The company store was where coal-mining families bought their necessities on credit from the coal mine -owned general store. They were in debt not because they were extravagant, but because they were underpaid! Get it?

@allen6173

2 жыл бұрын

Also, miners had to purchase their own tools (shovels, picks, etc. - which wore down quickly) and as you pointed out the only store was the "company store" which dictated the price. So, it was like a dog chasing his tail. Just couldn't get ahead.

@aussiebloke609

2 жыл бұрын

Don't forget that they often weren't actually paid with money, but with "scrip"...sort of a voucher that's only good at the company store (which had its prices set by the mining management.) So even if they wanted to shop elsewhere, they had no money anyway.

@kellydukes8059

Жыл бұрын

Right, and they couldn't go elsewhere because they were paid with letter of credit to use in the store owned by the mining company.

@chrisspaulding8776

Жыл бұрын

The oversight in comments like these is usually forgivable. But, for someone who critiques music, it becomes even more shallow compared to when taken at face value. I’ll stick to professional critiques.

The "company store" he's referring to is a historical thing. Miners used to have to buy most if not all of their gear, food and clothes from the actual mines themselves called company stores.

@chrisd7047

2 жыл бұрын

The stores would price things JUST out of reach, and then very "generously" extend credit to the miners, who would then have to work more to pay off the debt they just... kept... incurring... week after week after week. The end result was de facto slavery/indentured servitude as, for many of the miners, there was no way for them to ever pay off the debt. The history of mining in the US is full of shady characters, shenanigans, blood, and more than a few murders.

@troyclayton9981

2 жыл бұрын

Such a great song, with a sad meaning, Geoff is amazing

@guittadabe5214

2 жыл бұрын

Those are the days that the feminists keep describing as "the patriarchy". Yeah, life was so easy on the "privileged" men, right? Men sure died young in those days, sometimes buried under a ton of rocks during a rock slide in some godforsaken mine.

@RustyDust101

2 жыл бұрын

Often the wages were only given in company "scrip", a virtual currency only valued at the company's stores, making the whole thing even worse. Nope, this was not intentional going into debt by the worker, but by design from the company.

@darrenheadrick3669

2 жыл бұрын

@@RustyDust101 And because of the shirt life span of a coal minor in thise days, he usually died leaving his wife and family in debt to the store and if their were male children, they ended ip working the mine to pay their fathers debt continuing the vuscious cycle.

One for your Christmas list has to be Geoff's version of Mele Kalikimaka

@SkyllaCharibdis

2 жыл бұрын

i second that!!!!!

The "company store" in the song isn't a shopping mall. Coal miners used to live and work on the mine site in company housing. Often, these mines were in remote places where the only place to shop was the company store. These stores charged high prices, which were deducted from the workers' wages.

Hi Jen! Yes, Geoff is brilliant, real genius! 💖🔥🤯 From his own channel, his version of Blackbird (Beatles) will give you a good idea of his range! 🤯. Also, since Halloween is around the corner, please react to his "Headless Horseman" 💖. And while you're at it, go for his latest, "House of the Rising Sun". I just never get tired of listening and watching him! 💖 And from VoicePlay, please react to "Hoist the Colours", their latest, it's just amazing, an Epic Masterpiece, really!

Beautiful eyes young lady. Stay well and be safe. Great song.

Join the club. Women love him, men are jealous, but we can't stop watching. :) One where he looks really pretty is Country Roads.

@Mark_Agamotto1313_Smith

Жыл бұрын

I'm not jealous, I want him just as badly as the women do! I may be a wee bit jell of the missus though, she is one lucky gal.

@christinestromberg4057

Жыл бұрын

@@Mark_Agamotto1313_Smith Can't argue with that. :)

Great reaction Jen!!! Merry Christmas and an even better 2023!!!

One of my top favorites! Looking forward to watching your reaction!

You can always know when Geoff is going deep bass, watch his hands..... Its like he pushes the notes physically down.. Check it out.

i love this song from geoff its a nice one to sing along to just make sure no-one can hear you :P i wish tim foust (bass from homefree) did these kind of solo projects also cause he also has that amazing voice.

Love the reaction! TY thanks @just Jen!

The number 9 mine is the longest run coal mine in American history located in Pennsylvania

The thing that's so interesting to me is that your accent and pronunciation makes me think that you are in the Old South, which is where this song originated from. The company store was part of a thing we used to call the company towns. The single major company was the effective owner of the entire town and it would pay people with what were called at the time script which was more or less a company gift card that you could use very easily at The company store but if you were to attempt to buy something from anywhere else like say a catalog order or anything like that where you would need the actual money they would charge you an additional percentile to get your money back more or less. Because the company store knew that you had to buy from them they were more expensive. Oftentimes so much more expensive that by the time you finished paying your rent, paying for your tools, and purchasing food and clothes for your family, you would technically have exceeded what you got paid that week. The company store would offer you a let's call it a payday loan that would mean that the next paycheck they would already be taking as much as 10% out of before you got the chance to pay your rent buy groceries or do anything. Obviously you can see for this goes when each and every week you're falling further and further behind. Theoretically they would offer a retirement benefit but almost always by the time you finished paying The company store your retirement was gone. In many cases children would start work already owing money to the company because their family was so far in debt that they were simply assumed also in debt. Entertainingly the only difference is now it's not the company that we're in debt to from the time we're born, but yes the story is still very much the same.

