Friday's Labor Folklore 
Con Carbon, Minstrel of the Mine Patch
  
Remembering
Hazel
Dickens
(1935-2011)
 

*Born in Montcalm, West Virginia, the 8th of 11 children.  

 

*Supported herself since she was 16.  Three of her brothers died from mining-related illnesses.

 

*Moved to Baltimore in the 1950s and worked in factories there. 

 

*She and former singing partner, Alice Gerrard, identified with the women's movement of the 1960s with such songs as "Don't Put Her Down, You Helped Put Her There" and "Working Girl Blues."

 

*Her songs were featured in Barbara Kopple's Harlan County, USA (1976) and John Sayles' Matewan (1987)

 

*A friend of  the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) she often appeared at union rallies and benefits for striking miners. 

 

*First woman to receive the International Bluegrass

Music Appreciation's Merit Award (1994)

 

*Recipient of Labor Heritage Foundation

Joe Hill Award (2003) and recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts (2011)

 

Working
Class
People

I've always said that if
 I have a religion,
 it's the working-class experience    and what I      feel for  working-class people.

West
Virginia
 
West Virginia, 
   oh my home.
West Virginia, 
   where I belong.   In the dead of 
   the night,
In the still and
   the quiet,
I slip away like
   a bird in flight.
Back to those 
   hills 
The place that 
   I call home.  
 

 

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Hazel on porch
A pioneering woman of bluegrass 
 and hardcore country music.

 Born on  
June 1, 1934 
Mercer County 
West Virginia.  
Grew up in poverty. 
Hazel Young .
Hazel Album
United we stand, divided we fall.
For every dime they give us
a battle must be fought.
Older Hazel B/W
Her songs influenced
 a generation of songwriters
and musicians.
Hazel Final
"An authentic and forceful
voice of the working class."
  Hazel Portrait

 
Excerpt from

Mimi Pickering's classic

 Hazel Dickens documentary 

It's Hard to Tell the Singer

 from the Song

( features Cecil Roberts
UMWA president.)

There's fire in our hearts
 and fire in our souls,
 but there ain't gonna be no 
fire in the hole.
(music 2:04 min.)
They'll Never Keep us Down
(2.46 min. music video)

 

"A troubadour of hard times whose raw, heartfelt songs about coal miners and the life of the downtrodden made her a revered figure in country and bluegrass music, died April 22, 2011 at the Washington Home hospice in the District of Columbia.  She was 75 and had complications from pneumonia." 
-- Matt Schudel,
Washington Post writer 

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