West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, (WMHOF) Class of 2007
“Hazel Dickens was a clarion-voiced advocate for coal miners and working people, and a pioneer among women in bluegrass music.” So read the New York Times 20ll obituary, for the West Virginia musical icon, from the coal camps of Mercer County. Her songwriting was superior, but it was her one of a kind voice that was her super power. When she sang she embodied the essence of not just West Virginia, but all of Appalachia. Staying true to her “Mountain State” roots, her songs, voice and spirit have left an indelible mark on the face of American Music.
While most of her folk-music peers of the 1960s and ’70s were raised and educated in urban areas, Hazel Dickens hailed from deep in West Virginia’s coal country. Her rural roots were as genuine as they come. Her heritage was reflected in her strong, earthy voice and heartstopping original songs like “Will Jesus Wash The Bloodstains From Your Hands?”, “West Virginia My Home”, “Mama’s Hand”, and the devastating “Black Lung”.
Like North Carolina’s Doc Watson, another rural artist embraced by urban folkies, Dickens was no country innocent. Her musicianship was sturdy and confident, her voice vibrant and original, and her personality, both on and off stage, was as intelligent as it was warm and easygoing.
To say the least, social concerns, especially those of mine workers, were an important element of her music. In 1976 several of her songs were used in Barbara Kopples’ Harlan County, USA, an excellent Academy Award winning documentary that told of a protracted and dramatic strike in the eastern Kentucky coalfields.
This writer’s first encounter with the music of Hazel Dickens came in 1977 when I attended a showing of Harlan County, USA at West Virginia University. The entire film is unforgettable, I’ve seen it multiple times since, but the scene that chills me most comes during a graphic description by a doctor and his patients of the ravages brought on by pneumoconiosis. In the background Hazel is heard singing her own composition, “Black Lung”, a powerful elegy inspired by the death of her brother Thurman and other coal miners.
Dickens’ biographer Bill C. Malone, in his book Working Girl Blues, describes the use of Hazel’s voice in that scene this way: “Her voice, stark, keening and persuasive, manages to convey both the suffering felt by generations of her kinsmen and her own outrage at the greed and neglect that produced such misery. There is no mistaking the sound we hear. It is not a pathetic wail, nor a dejected cry of despair. It is an angry call to justice.”
Hazel Dickens was born and grew up in Montcalm, WV, a tiny coal camp situated in Mercer County, one of the southernmost counties in the state. Her father, a Primitive Baptist preacher who hauled timber for coal mines, was fairly proficient on the banjo and was known to have a sturdy singing voice.
The eighth of eleven children, Hazel was reared in a home of meager means. Her formal education ended in the seventh grade. However, early in her youth she developed a fascination for song lyrics. It was the start of an appreciation for words that would serve her well later in life.
She followed her sisters to Baltimore in 1954 looking for work and settled into a working class neighborhood that was referred to as “Little Appalachia”, due to the number of West Virginians that had migrated to the city.
It was in Baltimore that Mike Seeger came into the lives of Hazel and her brothers and sisters. An enthusiast of old-time and bluegrass music (and half-brother of Peggy and Pete Seeger) who came from a decidedly urban background, Seeger was enthralled with Dickens’ rural connections to the music. Jam sessions followed, along with the occasional public performance at bars and clubs. Hazel played bass and often contributed tenor harmonies.
During this time, Hazel was introduced to her future singing partner, Alice Foster (Gerrard). Their public debut came in 1962 in Galax, Virginia. Two years later the pair recorded an audition tape that landed a record deal for Hazel and Alice with Folkways Records.
Their first album, Who’s That Knocking?, was released in 1965 and was groundbreaking in two ways. It introduced the first of Hazel’s songs (“Cowboy Jim”) to be recorded, and it was the first time a pair of women had fronted a bluegrass band.
Throughout the 1970s, Dickens’ balanced day jobs with music-making activities. She relocated to Washington, D.C., where she lived the rest of her life. It was here that her songwriting began in earnest. She worked hard at overcoming her embarrassment about an impoverished Appalachian upbringing. Not coincidentally, her “West Virginia My Home” (for many, now the state song of WV) appeared on the 1973, Hazel and Alice album, the duo’s first for Rounder Records.
In 1976 four of her songs were featured in the film Harlan County USA. The success of that film pushed her toward a solo career and led to increased appearances at miner’s union meetings and rallies. One invitation she gladly accepted was from President Jimmy Carter, to appear at the White House on Labor Day in 1980.
She continued her relationship with Rounder Records, and in the 1980s the label released three of her albums, all recommended, and with titles that are pure Hazel Dickens: Hard Hitting Songs for Hard Hit People; By the Sweat of My Brow, and It’s the Singer Not the Song.
Besides much concert, festival, and social justice work in the United States, Hazel gave performances in Cuba, Canada, Japan, and Australia. At home, she held forth at many of the nation’s most prestigious venues, including the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, the Grand Ole Opry, and the Library of Congress.
In addition to recording eleven albums, Dickens’ contributed to the soundtracks of nine feature films, including Matewan and Songcatcher. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from Shepherd College (now University) in 1998 and was presented with the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2001.
In 2007 Hazel Dickens was inducted into the first class of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
In April of 2011 Hazel Dickens died in a Washington DC hospice from complications of pneumonia. On June 5, 2011, stating that “music saves mountains”, fans and supporters of Dickens’ activism announced a special memorial, Tribute to West Virginia Music Legend Hazel Dickens, at the Charleston, WV, Cultural Center.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING – by the author.
Harlan County USA: Songs of the Coal Miner’s Struggle. This is the soundtrack to Barbara Kopple’s powerful 1976 documentary. Hazel has 7 songs on this compilation and they are all powerful. Here you’ll find her songs “Black Lung”, “The Yablonski Murder”, “Mannington Mine Disaster”, and “Clay County Miner” and a few others.
Hazel and Alice- This is their second Rounder Records and the one I continue to listen to after all these years. Released in 1973, songs include “Mining Camp Blues” and “The Green Rolling Hills of West Virginia”.
Hard Hitting Songs For Hard Hit People. This album is loaded with wonderful songs. My favorite is the anthem “They’ll Never Keep Us Down”.
The songs of Hazel Dickens have been covered by Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Hot Rize and The New Riders of the Purple Sage. Here are two of my favorite covers of her songs.
“Coal Tattoo” by Kathy Mattea from her 2008 album Coal.
“Mama’s Hands” by Lynn Morris from her album of the same name. The song was named the 1996 Song of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association.
____________________