@courtneymike2604

2 жыл бұрын

Are you joking? She has nothing even resembling a southern accent...lol.

@courtneymike2604

2 жыл бұрын

Wow...also, the song definitely did not originate in the "OLD South". Mainly a West V, Kentucky, Ohio, Pa thing. Southerners know where the old south was, and it wasn't there.

Hey Jen, have you seen Voiceplay’s “Just Sing”? It’s a feel good song that includes cameos from many different performers including Tim Faust from Home Free (Geoff and Tim are good friends). Would love to see you react to that - it’ll leave you feeling HAPPY!!

was waiting for this reaction for a while now

It's probably already been said, but you should check out his covers of The Beatles' Blackbird and Radiohead's High and Dry. Since it's October now, The Headless Horseman, of course! Great reaction, as always. Keep on keepin' on!

Loved this reaction!

look beautiful as always Jenn-happy holidays to you-stay safe

just ♥ .. Jenn you rock it dear!!

Thanks for the video. I enjoyed it.

High and dry is another good solo work by him. I'm not sure if you have reacted to these yet but "can't help falling in love" is an older one, "go the distance" is a cover from Disney's Hercules movie and "hoist the colors" is from Pirates of the Caribbean and their newest one. All are really good and worth the watch.

The captions didn’t “catch” that bit about the “super dramatic bend to a low F#.” Comments like that indicate that the captions were put in manually rather than being auto-generated. They did something similar in VoicePlay’s cover of “Oogie Boogie’s Song,” where they tell you he’s going lower, even lower, then subterranean at the end. And my birthday was a week and a half ago.

The company: owned the town, the store, the mine, the people. Never paid you enough in the mine to afford the store goods that you must buy from. Ergo, they owned you. You could never get out of their debt. Love Geoff!

Jen have you heard Geoff's latest cover of Johnny Cash's song Folsom Prison Blues?!!! Very well Done!!!

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that the miners were paid in "script ". Basically money that was made by the mining company and not usable in any other place but the company owned store. It insured the workers could never leave because they had no money to leave with.

Baby girl i Love you so much!!! plz.. mot Tom, more Geoff.. OMG LADY .. you are inspiring to me...I have said it more than once!!! ♥♥♥

What you need to understand is that the employers (mine owners) also owned the "company store," for groceries, plus they also owned the housing that the workers lived in. They deliberately set them up in a financial trap. They didn't pay them enough to cover their rent and groceries, so they bought their necessities on credit, and the longer they worked for the company, the deeper into debt to their employer they became. It became a de facto form of indentured servitude. This was the reason for the formation of labor unions.

Voiceplay has done another Christmas song.....The Chipmunk Song!!!

the best part of this video is his muscle t-shirt. lol. Oh, and he sounds good too.

I once saw a belated birthday card; " I have a sure fired way of remembering your birthday; two days later I smack myself on the forehead and say Oh Shit; see your reaction to Blackbird for forehead slap reference 💖🌹❤️

Good song good reaction

Just Jen Reacts You've said your favorite holidays are Halloween and Christmas, may I suggestvyou react ro Geoffs "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen".

Company store was reffering to when your job had a shop where you'd usually buy most of your necessities that the company owned. They also usually owned the housing too so you'd work all day buy your food from your work and live in a house owned by your work. Its a great example in history of why unions and workers rights are important.

you gotta hear peter hollens and tim foust (bass from homefree) with misty mountains its also a really nice one with no instruments. its with 2 ppl layering voices. peter is a king in layering voices you will love it.

Coal miners were paid in script for years. The only place they could shop was the store owned by the mining company.

"Wow, he went really deep there" ... she says, as she stops the video three notes before... well, yeah.

Thanks for the reaction. In additional to the comments about the 'company store' that I've seen, the other cruddy thing that the company that owned the mine did was that they didn't even pay the miners in actual cash/currency. They issued them 'script' that could only be used at the company store and was essentially worthless to use anywhere else.

Check out "Bare Necessities" my personal Geoff favorite .......... ;-p

He looks like a surfer dude.

