RANK AND FILE Blue Collar, Deep Groove A Novel

Clock in before the sun. Ride the line. Work the trade. Come home.Before the sun comes up over the Oakland estuary, Otis Freeman is already awake. Forty-seven years old, a maintenance mechanic at the yard down by the water, he is one of the millions of working people who keep the world running and rarely get thanked for it. This is the story of a single working day in his life - and of the family, the crew, and the whole rank and file standing in line behind him.From the 4:30 alarm to the long ride home, RANK AND FILE moves the way a workday moves: the waking, the going, the doing, the leaving, the coming home. There is blues in the weight of it - the rent that keeps climbing, the machine the company says can do the work of three men, the list of names that goes up at the end of the shift. But there is groove in the getting-through, too: the joy of a hard thing done well, the small daily kindnesses that hold a workplace together, and the deep, unbreakable bond of people who have learned that the only way to carry a heavy load is together.Set in the working-class Bay Area and told in an authentic, soulful voice, this is a novel about dignity, family, and the quiet power of showing up - one more day, and then the day after that.You are the reason it all runs.Rank and File is a companion to the instrumental album of the same name, part of his ongoing effort to pair narrative books with original music that documents the lived experience of working families.