Gladys City Blues

Gladys City Blues was written to capture the hardship, danger, and loneliness faced by the first oil‑rig workers at Spindletop. I chose a traditional blues riff because the blues carries the emotional weight needed to tell their story — the fear, the exhaustion, the crude rain, the busted shanties, and the long nights that defined early Gladys City. My research for Cajun Corridor brought me into the world of these roughnecks, men who worked through fire, flying pipe, thin pay, and constant risk. The geography of Spindletop — its mud, its derricks, its boomtown chaos — shaped the tone of the song and the rhythm of the lyrics.