Geoff and Tim from Home Free have worked together after they were in the sing off to perfect their crafts and I would suggest for Halloween to react to Voice Play and Home Free singing survivor (zombies versus hillbillies)

After the Civil War through to the early 1900s, mining companies used to control workers by putting them in debt. miners were given living quarters but nothing else. When a new miner would arrive with his family, he'd have very little. To make it until his first paycheck, the Company Store, which was a general store owned and operated by the mining company, would offer credit to the miners which would be taken from their upcoming paycheck. The prices for the goods and the miner's wages were set and designed to get the miner into debt. The miner would end up deeper in debt with every pay cycle. In no time, the miner's wages would be spent before it was even earned. This was by design. It kept the miner trapped in his job and willing to do anything and suffer any treatment to keep from losing hat job and losing everything. 16 tons was the quota for the miners to hit for a full day's work. It was grueling work, men were often literally worked to death. That's what the song was about.

He cleans up pretty good for a miner. 😉

The miners got all they had to buy from the company store, so he ended up working having gotten so much stuff from the company store cuz his family needed so now he has no choice but to work to pay it off but the family needs more and so the cycle continues

Most women need a fan after listening to this.

Big Bad John next.

The British owned the coal mines...here in America (after the Revolution) which were mainly comprised of Scotts Irish. They were paid in money that could only be spent at the coal mine company store. By the way, fyi the prices were also so inflated that they were actually enslaved.

Miner's would be payed in tokens that could be spent in the company stores

@JustJenReacts

2 жыл бұрын

Levi Strauss was invented for miners as well! I just learned that not too long ago!

The comment to owe you soul to the company store is about monopoly laws.

Check out his latest Jen, "Ghost Riders in the Sky" its brilliant!!

Great song 🎧, if ya get the chance, check out Austin an Tim doin a song 🎧 on the back porch.. it is awesome

All 3 of the best a capella basso profundo singers are pretty boys: Geoff Castellucci, Tim Foust, and Avi Kaplan

Love your reactions! There is a "bass battle" featuring the bass singers from PTX, Home Free, and Voice Play; would love to see you react to it.

If you're enjoying his solo songs, give his video "Black Bird" a listen.

Where is the Voiceplay "Little Mermaid Medley". You said it was coming next. I been waiting for it. Tell me what I gotta do for you to react to that. I want to see your reaction so bad. Its amazing!

@JustJenReacts

2 жыл бұрын

Hi! I have been moving. I was given a 30 day notice to leave so my landlord can renovate and sell the home I’ve been renting for almost 2 years. Plus I have a toddler I’m caring for full-time. I’m doing it all on my own for the time being, but rest assured I will be getting to it as soon as possible 😊

👏👏👏👏👍👍👍💖💖🔥💖💖🔥🔥💖🔥🔥

You need to watch Geoff's House of the Rising Sun and Monster Mash videos. They r awesome!

"my eyes are glued on him" ....which one?

I don't know if you know why he says that he owes his sole to the company store because you could buy your groceries at the company store on credit and the interest was so high that you could never get it paid off

if you want low check out tomi p hellfire

you lights in the back are sezuire enducing

i think. he did do a great cover but the origonal is not bad either you should react to the original by Tennessee Ernie Ford

Voiceplay HALO

If you would like to react to an artist you may not have heard before, I would recommend the following: Aesthetic Perfection with the song Bark at the Moon

Voiceplay hoist the colors

You need to listen to Tom McDonald Mac lethal but the first one

@johndeeregreen4592

2 жыл бұрын

Hi Dave, Hi Dave, Hi Dave.

Do Geoff. Headless horseman and new monster mash and voice play my mother told me and new hoist the colors Yes pirates of carabian love you

I still want you to marry me!!! I'm really not a creel.

@stanleymerritt2893

2 жыл бұрын

Creep

The company store was not anything like Neiman Marcus.. It was unending financial bondage for bare necessities to feed your shoeless little ones slop in dirt floored hovels. ..

You was ten when it came out, you must be still pretty young I believe I was in my twenties

What you say at 5:20 is, with all respect, utter Bullshit. To be an Adult isn't about being in dept. If you have a Job and rent a nice appartment and STILL add more dept on your bankaccount, then you are just bad with money and should reconsider your ways of spending money. I'm nearly 40 years old and not one day in my life i was in financial dept. And i live in a nice litte appartment, go out and have two cars for which i pay taxes and insurance. I even have a nice savings account at my bank. So please, don't say "Being an Adult is about being in dept". Thats just wrong....

@carycaldwell877

Жыл бұрын

I’m grateful you have done well for yourself and it’s obvious you’ve worked hard to achieve it. I hope you continue to do so. But please beware, one catastrophic event can wipe that all out in a heartbeat.

Sorry for saying that. But hell! Stop painting yourself like an Animie charakter. Your rewiev is nice but you look like sailor moon and it doesn´t fit with your voice in any way... really sorry to be that straigt and it´s just my opinion....

More worried about your looks batting you eyelashes, than the performance you are reacting to. Worst reaction to this song I have seen!