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As the title suggests, this music collection
primarily focuses on the Appalachian
Coalfields. This actually makes for a
richer, more colorful palette to use in
painting the stories of the coal miner than
it would had the album been inclusive of all
coal mining.
Some of what's here may be lost on many due
to the fact that this is probably the most
undiluted culture in America with some ways
and phrases that have long since been lost
to modern culture.
Appalachia
is much akin to
New Orleans, in that various
cultures were slammed together very early in
our history. But unlike New Orleans,
Appalachia remained a severely
isolated region up until after
World War 2, and it was
actually still pretty isolated until Lyndon
Johnson's 'War On Poverty' -- which was a
continuation of some of President Kennedy's
efforts.
Around the turn of the century, the Old
Money in America was able to actually build
little socialist pockets of commerce just
several hundred miles from
Washington, DC. These
companies basically owned the workers, the
police forces, the grocery stores, the
schools and so forth. If you want to know
what Big Business would do if left almost
totally unbridled, just look at the history
of the Appalachian Coalfield.
These companies built self-contained little
villages which actually printed their own
money in the form of "script" which could
only be spent at the company stores on
over-priced goods. This script served as the
basis of one of the very first easy credit
rip-off traps long before
Title
Pawn
was a part of our vernacular. A man could
draw script up to the amount that he had
worked that very day, so when payday came,
there was sometimes little or nothing left.
The Merle Travis-penned
Tennessee Ernie Ford hit,
"Sixteen Tons," is all about this. A
Ned Beatty version is included
on this disc. Merle Travis is also included
with another classic "Dark as a Dungeon."
There were a few model towns that offered
better schools, electricity and other
benefits then unavailable to those outside
these pockets, but life was often a series
of major struggles anyway. A man who was
injured and unable to work was no-longer of
no use to The Company and would be kicked
out of his company house pretty much
immediately.
Striking for better wages or working
conditions was downright dangerous in the
coalfields. These strikes resulted in Coal
Wars that were so violent that at times,
bombs in the form of dynamite were dropped
on the strikers from small planes, and
replacement workers were hauled to work in
armored cars. One of the classic protest
songs of all time -- "Which Side Are You On"
-- came out of the Harlan Coal Wars. Natalie
Merchant provides a cover of the song for
this release.
These are songs that span nearly 100 years,
including those recorded by Carter Stanley,
The Carter Family, Tom T. Hall
and
Darrell Scott. There are 48
songs total in this 2-CD collection.
Surprisingly, one of the most haunting songs
is an a cappella rendering of "West Virginia
Coal Mine Disaster" by the then 11-year-old
Molly Slemp. Her voice literally haunted me.
It was just like the first time I heard Iris
Dement’s "Let The Mystery Be."
There are a few weak songs here, but with 48
total songs I can accept a couple.
All-in-all it’s the most comprehensive
collection of coal mining songs to date.
There’s still a lot of interesting
Appalachian history that is begging to be
told, but this is most certainly a good
picture of at least one part of it.
The proceeds from this collection benefit
the Lonesome Pine Council on Youth.
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