Cary Fridley
Gillian Welch
Iris Dement
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Hazel Dickens The
biography of Hazel Dickens would appear to follow the typical trajectory
of many young rural Appalachian women from rural West Virginia raised
in coal-mining communities in the 1950s. She grew up near Montcalm,
West Virginia, one of 11 children, and moved away in her teens to work
in the factories of Baltimore. What is different about Hazel Dickens
is that she transformed this experience into the inspiration and material
for a life-long musical career that has spoken of hard work, hard times,
and hardy souls. Songs she has penned such as "Working Girl Blues," "Black
Lung," "Don't Put Her Down, You Helped Put Her There," and "West
Virginia, My Home," have provided the narrative storyline and
emotional insight for many who have found themselves in similar circumstances.
Marrying the songwriting abilities of Woody Guthrie with the straight-ahead
singing skills of Kitty Wells, she has been an inspiration for a whole
new generation of women singers in the bluegrass and country music
fields. Her music became more widely known through the use of her songs
in the movie Harlan County, U.S.A. and as a result of her live performance
of songs in Matewan. Now a resident of Washington, D.C., Hazel Dickens'
life and music are inextricably intertwined. As she says in the title
song of a recent film documentary about her life produced by Appalshop,
It's Hard to Tell the Singer from the Song. From the National
Endowment for the Arts |
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