It's me that was wrong; I'm afraid that I mis-read Lloyd's notes, which are of the very annoying kind that are stuck at the back of the book with no page references attached. Though Ed Pickford did write a song called A Miner's Life, it isn't actually the one we were supposed to be talking about! My apologies for the confusion.

The set Lloyd gives of A Miner's Life is Like a Sailor's is described thus: "Text from George Evans of Aberaman (1951), @sung to the Welsh hymn tune Calon Lan', or more precisely, to the adaptation of that tune used for the evangelical hymn Life's Railway to Heaven. Mr Evans remarks, 'Not many miners in South Wales know this one.' It is well-known in the USA, however (see George Korson, Coal Dust on the Fiddle, p.413.) It was issued on a broadside 'produced for the National Union of Miners, Betteshanger Clliery, May 1958'."

I'd guess that Siwsann George has gone back to the original hymn tune; from the brief sound sample you mentioned, it seems closely related though distinct. Perhaps that's the answer to Joe's question.