''Music of Coal: Mining Songs from the Appalachian Coalfields'' is a 70-page book and two CD compilation of old and new music from southern

Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...

coalfields A coalfield is an area of certain uniform characteristics where coal is mined. The criteria for determining the approximate boundary of a coalfield are geographical and cultural, in addition to geological. A coalfield often groups the seams of ...

. The project was produced by Jack Wright and is a benefit for the Lonesome Pine Office on Youth in Wise County,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. The songs included cover a range of topics related to coal culture such as

mining accident A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals or metals. Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially from underground coal mining, although accidents also occur in hard rock mining. C ...

s and

black lung disease Coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP), also known as black lung disease or black lung, is an occupational type of pneumoconiosis caused by long-term exposure to coal dust. It is common in coal miners and others who work with coal. It is similar to b ...

. Some of the artists are natives of the U.S. coal mining region while others have less direct ties. Both vintage recordings and contemporary music have been combined with detailed liner notes giving context to both the songs and the artists. Musicologist

Archie Green Archie Green (June 29, 1917 – March 22, 2009) was an American folklorist specializing in laborlore (defined as the special folklore of workers) and American folk music. Devoted to understanding vernacular culture, he gathered and commente ...

adds a "Sanctus" note to Wright's "Introduction." In the preliminary round of nominations for the

50th Grammy Awards The 50th Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on February 10, 2008. It honored musical achievement of 2007 in which albums were released between October 1, 2006, through September 30, 2007. The primary ceremonies ...

the boxed set was under consideration for a number of awards, including,

Best Recording Package The Grammy Award for Best Recording Package is one of a series of Grammy Awards presented for the visual look of an album. It is presented to the art director of the winning album, not to the performer(s), unless the performer is also the art dire ...

, Best Liner Notes and

Best Historical Album The Grammy Award for Best Historical Album has been presented since 1979 and recognizes achievements in audio restoration. Since this category's creation, the award had several minor name changes: *In 1979 the award was known as Best Historical Re ...

."''Music of Coal'' earns Grammy Nominations"
''

Kingsport Times-News The ''Kingsport Times News'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Kingsport, Tennessee, and distributed in six counties in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. The Times News is published by Six Rivers Media, LLC., which publish ...

, October 6, 2007 The compilation did not, however, make it the final round of nominees.Nominees for the 50th Grammy Awards show
from grammy.com

Track listing

Volume one

# "Down in a Coal Mine (Excerpt)" - 1:25 #* The Edison Concert Band # "Mining Camp Blues" - 2:59 #*

Trixie Smith Trixie is a shortened form of the given names Beatrix or Beatrice (given name), Beatrice or Patricia or adopted as a nickname or used as a given name. Trixie may refer to: People * Trixie Friganza (1870–1955), American vaudeville performer a ...

# "Sprinkle Coal Dust on My Grave" - 2:46 #* Orville Jenks # "Coal Miner's Blues" - 3:04 #*

The Carter Family Carter Family was a traditional American folk music group that recorded between 1927 and 1956. Their music had a profound impact on bluegrass, country, Southern Gospel, pop and rock musicians as well as on the U.S. folk revival of the 1960s. ...

# "Hard Times in Coleman’s Mine" - 2:36 #*

Aunt Molly Jackson Aunt Molly Jackson (1880 – September 1, 1960) was an influential American folk singer and a union activist. Her full name was Mary Magdalene Garland Stewart Jackson Stamos. Biography Jackson was one of fifteen children born in Clay County, ...

# "He’s Only a Miner Killed in the Ground" - 2:35 #* Ted Chestnut # "Coal Black Mining Blues" - 1:13 #* Nimrod Workman # "‘31 Depression Blues" - 2:52 #*

Ed Sturgill Ed, ed or ED may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ed'' (film), a 1996 film starring Matt LeBlanc * Ed (''Fullmetal Alchemist'') or Edward Elric, a character in ''Fullmetal Alchemist'' media * ''Ed'' (TV series), a TV series that ran fro ...

