The idea for a collection of mining songs
from the Southern Appalachian coalfields
came from Paul Kuczko, director of the
Lonesome Pine Office on Youth (LPOY).
An agency of the Wise County government,
LPOY takes on projects that have a local and
regional focus, utilizing indigenous talent
and resources whenever possible.
Previously, with his staff and students in
Big Stone Gap, Virginia, Paul had produced
two photography books featuring historical
images from Virginia's Lee and Wise
counties. While planning a
third book of photographs dealing with
bituminous coal camps around Southwest
Virginia, Kuczko got the idea to include a
CD set of coal mining music along with the
text and pictures ~ a project he
referred to as Music of Coal ~ inspired by
and in honor of the Wise County
Sesquincentennial celebration of 2006.
Having grown up in Wise County, Virginia, and having spent many
years as a musician, songwriter, record producer and student of
Appalachian culture, it was with considerable delight that in 2005 I
accepted an invitation from the Lonesome Pine Office to produce this
CD project. It leant to me the opportunity to
learn a great deal more about coal mining music by researching and
writing the liner notes for this album. Along the way Paul and
I had expert help from a number of seasoned advisors.
One
of the guiding forces for this anthology was a group made up of
representatives from around the region, including Rich Kirby, Jon
Lohman, Alan Maggard, Jennie Noakes, Theresa Osborne, Mimi
Pickering, Harry Rice, Jenny Salyers, Suzanne Savell, Ron Short,
Skip Skinner, Darlene Wilson, Bill Smith and the Crooked Road Music
Trail, The Ralph Stanley Museum, the Birthplace of Country Music
Alliance, and the Virginia Foundation of the Humanities. Noted
folklorists Roddy Moore and Joe Wilson were consultants on the
project, as well as Archie Green, the dean of coal mining music
scholarship, to whom this work is dedicated.
We
set out to gather an assortment of titles to choose from, eventually
coming up with over 160. Some hard choices were made and in
the end we pared down the list to almost 50 songs featuring varied
styles and encompassing a wide geographic range within the
Appalachian region and beyond. We decided to focus on the
music from the bituminous coalfields of Southern Appalachia, rather
than on a broader approach using materials from the anthracite mines
of Pennsylvania or those of the Western coalfields.
We
chose previously recorded performances from singers like Gene
Carpenter, Dorothy Myles, Nimrod Workman, Ed Sturgill, Hobo Jack
Adkins, and Reverend Joe Freeman. Their resolute songs, first
released independent of commercial labels, are vital in telling
original stories directly from and of the Appalachian coalfields.
Other songs were selected and certain performers chosen to cover
them, as in "Explosion of Derby" by Charlie Maggard, "Sixteen Tons"
by Ned Beatty and "Coal Tattoo" by Dale Jett, because in each case
the performer has a unique voice or perspective that illuminates the
work. Still other pieces in this collection, such as "Blind
Fiddler," reflect the influence of the 1960s folk music revival,
which witnessed a cross-cultural exchange between urban folk music
artists and indigenous "roots" musicians far from centers of
cultural dominance. Represented here are songs from the
tradition and from contemporary folksingers such as Robin and Linda
Williams and the late Jim Ringer. The songwriting of Jean
Ritchie, Billy Ed Wheeler and Hazel Dickens denotes the forceful
thoughts of native writers reflecting on their region.
THIS BRIEF INTRODUCTION REPRESENTS ONLY A SMALL
PORTION OF MR. WRIGHT'S NOTATIONS.
of Coal ...
