Joe Hill was a Swedish-American activist, musician and one of the Industrial Workers of the World's most prolific songwriters. He's credited with some of their most famous tunes, including The Preacher and the Slave, There is Power in a Union and Casey Jones the Union Scab.

He became a household name in 1914 after the murder of a Greengrocer and his son in Utah - a murder for which Joe was found guilty following a controversial trial. His subsequent execution caused uproar among those who argued that he had been framed due to his involvement with the IWW; his remarkable life and death has provided the inspiration for numerous songs and stories ever since.