# "Prayer of a Miner's Child" - 1:51 #*

Dock Boggs Moran Lee "Dock" Boggs (February 7, 1898 – February 7, 1971) was an American old-time singer, songwriter and banjo player. His style of banjo playing, as well as his singing, is considered a unique combination of Appalachian folk music and Af ...

# "That Twenty-Five Cents You Paid" - 2:25 #*

Sarah Ogan Gunning Sarah Ogan Gunning (June 28, 1910 – November 14, 1983) was an American singer and songwriter from the coal mining country of eastern Kentucky, as were her older half-sister Aunt Molly Jackson and her brother Jim Garland. Although she made an ...

# "

The L & N Don’t Stop Here Anymore "The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore" is a ballad written and released by Jean Ritchie in 1965. Though Jean Ritchie typically eschewed controversial topics, the subject of impoverishing coal miners was touchy enough for the musician that she orig ...

" - 3:10 #*

Jean Ritchie Jean Ruth Ritchie (December 8, 1922 – June 1, 2015) was an American folk singer, songwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player, called by some the "Mother of Folk". In her youth she learned hundreds of folk songs in the traditional way (orally ...

# "

Dark as a Dungeon "Dark as a Dungeon" is a song written by singer-songwriter Merle Travis. It is a lament about the danger and drudgery of being a coal miner in a shaft mine. It has become a rallying song among miners seeking improved working conditions. The so ...

" - 1:55 #*

Merle Travis Merle Robert Travis (November 29, 1917 – October 20, 1983) was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and guitarist born in Rosewood, Kentucky, United States. His songs' lyrics often discussed both the lives and the economic expl ...

# "Come All You Coal Miners" - 2:21 #*

The Reel World String Band ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

# "My Sweetheart’s the Mule in the Mines" - 0:22 #*

Mike Kline Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...

# "Thirty Inch Coal" - 2:36 #*

Hobo Jack Adkins A hobo is a migrant worker in the United States. Hoboes, tramps and bums are generally regarded as related, but distinct: a hobo travels and is willing to work; a tramp travels, but avoids work if possible; and a bum neither travels nor works. E ...

# "Black Waters" - 3:38 #*

Jim Ringer Jim or JIM may refer to: * Jim (given name), a given name * Jim, a diminutive form of the given name James * Jim, a short form of the given name Jimmy * OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism * ''Jim'' (comics), a series by Jim Woodring * ''Jim' ...

# "Roof Boltin’ Daddy" - 2:26 #* Gene Carpenter # "Dream of a Miner’s Child" - 2:46 #*

Carter Stanley Carter Glen Stanley (August 27, 1925 – December 1, 1966) was a bluegrass music lead singer, songwriter, and rhythm guitar player. He formed The Stanley Brothers and The Clinch Mountain Boys band with his younger brother Ralph Stanley. Biogra ...

# "Coal Miner's Boogie" - 2:57 #* George Davis # "The Yablonski Murder" - 3:00 #*

Hazel Dickens Hazel Jane Dickens (June 1, 1925 – April 22, 2011) was an American bluegrass singer, songwriter, double bassist and guitarist. Her music was characterized not only by her high, lonesome singing style, but also by her provocative pro-union ...

# "What Are We Gonna Do?" - 3:01 #* Dorothy Myles # "Explosion at Derby Mine" - 4:02 #* Charlie Maggard # "Blind Fiddler" - 3:05 #* Jim “Bud” Stanley # "Loadin’ Coal" - 2:29 #* John Hutchison # "Coal Town Saturday Night" - 3:06 #* Randall Hylton # "It’s Been a Long Time" - 3:15 #* Sonny Houston & Roger Hall # "Fountain Filled with Blood" - 3:56 #* Elder James Caudill & Choir

Volume two

# "West Virginia Mine Disaster" - 2:48 #* Molly Slemp # "Union Man" - 3:36 #*

Blue Highway Blue Highway is an American contemporary bluegrass band formed in 1994 and based in Tennessee. The band's albums include ''Wondrous Love'' (2003), ''Marbletown'' (2005), and '' Original Traditional'' (2016). Background After helping found th ...

