The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #118794   Message #2628408
Posted By: 2581
10-May-09 - 02:08 PM
Thread Name: Coal Mine Songs
Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
Here are 25 excellent American coal mining songs that I don't believe have been mentioned in any of the previous posts:

1. Dirty Black Coal - Ralph Stanley
2. Coal Miner's Grave - Hazel Dickens
3. High Flyin' Bird - Billy Edd Wheeler (in my view, the greatest coal mining song that no one knows about... it was covered by Jefferson Airplane, Richie Havens and others many years ago, but frequently the lyrics were changed...)
4. Lawrence Jones - Si Kahn
5. Green Rolling Hills of West Virginia - Utah Phillips (covered by Emmylou Harris, Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard, Kathy Mattea and others)
6. Which Side Are You On? - Florence Reece (written in 1933 by a miner's wife in Harlan County, KY, during the bloody coal wars; now sung throughout the world! great cover versions by Pete Seeger, Natalie Merchant, Billy Bragg & Dick Gaughan)
7. Deep Mine Blues - Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time
8. Coal Mine Blues - IIIrd Tyme Out
9. Coal Minin' Man - Ricky Skaggs
10. The Dying Miner - Woody Guthrie (but check out the cover version by Bucky Halker & the Complete Unknowns)
11. Last Train From Poor Valley - Norman Blake
12. Crooked Road - Chris Knight
13. Miner's Lullaby - James Low - not to be confused with
14. Miner's Lullaby - Utah Phillips (check out the version by Jody Stecher & Kate Brislin)
15. Trip to Hyden - Tom T. Hall
16. Mother of A Miner's Child - Gordon Lightfoot
17. Rich Man's Coal - Special Consensus
18. High Sheriff of Hazard - Tom Paxton
19. Brookside Strike - Si Kahn
20. Don't Come Out of the Hole - Blue Highway
21. '31 Depression Blues - New Lost City Ramblers
22. The Old Coal Mine - Larry Sparks
23. Hole in the Ground - Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time
24. Dusty Diamonds - Lex Romane
25. Jenny's Gone Away - Michael Kline & Rich Kirby

There are many more, not to mention dozens and dozens of brilliant British coal mining songs.