Search - Various Artists :: Coal Mining Women

Sounds Like Home

Dustan Creech | Birmingham, Al | 01/29/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am an artist residing in Birmingham, Al, but born and raised in Harlan County, Ky (which most of these songs are about). I was 20 years old when I left Harlan County, due to Arch Mineral's #37 mine closure in 1997. This was the last of the "Big Mines" in Harland County, there is nothing left but very shallow "dog holes", as miners refer to them. My Father has been I miner for over 32 years. He went from working in #37's 8-foot tall coal seam to the tiny 24-INCH tall coal seam of Blue Diamond Steel Co, In Lesley County. After about six months, 3 slipped disk, 2 ruptured disk, and a broken knee and torn shoulder, he had to leave to low coal at age 49. This Cd captures the excruciating life of the coalmine and the hard press individuals of the Harland County Area. I can recall hearing Sister Hazel Dickens sing at church as a kid- even at my age! This is a true find. I hope you enjoy! ...Dustan



www.dustancreech.com"

Buy this now -- your soul depends on it.

Matthew M. Carr | St. Louis, MO United States | 04/25/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an unbelievably dark and soulful album. The tragedies and the lives that are dealt with in these songs are rendered in a relentlessly clear-eyed fashion. This music is so deeply American that any "real" American should own a copy. I say real American because these are songs about people who are mostly hidden from main stream America, because they are too poor, mostly invisible, and so frequently silenced. These are people who just want the U.S. to live up to its own ideals. It is music so closely tied to the lives of people who just struggle to live decent lives that it really makes the listener want to build a more equitable nation. In short, it's music that is good for what ails you. Buy it now!!!! This is punk, this is soul, this is every kind of music which asked "will you be a gun thug or will you be a man" (women are included in this equation too). Its both deep blues (or deep hill music), and political statementEveryone in this album turns in terrific performances. Some of which involve spontaneous harmonizing to deeply felt solo acapella performances -- very scary stuff indeed. Which side are you on? If you can't make up your mind after listening to this album, you have no soul!"

The feminine side of the coal camp

rodney f. rhoads | Westlake, OH United States | 08/29/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is an excellent, raw and emotional compilation of both classic and newer material. It captures well the UMWA organizing and wildcat days as well as the despair of the people in the mining camps-yesterday and today. As someone who has spent 12 years in coal mining, this reviewer is familiar with several of the songs and half the singers. This is not an entertainer CD. This is a cry of the stripped out, black lung'd and worn out miner and family, male and female. Sarah Ogan Gunning is another Mother Jones -synonymous with union organizing songs of the broadside type in the 30's. Hazel Dickens' plaintive voice on "Black Lung" makes your skin crawl. The other singers do equally well in painting the picture of Appalachian coal and it ain't pretty. These are my people and this reviewers heart was tugged by these sad songs. If you want background music, forget this CD. If you want to understand the heartache of the miner then buy it!"