# "Blue Diamond Mines" - 4:26 #*

Robin & Linda Williams Robin and Linda Williams are a husband-and-wife singer-songwriter folk music duo from Virginia. They met in South Carolina in 1971, and began performing in 1973. The Williamses appeared on Garrison Keillor's ''A Prairie Home Companion'' radio ...

# "Set Yourself Free" - :50 #* Billy Gene Mullins # "Redneck War" - 5:22 #* Ron Short # "

Sixteen Tons "Sixteen Tons" is a song written by Merle Travis about a coal miner, based on life in the mines of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Travis first recorded the song at the Radio Recorders Studio B in Hollywood, California, on August 8, 1946. Cliff ...

" - 2:32 #*

Ned Beatty Ned Thomas Beatty (July 6, 1937 – June 13, 2021) was an American actor and comedian. In a career that spanned five decades, he appeared in more than 160 films. Throughout his career, Beatty gained a reputation for being "the busiest actor in ...

# "There Will Be No Black Lung in Heaven" - 2:05 #* Rev. Joe Freeman # "Deep Mine Blues" - 3:45 #* Nick Stump # "I’m a Coal Mining Man" - 2:22 #*

Tom T. Hall Thomas Hall (May 25, 1936 – August 20, 2021), known professionally as Tom T. Hall and informally nicknamed "the Storyteller," was an American country music singer-songwriter and short-story author. He wrote 12 No. 1 hit songs, with 26 more ...

# "Dirty Black Coal" - 4:27 #* Kenneth Davis # "Black Lung" - 3:21 #*

AJ Roach AJ Roach (born 1975) is an American singer-songwriter originally from Virginia, but now based in Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland. Roach was born in Newport News, Virginia, but his family moved to his parents ancestral home in Duffield, Virginia w ...

# "Coal Dust Kisses" - 4:06 #* Suzanne Mumpower-Johnson # "Coal Tattoo" (

Billy Edd Wheeler Billy Edward "Edd" Wheeler (born December 9, 1932, Boone County, West Virginia, United States) is an American songwriter, performer, writer, and visual artist. His songs include "Jackson" (Grammy award winner for Johnny Cash and June Carter) ...

) - 4:06 #* Dale Jett # "A Strip Miner’s Life" - 3:00 #* Don Stanley & Middle Creek # "Daddy’s Dinner Bucket" - 3:26 #* Ralph Stanley II # "In Those Mines" - 3:43 #* Valerie Smith # "Miner’s Prayer" - 3:14 #*

Ralph Stanley Ralph Edmund Stanley (February 25, 1927 – June 23, 2016) was an American bluegrass artist, known for his distinctive singing and banjo playing. Stanley began playing music in 1946, originally with his older brother Carter Stanley as part of ...

Dwight Yoakam Dwight David Yoakam (born October 23, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter, actor, and film director. He first achieved mainstream attention in 1986 with the release of his debut album '' Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.''. Yoakam had considerab ...

# "Dyin’ To Make A Livin’" - 3:47 #* W.V. Hill (of Foddershock) # "You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive" - 6:06 #*

Darrell Scott James Darrell Scott, known as Darrell Scott (born August 6, 1959), is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. The son of musician Wayne Scott, he moved as a child to East Gary, Indiana (known today as Lake Station, Indiana). ...

# "They Can’t Put It Back" - 2:31 #* Jack Wright # "

Which Side Are You On? "Which Side Are You On?" is a song written in 1931 by activist Florence Reece, who was the wife of Sam Reece, a union organizer for the United Mine Workers in Harlan County, Kentucky. Background In 1931, the miners and the mine owners in sout ...

" - 5:04 #*

Natalie Merchant Natalie Anne Merchant (born October 26, 1963) is an American alternative rock singer-songwriter. She joined the band 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 and was lead vocalist and primary lyricist for the group. She remained with the group for their first se ...

References

External links

''Music of Coal'', official web site
{{Authority control Folk albums by American artists Regional music compilation albums Coal mining 2007 compilation albums Folk compilation albums Blues compilation albums Bluegrass compilation albums Country music compilation albums

Track listing

Volume one

Volume two

References

Further reading/listening

External links