522 Bill Williams Ave.

Admission: free, contact junerostan@earthlink.net, 865-696-0533 to check for seat availability