"You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" is a song written and originally recorded by American musician

Darrell Scott James Darrell Scott (born August 6, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. He has written several mainstream country hits, and is well-established as one of Nashville's premier session instrumentalists. B ...

. Since his original recording in 1997, the song has also been recorded by

Patty Loveless Patty Loveless (born Patricia Lee Ramey, January 4, 1957) is an American country music singer. She began performing in her teenaged years before signing her first recording contract with MCA Records' Nashville division in 1985. While her first ...

Brad Paisley Brad Douglas Paisley (born October 28, 1972) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His first success came in 1997 as the writer of David Kersh's "Another You (David Kersh song), Another You". After this, he signed with ...

, and

Kathy Mattea Kathleen Alice Mattea (born June 21, 1959) is an American country music and bluegrass singer. Active since 1984 as a recording artist, she has charted more than 30 singles on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs charts, including four that reac ...

, and performed live by Patty Loveless as a duet with

Chris Stapleton Christopher Alvin Stapleton (born April 15, 1978) is an American country singer-songwriter and guitarist. Born in Kentucky, Stapleton moved to Nashville in 1996 to study for an engineering degree from Vanderbilt University, but dropped out to pur ...

at the 56th Annual Country Music Association Awards ceremony. The song is about

Harlan County, Kentucky Harlan County is a county located in southeastern Kentucky. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 26,831. Its county seat is Harlan, Kentucky, Harlan. It is classified as a moist county—one in which alcohol sale ...

History

wrote the song in 1997 and recorded it on his debut album ''Aloha from Nashville''. The song is about the difficult lives of underground

coal mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

rs in

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

. Scott said the inspiration for the song came from a visit to

, in an attempt to research his own family history. While in a cemetery attempting to find his great-grandfather's grave, he saw the phrase "you'll never leave Harlan alive" on a tombstone. Following Scott's original version, country music singer

recorded it in 2001 for her album '' Mountain Soul''. Loveless' rendition featured Scott playing

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

. According to Scott, Loveless had difficulty singing the song at first. Her producer and husband, Emory Gordy Jr., placed a picture of Loveless' father (who was a coal miner) before her and told her to "sing the song to her father". In 2002, Loveless' rendition was nominated at the International Bluegrass Music Awards for Song of the Year. The same year as Loveless,

covered the song on his album '' Part II''. Paisley said that he chose to record the song because, being a native of

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

, he had seen the effect that coal mining had on communities in that region.

also covered it on her 2008 album ''

Coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

'', a

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

themed around coal mining.

Montgomery Gentry Montgomery Gentry is an American country music duo/solo act founded by singers Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry, both Kentucky natives. They began performing together in the 1990s as part of two different bands with Montgomery's brother, John ...

recorded the track prior to Troy Gentry's death in 2017, and it was later included on their 2019 album ''Outskirts''. In the ''Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings'', the song's plot is incorrectly described as being about "a federal lawman who had left his native Harlan County...but winds up dealing with adversaries back on the old home turf." While the lyrics contain no reference to a federal lawman, the song was used in several episodes of the similarly themed '' Justified''. In 2010,

's cover of the song was the closing song during the final scene of the final episode of the first season. The song was again used in the final episode of the second season. The fourth season's final episode used a version by

Dave Alvin David Albert Alvin (born November 11, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer. He is a former and founding member of the roots rock band the Blasters. Alvin has recorded and performed as a solo artist since the late 1980s ...

, and the fifth season's final episode used a version by the Ruby Friedman Orchestra. The final episode of the series featured the original composition by Darrell Scott himself. In November 2022, Loveless joined

to perform the song at the 56th Annual Country Music Association Awards.

Chart history

Patty Loveless

References

{{Chris Stapleton 1997 songs 2001 songs 2022 songs Songs written by Darrell Scott Patty Loveless songs Brad Paisley songs Kathy Mattea songs Chris Stapleton songs Songs about Kentucky Montgomery Gentry songs